Now now chaps...this is a merry festive thread about crap spelling and abbreviations, not an excuse to go yank-bashing. Although I think we should all revert back to Old(e) English (spelt foneticaly so as u cand understand anithing. Komplyt with rejinal aksent. Damn Chaucer...)

LOL funny thread!!! Oh wait is LOL still ok???

What really really annoys me is misuse of apostrophes - like the sign on the door to our postgraduate area which reads "postgraduate's only"!!!

Well, as to the American spelling, as an American doing a PhD in Britain, I will say the spelling can get confusing. I do try to write, spell and think in British English when I am doing my PhD writing--one easy way to cope is to set the spell checker to UK English. Then there are some definite "British" turns of phrase and of course of punctuation ( those should have been inverted commas in the British style). British English lists things out as, firstly, secondly, thirdly--this is not American English.

For me the problem is the reverse, when working on American English things ( like for work) and British spelling and phrases creep in...

U rly mnt a fystf kampyn 2 int irytaytin spylin.

Tongue in cheek, tongue in cheek!

And as for American spelling...I would vouch for the fact most Americans don't spell very well, in their version of English or anyone else's.

What about how you list dates? The American style is month, date, year, not date, month year...which gets confusing when people use numbers and not the name of the month--so is 1/11/08 January 11 or November 1?