Among the acronyms I use with frequency, I can think of ee, cfa, cgs, npi, fml, lol, wtf, wth, np, ttyl, brb, idk, and tmi. There are others, like gi, idt, cv, cqv, re, pr, gds, amdb, il, vl, sck, etc, sg, hr, ps, qa, pr, sno and ps, which are only relevant at work, and that given the fact that many of my friends belong to the same work environment I belong to, are also essential part of the expressions I use on a daily baisis.
Looking at the extension of my acronymary, and remembering the times I have been with my family and accidentally used acronyms (even when I change language, I still use the acronyms in English), has made me wonder at which point of my life I learnt this acronymary, and started giving up on writting and saying complete and meaningful words and sentences.
There have been 3 events in my life that have influenced this change in the way I express myself. The first point was when I started chatting on internet - back in the OCQ days, and also chatting with random people (foolish and irresponsible, I guess I was a normal teenie). When I first started chatting, I used to write full sentences, the way I spoke. However, the communication over these platforms is different than the regular communication between two persons, and the behavior of the more "experienced" persons in the chat is contagious. The start of my acronymary had started.
The second event that contributed to my acronymary was the move to the US (here another acronym). It is a known fact that the members of a community communicate using a peculiar language, known as jargon. Upon my move to the US I became part of the BU ENG community, and learnt the jargon. As a foreigner whose English knowledge was very weak, adopting expressions from the other persons in the group occurred at a fast rate, Many of these expressions (for example lol and fml) were among the first expressions I learnt, and my English started growing, based partially on the material I had at school (mostly technical) and on the jargon I communicated on with my friends.
The third and last event that brought me to the point I am at now was joining P&G (an acronym, of course!). The situation from BU repeated in some aspects, and by integrating into the proctoid community I also learnt the jargon, which is full of acronyms (we do have an acronym dictionary for new hires! ), and being the language we use at a corporative level English, all these new acronyms joined the 'bag' of English acronyms.
My acronymary is part of my life, and will most likely remain as such for as long as I live. My task will be to ensure that I make use of my vocabulary with those who don't know what the acronyms mean, and this way ensure I can maintain communication alive also with those that have not been part of my life in the US and in P&G.
