How has 'text speak' affected languages apart from english?

I think with the cell phone, blackberries and what have you a new skill has been developed called thumb typing which makes it a necessity to text. The thumb is an awkward and large digit.

The movies affect our language too. I saw Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone and the expression 'whatever...' came from her ( I think?)

That's correct. And the reason why I don't do it.

The only "letter word" similar to texting I know is :LMA (short for the so-called 'Swabian greting', Goethe wrote it in 1780's; Mozart composed to pieces about it [KV No. 231 and KV No 382d].

Translation is .... bite me ... well not really. More like ... va te faire enculer!

That is what I learned and it was tedious.

I received a letter from a huge corporation recently and words like "u" were used instead of you and "r" instead of are. I thought to myself, they text. It wasn't very professional considering the company involved.

The younger set has taken over and probably texted you by blackberry. If it from IBM it would be amazing but from Google, Yahoo or Apple not so.