FL!PP!NG FoR F!L!PINö

My brothers make fun of how I used to say sapin-sapin. They would laugh their brains out every time I asked for another slice of this yummy Philippine kakanin. "Ooh, sapehn-sapehn," they drawled, wiggling their eyebrows at me as I simmered in my seat, sticking my tongue out at them. I insisted that I said it correctly, and each time I repeated it to prove my point, I’d have them howling. Thankfully, I realized that I did have a funny way of saying it. I pronounce it correctly now, but they still love reminding me about how I said the word sapin-sapin.

It’s embarrassing, but I have to admit that I do sometimes slip and mispronounce a Filipino word. Contrary to what most people might think though, I don’t speak Filipino with an American accent. It’s just that I’ve always been focused on improving my facility in English. Even back in grade school, English had always been my favorite subject. I found it really stimulating and interesting, especially because we did a lot of writing.

I did like Filipino class back then; in fact, all my teachers made the classes unforgettable. However, my mind would spin each time we read a piece, especially one that was written a long time ago. It would sound stuffy and too wordy for a regular person to understand. It didn’t sound natural at all. I would have to read it slowly out loud for the words to arrange themselves in my head and reveal the idea. I’d also have to ask people for the meanings of certain words. I studied Noli Me Tangre and El Filibusterismo with the help of the comics and English versions of these novels. For the rest of the pieces we studied, there were always my classmates.

Ithought I would never like reading pieces of literature in Filipino. Heck, I didn’t even know what the word bimpo meant until my fourth year in high school. (If you don’t know what it means, please give me your name and number. I will then forward this information to my classmates who think that I am the last person to discover what a small towel is called in Filipino.) Reading in Filipino always made my head spin.

When I got to college, I thought I would completely hate my Filipino subject. The class was called Sining ng Pakikipagtalastasan sa Filpino 1. Even the name sent chills up my spine. I imagined myself buried under a mountain of incredibly antediluvian poems and short stories that I wouldn’t be able to understand. I saw myself standing in front of a terror professor, trying to find the correct Filipino word to express myself and utterly failing.

The minute my teacher walked into the room, I knew it was going to be different. I didn’t even realize he was the teacher until he placed his messenger bag on the teacher’s desk and called us to attention. Sir Vlad is still pretty young, with his cargo pants and dry wit. He totally gave a fresh approach to Filipino, and I actually started to like it. He introduced modern and post-modern pieces to the class. In school, I’ve always taken up traditional poems and stories, pieces that took form very seriously. They had to be written and worded beautifully and they had to be flowing and rhythmic. In modern and post-modern works, writers are free to use whatever words they choose. They use more common words and new ways of writing. They’re using their creativity so that more people in society can understand them and hear what they have to say.

True enough, one person from society did understand literature better – me! Literature is not something that is meant to be simply admired. It’s also very important that the writer’s thoughts don’t just stay dormant. They have to reach out and stir readers! We have to ask ourselves what the writer is trying to say. There may be no ground-breaking, world-changing purpose for the piece (such as in post-modern works), but it’s always important to try and see what knowledge the writer is trying to impart.

I’ve always been intimidated by the deep words and implications of Filipino works. I figured everything was probably boring. Now, I’ve discovered a whole new world. I’m starting to familiarize myself with poets and writers. In bookstores, I browse through the Philippine Publications section. Sure, there are still a bunch of Filipino words out there that I can’t understand, but that’s not stopping me.

There are so many good Filipino writers out there, and it’s a pity that most people focus only on English literature. They can devour the latest diary or confessions of a British woman, or quote tastefully from classic novels, but raise their eyebrows blankly upon the mention of a local writer. We should be proud of our literature and explore the various, excellent abilities of our writers. I just finished Bob Ong’s Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas, and I loved it. Don’t be fooled by the title, it’s not a book advocating satanism or atheism. It’s filled with observations and speculations about all kinds of things that will either get you thinking and laughing. All the undeniable Filipino notions seem to make no sense when put all together, but you don’t find yourself lost or confused at all. I sped through the book, as it was written in such a normal, comforting language. It’s like someone is simply talking to you.

Hearing how good the American twang sounds makes most of us want to speak English perfectly. We applaud the people who have an excellent command over the language, but we overlook our own. We’ve been using it ever since we were born, so maybe we have a hard time seeing the beauty and vigor of Filipino. I hope, through the spoken and written word, we’re able to see its magic once again, and possibly discover the magic in ourselves as well.