Monday, May 23, 2011

IM – Instant Message

I'm not the big fan of text messaging or instant messaging.  But I have to do it at work or with my sisters once in a while. 

My youngest sister and I were exchanging IM (Instant Message) lately.  At the end of the conversation, she sent me this one,  "88".  Men...I was scratching my head and wondering what in the world she was talking about. 

Then, I thought maybe it meant "Bye bye".  In Chinese, "8" is pronounced as "ba".  So, two "8" together must symbolize something sounds very similar.  So, I asked her.  And it is. 

If this is communicated to my American husband or people that Chinese is not their mother language, how would they think?  Not to mention about the “slang” and “slang-im”.