Tag: Filipino

Me – A Conyo?

We used to make fun of them – the conyo kids – way back in college. I used to disdain their seemingly exasperating mixed use of the English and Filipino language. There was Taglish, then there was just pure conyo.

Fast forward several years later, it’s such a surprise for me when I catch myself becoming conyo.

You know, it’s like speaking in English only that minsan mag-shift ka bigla to Tagalog. And then you’re like mega shocked at how your brain naturally process such mixed language and then di mo na alam san nangagaling yung mga sinasabi mo coz it’s like really weird and stuff, you know?

See. Writing that bit wasn’t so hard. My brain just naturally composed the words.

I pride myself in having a good command of the English language and a decent command of Filipino. I can write and express myself in both though I do so more easily in English. And yet the beauty of the pure Filipino language is not lost to me too.

This month we are celebrating the National Language Month a.k.a. Buwan ng Wika. It used to be a week – Linggo ng Wika then it expanded to a month. Yet this group is advocating that commemoration of our National Language should not be confided to a week or a month but should rather be a year-long observance. We can have a Pinoy Arts and Culture Month where we commemorate Pinoy pride but observance of Buwan ng Wika should be year-long according to them.

Their argument: dedicating a whole month shows just how much of a colonial mentality we actually have. For we see people who, when the month has ended, ends also their observance of the uniquely Pinoy customs they were forced to observe during Buwan ng Wika i.e. speaking in Filipino, wearing Barong Tagalog and the like.

Reading that Rappler article has reminded me of probably the most viewed and most controversial post I had circa 2011. It’s about James Soriano and his controversial article attacking the Filipino language. Many were irked by his article and so it had to be taken down from the net. But not before people had downloaded or copied it. Essentially, that article explored the connection of speaking Filipino to actually having an identity as a Filipino.

My being a conyo is a testament to how our language is evolving. I won’t be surprised when time comes and our National Language is no longer Filipino but Taglish. I mean it’s really easy and natural for many people these days to speak in a conyo manner. Maybe some are not as flamboyant as others but fact remains that it’s still Taglish.

Language reflects the identity and culture of the people using it. In a society where majority of workers are in the BPO industry, you can’t blame if there’s a rise of so-called conyo kids. They may not necessarily have the wealth of the traditional conyo kids, but the way they talked, you’d think they do if not for the identification badge stating which call center company they’re part of.

Globalization has greatly impacted the way we use our language. Since Filipino has not been deeply ingrained in us before the Americans came and converted us to an English-speaking nation, it can’t be helped that we haven’t naturally developed a love or a flair for the language unlike our Asian counterparts who have developed strong affinity for their language and hence you can see the strength of their culture. Wonderful examples are South Korea and Japan. Just look around you and you will see Pinoys wishing they could speak either Nihonggo or Korean just so they can understand or better relate to their pop idols. The Koreans and Japanese, despite not embracing English as a natural language became so successful in promoting their own language and identity. We can conclude then that loving their language led to a natural love for their own culture.

In the past I have advocated the strengthening of the Filipino language so we can eventually develop a sense of identity. However, today, even CHED mandates that Filipino GE subject need not be part of the required core subjects and can instead be an optional course for just anyone who wish to take it. And knowing how it’s Filipino, I am doubtful how many would want to do that. So how can we encourage a deeper sense of identity through the use of language?

I guess the conyo language identifies who we are. I guess this new breed language defines our very identity as a nation. What I see is a nation of mixed breeds. A nation who in adapting from other cultures have formed a culture distinctively their own. A nation whose culture is so dynamic it is perpetually evolving.

If before I see the conyo language as a negative thing – a hindrance to our growth as a country, today I see it as a language we need to embrace.

And I don’t think that’s even remotely connected to my discovery that I am already a conyo. 😉

Once Again Tito Sotto?

 

Comparison of Sotto’s Speech in Senate dated Sept. 5, 2012 and Kennedy’s Speech during the Day of Affirmation in 1966 in South Africa. Photo grabbed from: When In Manila FB Page.

Today, he made a fool of us once again. Today, he mocked the citizens who trusted him enough to elect him into office. Today, he showed the world that Filipinos are – at best – copycats.

When Sen. Tito Sotto was first accused of plagiarizing a blogger, I must admit, I was a bit sympathetic to him. Being a blogger myself, I take pride in my work. But I also understood the awkwardness it would present if he quoted so many “according to’s” in his speech. To me, at that point, so long as he presented the facts straight, so long as he got his point across, then wherever he got his information, properly cited or not, was ok. He did made a disclaimer that the facts he presented were not his own. For me that was enough. He was presenting facts after all.

But today, he presented opinion. Today, he tried to be poignant in closing his series of turno en contra. Yet, instead of being inspiring, he became irritating. Netizens quickly realized that the last parts of his speech were translated from parts of Kennedy’s speech in 1966. When asked about this, he replied:

“Marunong magTagalog si Kennedy?…Para nga safe, tinagalog ko. Meron ba silang alam na pinanggalingan na Tagalog noon (ng speech ko)? Marunong pala managalog si Kennedy ah!” (Kennedy could speak Tagalog?…To be safe, I translated it to Tagalog. Do they know where I got the speech in Tagalog? I didn’t know Kennedy could speak Tagalog.) – Rappler.com

I read that copying was accepted in the Senate. That bills that were not passed into laws in the past were recycled, sometimes copied word for word, then are debated once again. This, apparently, was an acceptable practice. It seems to me, piracy is evident not just in torrent movies and music or DVDs sprawled across the streets but also in the halls of our Upper and Lower Houses.

And thus, it seems, that copying speeches or perhaps translating them, word for word, into another language is acceptable as well.

Does this mean that we are a breed of copycats? Does this mean that we cannot fathom words or concepts of our own? When I was in college, it was known that most of our answers to our lab experiments would be lifted from books and other journals. But we were never taught to copy them word for word or even merely paraphrase them. We were taught to read through their context, derive our own understanding from them and then put into paper our very own analysis of what we just learned.

Isn’t this what we also should demand from our lawmakers? That they themselves, when crafting laws or echoing great speeches from the past in hopes to inspire, should first try to understand the contexts of such past materials then translate them into their own words based from their own understanding. By translate, I do not mean literal translation word for word.

There is no crime in patterning one’s thoughts from others. In fact, we can always share the same thoughts, the same opinions & the same views even if these were ages or miles apart. But even so, we have our own unique intellect, our own unique words, our own unique ways of communicating those very same thoughts, opinions & views. And when we do communicate them, it should be imperative that we do so in our own unique ways and not by mimicking the words of others.

What Sotto did has raised irate responses from fellow vigilant citizens. To those who don’t know any better, his speech might have been inspiring. But to those who know the truth, it was nothing but rubbish. Even if his points were valid, the way he communicated them diminished their worth. And denying that he did anything wrong only added insult to injury.

Related articles

 

The Language that is Filipino

Photo Credit: spade13th deviantart

 

ADDENDUM: The original Manila Bulletin article has been taken down but a copy of the article exists here and here.  This is also Google’s cache of the piece. Further, I have decided to also repost the article at the end of this post.

James Soriano is being criticized in the social media for his article in Manila Bulletin about his perception regarding the national language. James wrote about how the English language is his primary language, about how it is the language of the learned, the language of the classroom and laboratories, the language of the courtroom, boardroom, operating room etc. and how the Filipino language is the language of the streets, that even with the capacity for learning it is not the language of the learned.

Much of what he said about the Filipino language as he perceived it growing up hurts. It cuts a hole deep in our nationalistic hearts and really wounds our pride as a nation. For that he has been criticized, but I believe it is criticism he can be proud of because he has exposed the truth and indeed the truth hurts and can be hard to swallow.

As much as he has been criticized over and over for his untimely article during the Buwan ng Wika – my UP group and Twitter timeline criticizes his article – I beg to differ with their opinion.

Like him, I must say that I grew up with the English language. Although my household spoke Filipino primarily, I was taught how to read in English. Back at school, we were taught in English. Filipino indeed was a special subject of itself, which we all grew to loathe. It was a chore learning of the pandiwa, parirala, pangungusap etc. etc. We had clubs promoting English as not just a way of language but a way of thinking. During break times, people who spoke in Tagalog or the vernacular would be fined for every word spoken. English was promoted and glorified when we were in primary school. And thus I learned to speak, think, even dream, in English.

Of course I knew the vernacular, I could speak Tagalog and Bicol (my dialect) fluently though sadly not as fluent as English. When I was mad, I expressed myself in English. When I discovered my flair for writing, it was in English. I became more comfortable expressing myself in English.

Yes, the Filipino language is beautiful. Growing up and being exposed equally to Filipino literary works made me appreciate the language even more. But I cannot deny that it was English I was comfortable with.

In college, I had to take a subject in Filipino out of desperation. I needed Philippine units to graduate and the course about Philippine culture I wanted were all full. It was the course on Filipino language that was severely lacking in takers. I had no choice but to take it lest I do not graduate. I faced the subject with trepidation. I viewed it as a course wherein I wouldn’t really learn anything but merely enter the class for the sake of attendance.

But I was wrong. In the subject, I learned about the Filipino identity as defined by the Filipino language. I learned that much of the progress our nation lacks now is tied up with the lack of identity we have as a nation primarily because of our adaptation of a culture and a language that is not entirely ours. I learned that to fully solve the problems of our society, we would need to embrace our Filipino language entirely because it would connect to our sense of identity.

However, it cannot be denied that English has indeed become the language of the learned in the country. This is said in the paradigm that our courtrooms, our hospitals, even our government institutions uses English. I posted earlier this year about an incident wherein our municipality released a census survey written in English. And they expected the constituents to fill it out entirely! How can the greater population do so then if they are not taught about English?

And so I agree with James Soriano when he said that:

For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned.

It is neither the language of the classroom and the laboratory, nor the language of the boardroom, the court room, or the operating room. It is not the language of privilege.

For me, his article is a timely article during this month of the Buwan ng Wika. For more than insulting the national language, he has actually exposed the reality of the state of our language now. We are hypocrites trying to glorify the Filipino language in a month when in reality, the way we speak and conduct ourselves is in English.

How many interviews have you attended wherein the language used was English? How many presentations have you made wherein you presented in English? How many forms – even official public forms – have you filled out wherein everything was written in English? What medium is now used in our educational institutions to teach lessons in Science and Math? How many families do you know whose kids learn to speak English first before learning to speak Filipino? How many commercial establishments have you entered where they greet their customers in English instead of Filipino?

I gave credit to our President for delivering his recent SONA in Filipino. I wonder then why all previous presidents delivered theirs in English when delivering one in Filipino is possible and just as effective – if not more so? Is it really because English is the language of the learned?

To all of James’ critics, I say that before actually criticizing the guy who was honest enough to admit who he is, why don’t we examine first what is really happening in our society, as he said, of rotten beef and stinking fish. Maybe we will see that what he said is really something worth pondering about, that it is the reality engulfing us, and that perhaps we are just too full of pride to admit that indeed he is right.

Continue reading “The Language that is Filipino”