Chatspeak A beginner's guide Communicating with other people is important for many reasons. One of the most important reasons is that it makes us happy. Some people like talking on the phone when they want to communicate. Other people prefer sending messages. That is how chatspeak began! Chatspeak is also called Internet slang or netspeak because you can use it in chat rooms or in emails. Another name is SMS language because lots of people use it when they write text messages on mobile phones. People wanted a short and easier way to write messages. On mobiles the keyboard is small and this makes writing difficult, and also text messages used to be expensive. It may be faster to write in chatspeak, but sometimes it can be slower to read than normal writing. In chatspeak, you can type one letter and it can mean a whole word. For example B means 'be' or Y means 'why! You can also shorten words and use symbols and numbers. For example PLS means 'please' and L8R means later'. Another thing you can do is shorten phrases to letters, like BRB, which means 'be right back. Or when something is funny, you can type LOL, 'laugh out loud. There are no set rules to chatspeak. You can shorten any word. Just make sure the receiver of the message understands it. Перевод