Crabtree + Company hopes their slang/emoticon/leetspeak reference app, LRNtheLingo™, will help parents better understand what their kids are talking and texting about.
“It’s already hard enough being a parent without having to deal with the “foreign” language being spoken by your children and their friends. Whether texting “encrypted” messages, emoticons or slang, now you can LRNtheLingo™ and understand what they’re saying. It’s all here and easily searchable so you can spot the warning signs and deal with potentially serious problems.”
I like to think that I’m fairly “with it” and wouldn’t require such an app, but there were plenty of terms in LRNtheLingo that I had never heard before. My two girls (ages 3 and 8 mos.) are much too young to be texting for me to be concerned with what they are doing online (since well, they are not online). On the other hand, I could definitely see a practical use for this app, particularly for older people like my parents,who recently turned 60 and purchased iPhone 4s and may start texting more often. Even more so, parents with teenage children would probably find this to be an invaluable resource for understanding or communicating with their kids. Listen up parents, that’s not to say that this gives you permission to try to act all cool (like Phil Dunphy from ABC’s show Modern Family), that’s just embarrassing for both you and your child. Instead, LRNtheLingo may give you a better comprehension of what your kids are really talking about and set off some red flags to warn you if there is any reason for concern.
The App itself breaks things down into 3 categories, TXT, Lingo and Emoticons. Allowing you to easily find whatever piece of information you need to “understand”. Each category is fully searchable (either by the term you are looking for, or possible definitions) and is laid out much like your iPhone’s contact book, with lettered tabs on the right-hand side of the screen for quick indexing. The nice thing is that the terms are not just translated, but are actually clearly defined in detail along with an example of usage, and should you want to share any term with a spouse or someone else, emailing terms is quick and easy. While this information is probably available elsewhere via Google, sometimes it’s just nice to have a handy pocket reference that doesn’t require internet access.
In Conclusion
Sure, LRNtheLingo™ is not an App for everyone. Personally, I am dreading the day my girls become teenagers and I need to buy stronger door locks. Parenting is difficult enough as it is, so any help we can get is alway appreciated. I suspect that some of our readers could benefit from an App like LRNtheLingo, so I figured it was worth mentioning/reviewing on the site. It looks to be quite a comprehensive, well laid out and easy to use reference. It is currently available on the App Store for $0.99.
Win a Free Copy of LRNtheLingo
The guys at Crabtree + Company were kind enough to give us two promocodes for LRNtheLingo to giveaway, so if you’d like to win a copy for yourself, just leave a comment below or for an additional entry tweet the following message:
“AppAddict.net please help me #LRNtheLingo!”
Only your first tweet will count, so please don’t spam your followers. I’ll randomly pick two winners from all those that enter by 11:59pm EST on Friday July 2nd.
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