React or Die: (1)

If, today, someone asked you to write your biography in Filipino, how would you react?

–don’t chase me out with torches and pitchforks just yet, I didn’t post this here by mistake instead of say, write or die.

I’m supposing that the most common reaction to this sudden request would be reeling in horror. (cue: DO NOT WANT! Incidentally, I also got responses like: die, run away screaming, and panic.) And that would come from either the thought of being asked to write your life’s story out of the blue, or worse, write it in the vernacular. (I’m thinking of Ron Weasley’s line here. The one about getting Hermione’s priorities straight.)

A friend of mine was complaining about the scenario a few weeks back, just before the sembreak started. I asked her what was so bad about it, and she replied that she wasn’t so good at writing in Filipino. (–and as for me, I’d be more concerned about the biography part. Write my life? No way. I haven’t had one yet. Seriously, these assignments are a pain–but, ah, okay, back to–) To encourage her to get over that hurdle, I told her to write it in the vernacular. By this, I meant that she could use common or “low” Filipino rather than “high” Filipino, aka. what students usually expect professors want in biographies in Filipino outputs.

We already know how different written language is from spoken language, so I don’t even need to stress on it. We can all say “pa-no” for how but how do we spell it when we write it down? Paano? Pano? Pa’no? Pno? The first one doesn’t sound like how we’d say it, the second one seems more likely, the third one seems like a good compromise, but there’s one more keystroke there, so why not eliminate it–whichever is easier ’s the rule, right?–and I don’t even know if people really shorten it to that in SMS speek.

What I’m really concerned about here, I suppose I have to explain before I go off tangent even more, is where this notion, although I doubt it is just a local thing, of a stiff or rigid written language comes from.

Ano bang meron sa Filipino na takot tayong magsulat gamit ‘to?
Ano ba ang mayroon sa Filipino na may takot tayong nadarama kapag pinapagamit sa atin ito sa pagsusulat?

The reader creates the writer, yeah? Reader first, writer maybe next? My first theory came from this idea.

See, I happen to remember gradual progress in my early studies into reading and comprehension in English. We start with A is for apple, move onto See Bantay/ See Bantay run and before you know it, you’re getting acquainted with one Holden Caulfield, maybe.

It goes that way for learning Filipino too, although it might be rather awkward for many that someone’s trying to teach us something we already know ~~(ah, youth)~~.
Ah, but not as far as Holden. Where was that image of youth hiding? I think this was around then–high school, right?–that we started groaning about having to read Noli Me Tangere. And you know how angry high school kids can be. I’ve seen the wiki article on Rizal vandalized because of this. Teenage anger, I mean.

I wonder if this is a case of having a choice: between English and Filipino at a too early stage; or on the other hand, a case of not having much of a choice: as far as reading materials in Filipino is concerned. A friend of mine said that because we were forced to read Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo then, we somehow picked up that there were the only type of reading materials–novels–in Filipino.

The seeming lack of gradual progression might be the aggressor here. It’s what scared us of our language. From the language that we speak everyday, something we also might take for granted, there’s that feeling of alienation when information does not come as instant anymore. I mean, we’re supposedly reading something in the language we use, but why is it that we “can’t understand it as much as we want to? It’s too much!” and then hands raised, we give up on it. There are other stuff to read. Easier stuff to understand. Not everyone has the luxury of time. And then we can keep on thinking: “why does this language have to be so heavy anyway?” or “old language is oooooooooold and therefore for the ooooooooold.”

And from here we get the rebel attitude. “I don’t understand you! You don’t understand me at all!” Then everything is left behind until the issue resolves itself. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always.

Funny how much our teenage years affects our perceptions, eh?

Sid is thinking of making ‘Read or Die’ a regular segment from now on ~~because otherwise Kapitan will chase Sid with a Bolo~~. While this is the case, Sid sometimes walks the metro as a brain dead zombie and may then run out of things to react to for the lack of brains devoured. Sid would appreciate if you sent your e-brain (in this case, thoughts, ideas, etc.) in the form of an email to sindapa[at]gmail.com

P.S. Although belatedly, in the spirit of Caturday, I am leaving you with a message from one of our sponsors.

October 28, 2007 | Filed Under Latest, Miscellany | 17 Comments

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