The agency where my two aunts are connected will become the largest jejebuster force in the country.
The Department of Education has declared an “all-out war” against students who fondly say “e0W p0Whzzz. mhuWZt@ nA p0Wh kYowwwz?”: the jejemons. According to DepEd, students in public schools shall expect so many homework that involves right grammar usage.
Secretary Mona Valisno discourages Filipinos, especially students, to use the jejemon language, especially in popular telecommunication platforms.
For more, here is a report from GMA News.
DepEd seeks to purge schools of ‘jejemon’ mentality
As it begins the yearly cleanup to prepare schools for the start of School Year 2010-2011, the Department of Education is also seeking to cleanse school-age Filipinos of the “jejemon” mentality.
DepEd Secretary Mona Valisno strongly “discouraged” young Filipinos from using jejemon spelling and grammar, especially in popular communication platforms such as text messaging.
“Dini-discourage lang namin, pag nagte-text sabi namin kailangan buong sentence at ang spelling dapat tama (We discourage them from using jejemon language especially in sending text messages. We want them to use the correct spelling and the entire sentence in sending text messages),” Valisno said in an interview on dzBB radio Saturday.
She said that communicating in jejemon might cause deterioration of young Filipino students’ language skills.
The jejemon phenomenon involves the use of different spellings of common words, and is noticeable not only in text messaging but also in social networking sites.
While Valisno acknowledged some cell phone users alter the spelling of long words to meet the 160-character limit of text messages, she still encouraged young Filipinos to send texts with properly spelled words.
“Nagkakaroon ng deterioration kaya ang pagte-text dini-discourage ang di tama na spelling (There is a deterioration of skills when misspelling words in text messages, so we discourage that use of wrong spelling),” Valisno said.
Meanwhile, Valisno reminded students they will not be allowed to use cell phones while in school. “Bawal din po yan (Cell phones are not allowed inside the school),” she said.
Valisno also encouraged parents to join the “Brigada Eskwela” yearly school cleanup this coming Monday.
“Ito na-institutionalize na, sa lahat na iskwela gagawin ang gabay ng community, local residents, yan ang gagampanan (‘Brigada Eskwela’ has been institutionalized. We will clean up public schools with the help of the local communities),” she said.
‘Jejetymology’
Jejemon’s etymology was supposed to have started from online users’ penchant to type in “hehehe” as “jejeje”, either because “Jeje” is derived from Spanish, whose speakers denote the interjection as laughter, or because the letters “h” and “j” are beside each other, and that it is appended by “-mon” that came from the Japanese anime Pokémon, with “-mon” meant as “monster,” hence “jeje monsters.”
Jejemon is a pop culture phenomenon in the Philippines. Jejemons are defined by Urban Dictionary as those “who has managed to subvert the English language to the point of incomprehensibility and online lynch squads.” — LBG, GMANews.TV
For us to understand it better, a clip from GMA-7’s Saksi can be found at http://www.gmanews.tv/video/60605/saksi-all-out-war-launched-against-jejemons
Since the Department of Education is the education department, this “all-out war” against the people who make reading very miserable to us who have little or no idea of what language they are using is a very influential campaign to tell the students that jejemon language may have bad effects.
However, some hardcore jejemons, including my cousin, believe that the DepEd cannot eradicate these people and their language [which I prefer to call jargon]. When my cousin knew that DepEd will be a jejebuster, she ‘shouted, “I’ll be a jejemon forever; no one can ever stop me!” When I asked her via chat if DepEd can stop her, she firmly said, “ndw3h!!”
At first, it was text speak. Abridged words and sentences. Now, it is jejemon language [or jejejargon; I coined that one!]. More letters, and more confusing. Now that DepEd moves against the jejemons, some expect that this thing would end.
Guien's Panorama 