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Jeff Werner

I'm a designer in Vancouver, Canada. I work at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, am a director of the 221A Artist Run Centre, and a member of Fieldwork design collective. I'm an Emily Carr and University of Victoria graduate and have worked in the Philippines, Indonesia and the Netherlands. I'm a cycling advocate and race on the Garneau Evolution team.

philippines Daily Activities Goods and Services Travel, July 18, 2007 5:36 PM 5 comments

Filipino Text Slang

So the Philippines is literally the text--or txt--capital of the world. More people send messages through their cellphones here than anywhere.

CRW_6956.jpg
The P1200 (approx. $27 CAN) used, ubiquitous (Nokia has sold over 1 billion) Nokia 1100 phone I bought from a street vendor in Baguio. Here pictured during a hike overlooking the Banaue rice terraces, the only place I picked up a Globe-provider signal in the whole region--and where I got a txt spam.

One article from 2005 says there's about one cell phone for every two people here. That year 250 million texts were sent.

I get a good chunk of those on my phone in the form of spam. Everyday. And so now a sampling of some hardcore Tagalog-Engrish-Hybrid Txt Spam Action from the past week:


-----------------------
,** mOrN!nGs
(ö, ) gEt
((")(") SwEeTeR
wHeN..
,**
( ö, ) ü tH!nK
(")(") Of p!PöL wHö
mKeS üR
,** hEaRt&L!fE
( ,ö) bEaUt!füL&
(")(")bLeSt!ThNx
2ü&GBYü!güdAM

Sent:
10-July-2007
15:10:52
-----------------------

-----------------------
smE
ppOL
aSk mE
h0w
nicE
&w0ndrfuL
u R,

i sEd..

"m0r dAn wt u
xPctd!"

aftr
a
few
mOmEnts
dEy
rquEstd
mE
2
dscRyb
u

i sEd;

"wg nLng..mAinluv p kAu"

Sent: 10-July-2007
17:33:30
-----------------------

-----------------------
msrp
mgkrOn
ng
kaibgn..
my
kausp
lgi..

my
ksm
lgi..

my
krmy
s
iht..
pro
alm m
qng anong
ms msrp?


pg
ang
kaibgn..

ay


ikw..


Mrming slmt h! ü

Sent:
10-July-2007
16:31:56
-----------------------

-----------------------
Kult

Sent:
10-July-2007
13:38:17
-----------------------

-----------------------
Dkanba mgttxt?ok
i tnk i go a head n
cngrats my gf
kna.bye

Sent:
9-July-2007
17:03:49
-----------------------


OK I just showed a local some of these text messages and then realized they may in fact all be from someone I know. Or, as my informant tells me, I could have gotten a used SIM and phone number. Or, most likely, these are semi-spams that make the rounds on the phones here when people forward them to 10 of their friends.

5 comments on Filipino Text Slang

1. tcoen | July 19, 2007 12:17 AM

They don't seem to be selling anything. But I can't actually say I understand more than say 5% of the content, and even that is suspect.

That is some crazy communication. tc.bye

2. Tyler | July 20, 2007 1:39 PM

Hey, the first two are actually readable. The 3rd and 4th are jibberish though. They must be more Tagalog.

The 2nd (my interpretation):

Some people ask me how nice and wonderful you are. I said, "More than what you expected!" After a few moments they requested that I describe you. I said, "Wang and lung I mainly love to poke a you."

It was going pretty good until the end there.

3. Marco | August 29, 2007 10:22 AM

Tyler, the last line:
"wg nLng..mAinluv p kAu"

translates to:
'No way, you might fall in love'

4. Marco | August 29, 2007 10:27 AM

For the the text that was sent:
10-July-2007
16:31:56

Is in Tagalog and translates to:
It's great to have a friend, you have someone to talk to, you have company. But you know what's better? If that friend is you.

5. precious | November 15, 2007 2:06 PM

dat's how filipinos r unique..
im proud 2 b 1..
=D

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