BINGO TO THE NEW CHAT LINGO! WELCOME TO THE LANGUAGE OF THE TXT CHAT AND MSNGR!!

'Hey dey..Ssup!

m doin gr8..

Cr4 a coffa ton8 ??

kewl..

C'ya at 8...

G2g, tc!!'

Shortened verbs, sentences sans prepositions, abbreviations used as never before...Get accustomed to the language of young, considered the 'in thing' today. After all, who has the time in this world to inquire if the person on other side is a he or she, an uncle or a kid, a "hi" is much more happening these days.

"The new chat lingo is faster, trendier and a great time saver, when it comes to text chat and on messenger. Moreover, they are in vogue these days," says Sanya Ralhan, Class 10 student.

As the cell phones replace Barbie dolls and toy cars, it seems laptops are what kids demand for on turning 9. The generation Y cannot debar itself from using the language in vogue. "One often faces time and space constraints in message chats, therefore, use of abbreviations and jargons is convenient. Besides it's fun to play with the language as we go on creating more and more smart lingos," says 12-year-old Devika Kapoor.

What's more, the word 'sms' itself has found itself a comfortable place in Oxford dictionary. Seeing the wide usage of such lingo by a large number of people, its impact is very much visible on the written day to day English.

"With every new batch, chat lingo is frequently seen in the answer sheets and assignments, but I have no qualms in accepting the changing trend. I feel language is a dynamic thing and changes to suit the needs of man should be readily acceptable," says S D Triparthy, Professor, I P University.

CHINESE CUISINE GETS AN OLYMPIC TWIST: A restaurant in Beijing unveils a range of roasted ducks for Olympic dishes!

A Beijing restaurant chain famed for roasted ducks has unveiled a range of Olympic dishes, including desserts that resemble miniatures of the Great Wall and the "Bird's Nest", Beijing's 91,000-seater Olympic stadium.

Cooks at Beijing Quanjude Group made miniature Great Walls out of pumpkins and taros, cakes in the shape of the Bird's Nest and statues of top world athletes with fruits and vegetables during today's Olympic cooking contest.

Baker Song Xiaoyan won the audience's applause with her prize-winning "dragon whiskers cake", a fried pastry that has 4,096 threads of extra fine noodles fused together with cream, chocolate and sugar, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cake will be a special dish for Olympic guests at all its outlets, group chairman Jiang Junxian said. Quanjude, which opened in 1864, regularly features on the "must-do list" for first-time visitors to Beijing.

More than 2,500 staff members have received training over the past month on English, sign language, etiquette, cooking skills as well as facts about the participating countries.