Manila, Philippines

Manila, Philippines Fair-skinned and well-groomed Bern Josep Persia may be the innovative face of the human-speaking community, universe the self-proclaimed bekimon president in the country. A photographer and a tech support representative, Persia plays different roles (from a appoint center agent to a give-and-takecaster) in a series of videos about bekimons, outlined as hoi polloi who are hard-core hirers of gay language whether they are gays or non.Most of the names that bekimons commonly use are alterations of basic Filipino and face words such(prenominal) as workibells (work), kalurkey (kaloka or crazy), teh (ate or sister), anekwaboom (ano or what) and heller (hello). Others are totally unique from the popular jowa (spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend) to names of showbiz figures such as Carmi Martin (a term used to refer to karma).The term bekimon (beki is a colloquial word for gay) took off from the growing popularity of the jejemon subculture, which refers to thos e who deliberately hyperbolize ordinary words by adding or subtracting letters, or by using a mixture of upper-case and lower-case letters, in written communication. On Monday, jejemon was chosen as Salita ng Taon (Word of the Year) in the Sawikaan 2010, an academic conference organized by the Filipinas Institute of Translation Inc.Bekimons may not be as talked-about as jejemons yet, solely it cant be denied that the new term is commencement to create a buzz in the online community. The Bekimon Facebook page, for one, is slowly gaining fans at more than 2,500, with comments deluge the site each day. On sack of these are a number of news articles as well as some(prenominal) discussions about the new subculture in cordial networks, blogs and online fora. Persias YouTube page, which is home to over 40 bekimon videos, is verbalize to be the 85th most viewed highway under the Comedians category last month.The future tense of bekimons Gay lingo has been prevalent throughout the P hilippines, and was initially used by the homosexual community as a ray of light to communicate with each other. Jovy Peregrino, director of the University of the Philippines Diliman Sentro ng Wikang Filipino, reportedly expressed support to the harvest-festival of the bekimon language. Peregrino stressed, however, that learning about formal languages such as Filipino and English should not be sacrificed. But the question is, leave the bekimon subculture last just like the jejemons, or is it merely a fad?For Persia, it doesnt rattling matter. In the bekimon Facebook page, he stressed that he didnt coin the term or upload videos of himself just to be the talk of the town. Rather, he said hes doing this to make sad people happy, relieve stress and ease the homesickness of Filipinos brisk abroad, particularly the gay-speaking community. Walang mali sa pagiging masaya (Theres nothing wrong with being happy), Persia said. One of his supporters, meanwhile, expressed confidence that the bekimon subculture will never die, saying, Everybody has a bekimon side.