there I was dumbfounded by what the taxi driver had said. he said that my friend should learn to speak Tagalog as well as she speaks English. my initial thought was defensiveness... that was my friend you were talking about! he hasn't even heard my friend speak in Tagalog. yet his words suddenly made me re-think my lingua. how was I supposed to react? i... a not-so-young Visayan trying to make a living in a Tagalog-dominated city? i will have to admit that my Tagalog vocabulary would probably be limited to that of a third grade student's currently studying here in Luzon (in a Tagalog-speaking region especially). does that make me less of a Filipino?
*note: I specifically am going to use "Tagalog" instead of the more adaptable "Filipino" because the cab driver started it...
of course, the driver did not stop there and continued ranting about the way a Miriam Defensor-Santiago so poorly spoke and subtly murdered the national language. "Yung kwan" and "sa amon"... were his examples. he definitely had a point stating that these politikos should ideally be good speakers of Tagalog. meanwhile, my mind was racing with a number of arguments I could have thrown back at him. if the national language had been Cebuano how would he have fared? it just so happened that the national government was seated in a Tagalog region. moreover, isn't the content of what we say suppose to matter over what dialect or language we said it in? and most of all, aren't actions suppose to speak louder than words? a senator working his back just to pass several bills with worthwhile consequences would be definitely my choice over one who quacks most of the time.
here then, the driver proceeded with saying that he admired randy david for being a gifted speaker for the depth and wisdom his words were and that randy david did this well when speaking in both english and Filipino. i dared not ask what his criteria for a malalim magsalita was... for fear of ruining his day and being accused of one who took Miriam's side. well, i did not exactly rue on miriam's side but i was on the side of all discriminated non-Tagalog speakers (English-speaking Filipinos included!). but then yes, i would have to agree that randy david has his sociological background and thus the malalim magsalita. as for miriam, dalom maghambal kung pa-hillonggohon mo siya e. Despite all my raging thoughts, I calmly agreed with the driver's every word and said that our local courts and even sessions in the house of representatives should be better of speaking in Filipino.
as i stepped out of the cab and walked into the church and a Tagalog mass, my thoughts run awry, one illuminating realization i had was that it was an inner battle for every Filipino: nationalism vs. individualism. Each person has a choice about where to position himself in this wide spectrum. what if one could express his/her thought better in English but would definitely die for his/her own country if forced to renounce cultural heritage? or what if one's best subject was Filipino but loved the foreign hiphop dance moves on MTV? But then again, the way one speaks or in what language he/she speaks is not the only measure of nationalism. a Filipino may speak in a different language but i think one should never let go of speaking in straight Filipino. In a way, be proud you're one.
on a rather tangential note, but touching a point on the curve nevertheless. i'd like to say my piece on teri hatcher's lines in desperate housewives about doctors with Philippine diplomas. we react to the international racial slur but forget that discrimination itself exists among regions within the country? that's a bigger issue to deal with. how could we unite when we are in fact divided by islands and our respective subcultures?
i myself am a raw mix of different dialects: a tagalog mother who grew up in Nueva Ecija, an ilocano father from La Union, cebuano catholic masses every sunday and illonggo yayas when i grew up (plus not to mention a pseudo Francophone). literally, a jock of all trades, master of none. yes, i express myself well in written English, speak Filipino and Cebuano comfortably but never an expert in any of these.
as the angelic hymn on that First Friday mass wafted through my ears, i thought that here was a Tagalog song, the message clear and meaningful. in whatever language may be used. bakas ng Kanyang yakap... made me think that those lines was inspiring. but in tagalog i think it was most beautifully sung.
