Wang Pan (Shanxi Evening News): Is Net-speak acceptable in Chinese compositions during the college entrance examination? Those who support it believe this new language is the natural product of the development of Internet, while opponents insist that these terms are polluting the Chinese language.

It's true that Net-speak is enriching Chinese. However, we should also notice that it changes frequently and could be forgotten after a few years. It's a case of some terms being popular for a certain period of time, and will never be used again once this period is over. Moreover, some Net-speak terms are not enriching the Chinese langue, but are in fact distorting it.

The question now is whether Net-speak can be used in the Chinese test of the college entrance examination. There is no doubt that some students have the ability to write a descriptive compositions using Net-speak, but the college entrance examination is like a baton, and if these terms are allowed in this important examination, the baton will be passed on to the rest of the country to follow suit. As a result, students' compositions will be filled with the Net-speak jargon.

Xin Mu (Nanning Evening Paper): As a teacher of Chinese in a senior middle school, I'm quite familiar with Net-speak that I often find scattered throughout the compositions of my students. In daily life, I can accept these terms, but I'm strongly opposed to this odd language in formal compositions.

Compositions, especially those in the Chinese test during the national college entrance examination, are designed to grade students' ability to use Chinese in a standard and formal way. The web language, however, is casual and informal. Besides, the rapid development of Internet is making the web language quite unstable. More importantly, due to people's special preference in using these terms and different customs in different regions, even experienced netizens will find unfamiliar web words on their screens. That is to say, the web language will never become a prevailing language used by all, but can only be used as a supplement to the standard Chinese in limited areas.

It's all right to have Net-speak in a certain linguistic context, where the users all understand each other, but it will surely lead to misunderstandings and confusions if it is allowed in the college entrance examination, which is a standard test that faces students across the country.

Arbitrary ban

Zhang Jingwei (Huashang Daily): China is now home to almost 200 million Internet users and Net-speak is now widely used in daily life. It reflects the personality and imagination of Internet surfers and also their youthful state of mind. Of course, this web language will result in misunderstandings among different age groups, as not all are familiar with it. Maybe this is why it is forbidden in the college entrance examination. However, to ensure the "purity" of compositions through mark deductions is unwise.

Net-speak is in some sense a language that belongs to the young, so it's natural for them to use these terms in their compositions. Strict restrictions over composition language can only harm active imaginations.

Languages are supposed to keep up with the times. The Chinese language has a long history and since the time of classical Chinese, it has absorbed many foreign words, which are still used together with modern Chinese. Against the background of globalization, Net-speak provides a young language that meets the demand of this fast changing world.