I remember sometime in January 2009 when I tried to reconnect thru text with some fellow trainees at 10th National Multimedia Training for Oral English Communication sponsored by Convergys on November of the year prior. Fortunately, during the training we were all asked to fill-in our contact information (i.e. mobile number, email, etc.) in a bond paper which was then photocopied and distributed to each one of us. I found it to be convenient enough since we were apparently made to pledge cascading the training to our respective divisions. Through it, information sharing for the then would-be seminars may become easy and handy. I scanned the list and immediately identified some names based on ID tags we wore as well as those who became my activity group mates. There were about eight persons whom I can clearly recall that would have been my immediate contact had not they used either Smart or Globe mobile network. I use Sun Cellular. From the list, one name stood out; she’s Michelle Gomez from Bicol who used the same network as mine.Since most trainees were DepEd officials and supervisors [I don’t think I’m good at saying they aren’t OLDIES, do I?], I initially thought she might be one. And so I texted her this way (notice the means of my text):
Hi Ma’am Michelle. I don’t know if you still remember me but we met at Convergys, Makati. I’m Jerwyn from Nueva Ecija. I scanned the names of our fellow trainees and I can see that you are also using Sun. I would like to know where you from.
Then she replied:
Ys, I rmembr u.d 1 w/ a @#$! face.M fr Albay.Hw r u?We wr suppsed 2b prtners n an actvty der,ryt?
Suddenly it felt weird. I thought she might be a supervisor or a DepEd official -I mean age wise-but there she was texting the way I usually do had not I considered her as [ok, ok I admit I was totally wrong] an OLDIE. Thus the next messages, alas, were confirmation that she is far younger than I thought she is and that I’m, in fact, older than her. So there came my apologies and explanation and I then later came up explaining that young people used to text this way:
“Eow puH, uzTah pUh qEo!”
I couldn’t recall though if I put in, “jejeje.”
I hope I didn’t
Luckily it was alright with her as she even told me that there really are differences in way of TEXTING for those who are either young or old people. She even told me that those “in-between” –maybe like us- also got our own style. But together with that, I never realized that our observation about that new wave of texting style among the younger generation was the beginning of a trend that more than a year later will be dubbed as the “Jejemon” phenomenon.
Jejemon, for that matter, is a new terminology used to identify young people trying to appear “in” with the way they create an art-form out of the regular Short Messaging Service (SMS). It is a way of expressing their different level of enthusiasm for texting. There are actually differing ideas of it: First, some said they are actually making compressed term out of regular word to maximize the limited space of an SMS. The other side actually makes their messages appear more complicated –even longer- than the usual. Either way, most people who aren’t Jejemons agree: their styles practically won’t make texting easier to understand. Also, they have their own fashion statement. I bet you’ve already seen a guy who placed, not wore, a colorful, net-like cap above their head.
About three weeks ago, I received a Facebook invitation from a former pupil to join a group called, Anti-jejemon (a.k.a jejebusters). From the name itself, it appears that there seem to be a growing dislike for Jejemons. Some even aired their intents of destroying them and annihilate them off the face of the Earth. Some said, “Who wouldn’t?” You receive a text but then you need to summon all your earthly knowledge just to comprehend. Then you get enraged because before you could understand a thing, all hell broke loose.
Media attention, particularly GMA 7, made these even more highlighted after featuring them in some of their news and documentaries. The exposure made them so popular that a lot were created out of the idea like fashion, music and literature. It may not be too long that we may hear jejemons in schools and even in the curriculum. With this, the Department of Education through Secretary Mona Valisno declared an all-out war against Jejemons. She said that there will be some adverse effect to students if they are not to do something to stop this phenomenon. The pronouncement reaped different reactions from people. Some agreed and some didn’t. Surprisingly, a Roman Catholic bishop defended these poor jejemons by saying that they wouldn’t last too long. This is just a current trend that sooner or later will vanish like bubbles in the air.
I agree.
I am not a bishop; not even a Roman Catholic. But I am an elementary school teacher who, most likely, will meet and converge with real jejemons come school year 2010-2011. But we are supposed to follow our secretary for her warlord stance. So what must I do?
The prevalence of jejemons in the Philippines is not really a phenomenon until media expounded them. But who can’t blame the media when their job was to create a SCOOP? One thing I noticed about these jejemons is that you won’t see them bragging about their style. Not once you would see them trying to tell everyone to join or follow them. They even say that they won’t text jejemon-wise if the receiver isn’t one of them. In fact, I don’t see those influencing teachers and the way the school transpire with their work. Cellphone texting and writing themes are far different things. For one, jejemon use the complexity to write words since it was invented out of the necessity to maximize the 28 letters of the alphabet into just nine keys of a typical cellphone keypad. On the other side, handwritten words don’t usually end up as jejestyle text because it is with pen and paper –not really that intricate. Some teachers may argue that sometimes they were able to exchange proper spelling for textspeak in writing lesson plans but it was minimal and should not cause any alarm. If jejemons are to be eradicated, then teachers must be the first to receive an all-out war from DepEd due to the textspeak manifestation to their work and not these poor youngsters who clearly defined the difference between texting and actual handwriting.
In the end it will be narrowed down to the effect of jejemons to the public. If it is right or wrong, we still couldn’t tell by now. Clearly the end will justify the means. I will surely get alarmed and perhaps I’ll join warlord Valisno if one day I hear some of my pupils SPEAK like jejemon texts do.
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