'Kuya' Bodjie shares storytelling tips

MANILA, Philippines – Remember Kuya Bodjie of the ’80s children’s TV show Batibot? The stage, film, and TV actor, who is Luisito Pascua in real life, recently reprised his TV role as storyteller. 

But this time, his listeners were not children but adults — teachers, community workers, and employee-volunteers from Smart Communications, Inc.   

His story? How he came to love storytelling and how one can be effective at it. 

 At a workshop held at Museo Pambata, he spoke to participants of CommuniTeach, a Smart-led initiative aimed at tapping the community to help public school children do better in class.   

Kuya Bodjie believes that storytelling contributes to learning and to the development of children.  The simple act of interacting with a child has a great impact on the child’s life, he told the group. It means that the adult is attentive, is there for the child. 

He made a pitch to revive and popularize storytelling as this would make for a more nurturing society. 

“Storytelling is about building relationships,” he said.    

Children have a natural hunger to learn and find out more about the world around them.  However, these days, with so many things to occupy themselves, children tend to be detached from the others, slowly losing the ability to connect to people around them.

A storyteller brings to life the experience he/she is sharing and gives it meaning, Kuya Bodjie said. There is no right or wrong way to tell stories. A storyteller need only get the listeners’ attention and win their trust. The relationship will grow from there. 

Kuya Bodjie himself grew up listening to his grandfather’s stories, one of his favorites being “Ang Pagong at Ang Matsing (The Tortoise and the Monkey)” by Jose Rizal. Through these stories, he was able to make sense of life’s ups and downs.   

“If you have a genuine love to communicate and the will to build a relationship with a person, storytelling will come naturally,” he guaranteed.