Burma is not the other name of Myanmar
By Walter Ang
September 20, 2000
Philippine Daily Inquirer
I had a classmate named Juneth who always gave little notes to everyone in class. Before exams, she would pass out good luck messages. On someone's birthday, she would give out a nice little piece of stationery with a short message of greeting. Sometimes, it would be just a short "Hello!".
One time, during an insufferably boring class, she decided to start writing up and passing out some notes to everyone. It was no big deal as most of us weren't paying attention to the droning professor anyway. I got a nice little message with the word J.A.P.A.N. appended at the bottom. It cracked me up. It stood for Just Always Pray At Night.
We had a little inside joke going on. Earlier, we'd been talking about slumbooks and how people would usually write funny acronyms at the bottom of the dedication page. The generic message being: "Thank you for letting me sign in your cute slumbook." Followed by a country acronym that usually had very creative and hilarious meanings.
I passed around a big sheet of paper and asked everyone to list down all the slumbook acronyms they knew. The page was almost completely filled up by the time it got back to me. Everyone got into it, wanting to be the first to list down a particulary acronym.
It's interesting what we remember from our elementary schooldays, when slumbooks were almost de rigueur for the girls in class. I found out from the ladies in the class, as they recounted their own slumbook escapades, that aside from getting cute stickers and cute staionery and whatnot, one of the reasons why girls passed out slumbooks was to get their crush to sign in it. I had to honestly say I did not know that. But I guess now I do.
Pinoys have an affinity to acronyms and shortening statements. After all, this is the nation that reduced such pressing national issues such as charter changes in the constitution into media savvy soundbites like Cha Cha and Concorde. Even the exclamation "Susmaryosep!" is but another shortned version of something much longer. But I digress.
After I got the list of slumbook acronyms back, we took a look and had a good laugh at the all the names and statements. The most popular one was K.I.T. for "Keep In Touch". The funniest one for the day was the acronym for "Friends U Can Keep". The rest ran the gamut of the countries of the world and then some. Here's the list for your perusal. I just hope people don't throw their shoes at me if these acronyms start making the rounds of text messages.
A.B.C. - Always Be Careful
A.R.M. - Always Remember Me
B.A.L.I.W.A.G. - Beauty And Love I Will Always Give
K.I.T.T.Y. - Kind, Intelligent, Thoughtful, That's You!
K.O.S.H. - Keep On Soaring High
M.A.R.L.B.O.R.O. - Men Always Remember Love Because Of Romance Only.
S.A.S.A.Y.A. - Stay As Sweet As You Are
S.M.U.R.F. - Smiling Makes Us Real Friends
S.W.A.K. - Sealed With A Kiss
Y.A.M.A.H.A. - You Are My Angel! Happy Anniversary!
B.U.R.M.A. - Between Us, Remember Me Always
C.A.N.A.D.A. - Cute And Naughty Action that Developed into Attraction
C.E.B.U. - Change Everything... But Us
C.H.I.N.A. - Come Here, I Need Affection
E.G.Y.P.T. - Everything's Great, You Pretty Thing!
F.R.A.N.C.E. - Friendships Remain And Never Can End
G.U.A.M. - God Unites All Men
H.O.L.L.A.N.D. - Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies
I.M.U.S. - I Miss U, Sweetheart
I.N.D.I.A. - I Nearly Died In Adoration
I.T.A.L.Y. - I Trust And Love You
K.E.N.Y.A. - Keep Everything Nice, Yet Arousing
K.O.R.E.A. - Keep Optimistic Regardless of Every Adversity
L.I.B.Y.A. - Love Is Beautiful; You Also
M.A.L.A.B.O.N. - May A Lasting Affair Be Ours Now
M.A.N.I.L.A. - May All Nights Inspire Love Always
N.E.P.A.L. - Never Ever Part As Lovers
P.A.R.A.N.A.Q.U.E. - Please Always Remain Adorable,Nice And Quiet Under Ecstacy
P.A.S.A.Y. - Pretty And Sexy Are You
P.A.S.I.G. - Please Always Say I'm Gorgeous
P.E.R.U. - Porget Everyone, Remember Us
P.H.I.L.I.P.P.I.N.E.S. - Pumping Hot.. I Love It! Please Please..I Need Erotic Stimulation R.U.S.S.I.A. - Romance Under the Sky & Stars is Intimate Always
T.O.N.D.O. - Tonight's Our Night, Dearest One
Y.E.M.E.N. - 'Yugyugan Every Morning, Every Night
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