May 28, 2003

THE LANGUAGE GAME. Before I launch into the actual thought of today’s entry, let me start off by mentioning my favorite show nowadays, ‘Meteor Garden’, a show featuring the famous Asian boyband, F4, and a female Taiwanese pop singer, Barbie Hsu Hsi Yuan. Yup, that show got me hooked. I am now subject to the teasing of my friends, in particular this one guy from the registration committee who calls me a ‘meteorite’. Duh.

Anyway, before you raise your eyebrows as to what’s the connection of the show to the whole point of the entry, this show is mentioned because it has gotten my cousin scrambling to learn Mandarin. (FYI: The show’s originally done in Mandarin.) And I’m willing to bet that there are not a few people suddenly itching to get themselves immersed in Mandarin and all things Chinese. Thank goodness though I still have kept my Meteor Garden cravings limited to just the show (and its story) and not to the whole F4 mania – I haven’t succumbed to memorizing lyrics that I don’t even know the meaning of.

Instead, I’ve been trying to learn French. It’s probably one of the more widely used languages in the world, but it’s hard to learn the language because no one really speaks it here. I couldn’t even take it as an elective since it won’t get credited and besides, I have too many other subjects to take. I did the only other alternative I could think of and bought myself a tutorial CD. But trying to actually speak French by that method is still next to impossible.

Anyway, with all the interesting languages out there that I also want to learn, like Dutch, (the language I’ve been using to mark off the dates in my blog) Bahasa, Niponggo, Deutsche….it’s rather disturbing that I couldn’t even think in straight Filipino. Blame it to the times, culture, globalization and all other scapegoats you can think of.

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Sinubukan ko dating magsulat sa Filipino sa blog, pero naging mahirap para sa akin…lumalabas kasi na trying hard ako. (Tulad ngayon.) Tapos, hindi ko maiwasan na maging seryoso ang tono ng blog entry ko. Ako mismo nahirapan basahin iyon. Sa ibang mga nababasa ko na lathalain (the word!) na nakasalin sa Tagalog, (tulad ng school paper namin, Kulé) nahihirapan akong tapusin yung buong sanaysay. Eck. Subukan pang dagdagan ng gay lingo!

Sa kabilang banda, hindi naman ako nahihirapang sundan yung mga dubbed shows na salin sa Tagalog. Talagang diretsong Tagalog, at bihirang mahaluan ng Ingles at kung ano pa mang salita. Mas nagugustuhan ko pa nga kung minsan yung dubbed na bersyon kasi nagagawa ng Tagalog na i-capture (for the lack of better term) sa konteksto na ma-appeal sa Pinoy. Tulad ng ‘Cooking Master Boy’ na pinapalabas ngayon sa ABS-CBN sa Filipino. May mga napanood akong episodes sa AXN sa kanyang Ingles na bersyon na ok naman, pero ibang-iba talaga yung dubbed na bersyon. Mas nakakatawa siya, lalo na kapag sinasabi ni Mao kung paano niya niluto yung putahe. Heck. Mas lalo akong natatawa sa kombinasyon ng mga idiyom na Tagalog at yung ‘action sequence’ ng pagluluto!

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Mahirap talagang pag-usapan ang ‘nuances’ ng ating linggwahe. Minsan depende talaga kung saan tayo nasanay, kung ano ang pinag-uusapan, kung saan tayo naroon, atbp. Maraming nagsasabi na unti-unting namamatay ang wikang Filipino, pero siguro kung minsan, dapat naman talagang makisabay ang wikang Filipino sa panahon. Mahirap maging ‘purist’ kung pinag-uusapan ang wikang Filipino sa ngayon. Wala na tayo sa panahon ni Francisco Balagtas at iba pang makatha na ang pinagkukuhanan ng inspirasyon ay ang wikang Filipino. Pure, unadulterated Filipino. Sa halip, nabubuhay tayo sa panahon kung saan napapalitan na ng txt language ang pagpapalitan ng opinyon, sweet nothings, sermon atbp. Hindi ko na rin pag-uusapan ang Taglish.
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This piece isn’t really written to criticize people who can’t seem to get their tongues straight. We are what we are and the whole point of language is to get our point across, whether in English, Filipino, or whatever way we could think of. I’m just thinking that there are other ways of looking at the whole language issue aside from being proud of our national patrimony. (Or me indulging in more babble.) If I get so anti-establishment about this, I’d say languages are more basis for biases and racial discrimination.

That’s just a thought, okay?

It’s really up to the person taking things in context. I think that this is the greatest thing about languages. The medium isn’t a passive thing to translate whatever’s inside our head. How we use it also matters.

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On my part, even though I think that way, I guess I still think that it would be rather cool if we would insist on other people, especially foreigners, to learn to speak the language while they’re here. Usually we just speak to them in English. Wala lang. Naisip ko magandang paraan iyon para ipakita yung kultura dito. Something like that. I mean, let’s face it. Despite the heavy use of English, nobody (or very few) really thinks in straight English.