INTRODUCTION

Learning and teaching grammar is an important aspect of language

learning. Language is very important to our life. It is used to express our thoughts
to communicate with others. In this generation, language changes constantly.
The language that we use today is getting wider. Nowadays, we use technology
like cellphones and computers to convey our messages and through these,
people are learning on how to cope up and change the way they convey their
thoughts and ideas in different forms.

Correct usage of both Filipino and English language is one of the most
important aspects of Philippine education. Correct grammar is the main concern
of improving our language proficiency to maintain effective communication locally
and internationally, but because of the continuous development of language the
emergence of Jejemon words became a phenomenon in the Philippines.

Jejemons are persons who use jumbled letters, alternanting capitalization,

mixture of numeric characters and letters and intentional misspelling of words.
The Philippine government has considered jejemons as a threat in the society.
The government strongly discouraged the students from using Jejemon language
in communicating with others because it will cause deterioration of Filipino
language skills.

Jejemon is spreading widely in the Philippines and it affects the

knowledge of the Filipinos about the proper use of both Filipino and English
language. Nevertheless, though Jejemon is becoming a worldwide phenomenon
and considered by some as a major havoc in language proficiency, it still
depends to someone who perceives the whole aspect of Jejemonism.

This research study is made for the purpose of proving or disproving the
widely believed interralation of poor english proficiency and the jejemon way of
texting, the presumed connection between the two lead to the press release of
the educational department to halt the said trend and thus save students from
further blunting their english competency.

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 ORIGIN OF JEJEMON

This typing mannerism can be traced back in the year 2001. With cell
phones made available for the mass market and the wide acceptance of SMS,
the Philippines became the texting capital of the world. The origins of short-
handed typing was through the short messaging service, in which each text
message sent by a cellphone is limited to 160 characters. As a result, an "SMS
language" developed in which words were shortened in order to fit the 160-
character limit. However, some jejemons are not really "conserving" characters;
instead, they are lengthening their message.

Another factor of the existence of jejemon is that a lot of the youth joined
text messaging clans while others played online games like Ragnarok, Flyff, and
Gunbound. Some, with the urge to find and get to know people of all ages online,
joined in social networks like Friendster and Multiply. At that time, Friendster was
in while Facebook was not what it turned out to be at present.

Due to the necessity of having to relay a message abruptly so as not to be

delayed in action (while playing, texting or commenting), players tried to make
messages they type really short to the extent that every word was internally
altered using numbers to creatively displace letters that would still make the
words readable. Of course, Jejemonism was not that intense and obvious at that
time.

Many of the younger generation became adapted to this kind of typing

style for they really thought that it was somehow cool, manageable and widely
accepted within their age range. It was the new hip at that time, but as it grew out
of nowhere, concerned academic people took this as a threat to the educational
standards. In time, Jejemonism became the latest source of boiling social
debates.

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 FORMS OF JEJEMON

A. Fashion

Fashion is almost always the accretion of different cultural facts, coming

together to clothe a particular taste. Yet taste never exists solely on the level of
the personal: tastes, like many other things in society, are social facts. They are
defined by us, as much as they are also defined for us. Fashion constrains us as
much as it enables us.

Jejemon fashion is typical of this accretion of social facts and cultural

artifacts, yet what makes it a particular subset of different fashions is that it is
unique. The colored trucker-cap, imitation Havaianas,hip-hop shorts, Saosin
shirt, eyeliner,imitation of Converse shoes, skinny jeans, Three-Stars-and-a-Sun
shirt, bandanna, sunglasses, trucker cap, striped knit stockings, fishnet
stockings, denim cut-offs, tube top, sunglasses and dyed hair in cornrows
however, manifests a desire for uniqueness, even at the expense of
inconvenience.

Jejemon fashion is not established by personal choice, no matter how

intense or revolutionary it is. Jejemon fashion shows that the forces that define
fashion are social and not individual, that the consequences themselves accrete
and combine to form fashion trends that are revolutionary or otherwise revolting.
When it comes to Jejemon fashion, the effect is not the sole consequence of
individual choice, but rather the choices collectively made over time create the
possibility for the result.

B. Written

A jejemon can be distinguished not only by their looks but also by their
writing language. They adopted the other way, thinking that maybe it was really
cool to alter and form new unconventional words out of simple ones.
The jejebet is a combination of the English alphabet and counting numbers
which, in a strange mix of character substitution, surprisingly makes

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words that are understandable only to the Jejes and Jejeologists (normal people
that study Jejemons). Jejemons engaged into intentional prolongation of words
by adding -z, -h, and literally, creating somewhat like crazy "synonymous" terms
from the base word.

Below are some of the basic Jejemon words :

aQcKuHh - means me/ako
lAbqCkyOuHh - means I love you
yuHh - means you
jAjaJa - garbled words conveying laughter
jeJejE - a variation of jAjaJa; conveys sly laughter
iMiszqcKyuH - means I miss you
eEoW pFhUeEhsxz - means hi/hello

Admittedly, the presence of the Jejemons has become a manifestation of the

weakening use of mother language. Not only did texting made people (not only
Filipinos) “ tamad” (lazy), but somehow it has hindered ways to good
communication. This could be the side effect of man's fervor to reach its limits.
Technology will always be bonded to society, and it will continue to shape
cultures, generations and conventions.

Advantages of Jejemon

 Gives pleasure to a social group- Jejemons became a tribe, so if you are

one of them, you tend to enjoy like them. Every groups or sorority like the
Jejemons brings pleasure to anyone in a way he feels he belongs.

 Secret codes- If you’re a Jejemon, you definitely know how to speak and
how to communicate with them. Only you and your folks can understand
each other pretty well. So maybe, in times of secrecy, you can converse
using your special terms.

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 The feeling of freedom- If you’re a proud Jejemon, it also means you don’t
care about anti-Jejemon critics. It’s a sign that you are liberated from what
others would think.

Disadvantages of Jejemon

 Poor Communication- As a Filipino who aims to make Philippines a

globally competitive country we need to have a good communication skills
especially in using English language but as Jejemon existed, it affects the
grammar of most Filipino who are trying to go with the trend of being a
Jejemon. It leads to misspelling of words, because people using these
particular language might be confused because he/she is already used in
shortening or lengthening of words. It may also lead to incorrect
pronounciation of words. Since jejemon add or eliminate letters in a word
there is a big possibility that you would read the word the other way
around.

 You forget your main language- Whatever it is, English or Filipino, if

you’re a Jejemon, you always speak with it, so you get used to it. Your
other dialects are set aside.

 Outcast- Jejemons unfortunately are not widely accepted in the nation so

if someone sort of suspects he’s talking to one, he won’t talk with him
again or be a friend with him. A perfect example would be what I’ve read
from a site that says, “OMG you’re a Jejemon! Bye!” Because of it,
Jejemon has been a big social issue.

 Difficult to read. It is really hard to read a jejemon phrase especially we

are not used of using words spelled in numbers and letters.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jejemon
 http://www.iamkaiser.com/what-is-jejemon-comprehensive-definition-of-
the-word-jejemon/
 http://www. jejemon.com/
 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/losing-our-language-by-
sandra-stotsky/
 http://www.qideas.org/blog/losing-our-language.aspx
 http://jejedex.blogspot.com/2010/04/jejemon-item-jeje-alphabet-
keyboard.html

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