Learn to speak the language!
Unfortunately, shorthand like lol and imho have become a standard part of internet conversations, and you're just going to have to get used to it. In general, very little "important" content is shorthanded, so you can usually get the meaning of an email even if you miss some of the nuances.
Here are just a handful of internet slang phrases to help you get started:
lol: laugh out loud
rofl: roll on floor laughing
btw: by the way
imo: in my opinion
imho: in my humble opinion
lmao: laughing my --- off
wtf: what the ---
otoh: on the other hand
In addition to these, you may have to put up with "leet speak", which is almost like a code, in which letters are replaced by numbers and symbols which look similar. For example, the letter A is replaced by the number 4, and the letter S is replaced by a dollar sign. If it doesn't get too extreme, you can interpret without too much difficulty:
1 h@+3 l337 $p34k = "I hate leet speak"
|
