MANILA, Philippines – Youths who use the so-called 'jejemon' language in communicating via SMS and the Internet could fail to land jobs, experts said.
Employers lose interest in applicants who use 'jejemon' in replying to SMS messages, said Raffy Vicente, assistant marketing manager of JobStreet.Com.
“Nawawalan ng gana kasi pag nare-reply, 'jejemon'. (It) is a sign no respect,” he explained.
According to a JobStreet.Com survey, 75% of around 6,000 employers who advertise for jobs on the website turn down applicants who have a poor command of the English language.
The word 'jejemon' is said to be derived from 'jeje' -- a substitute word for 'hehe' or the SMS term for laughter -- and the suffix '-mon', taken from the popular “Pokemon” cartoon series.
People branded as such deliberately exaggerate ordinary words by adding or subtracting letters, or by using a mixture of upper-case and lower-case letters -- even numbers -- in written communication.
Chris Dela Cruz, general manager of the American Institute for English Proficiency, warned of the dangers in using 'jejemon' instead of proper English or Filipino.
“It should only be a phase, but sometimes you cannot get out of the phase anymore,” he said.
1 comment:
Being a part of the teaching force, I always reiterate it to my students that using the "jejemon" vocabulary should be used only when talking to their friends, but not when they are communicating with professionals. And, as always, it falls to our shoulders that these kids would graduate from school expected to have basic knowledge and skill regarding the proper use of the English language.
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