Two friends see each other at the lobby of the building where they were to have a meeting:
Friend 1: “Uy, pare! Kumusta na?”
Friend 2: “Okay naman. Ikaw?”
Friend 1: “Okay rin. Kumusta ang misis?”
Friend 1: “Okay naman. Pare, dalaw ka minsan sa bahay. Bisitahin mo naman inaanak mo."
Friend 2: “Sige. Minsan punta kami ni Amelia. Sige. Kita tayo sa luob.”
Friend 1: “Sige, pare.”
The same two friends see each other again inside the conference room where they were to have a formal meeting.
And the meeting begins...
Friend 1: “The slow moving merchandise will be phased out by the end of this week. But we’ll be launching the new product three months from now.”
Friend 2: “So how shall we market this new product?”
Friend 1: “We ‘re coming up with a whole plan for this. We’ll present this to the board by next month.”
This is called code shifting—a common practice in the Philippines—the ability to change the medium for communication depending on circumstance and environment. As I have mentioned in my last entry, the Philippines has 170 languages and several dialects. And the national language is Filipino, a simplified version of Tagalog. Filipino is much easier than Tagalog, and in casual conversations among Pinoys, it is usually the preferred medium, unless they are kababayans— people who come from the same region or area—for example two people from Pampanga may choose to speak in Kapampangan, or two people from Ilokos would rather speak in Ilokano (Pampanga and Ilokos are two provinces in the Philippines). But those who grew up in Manila will only know Filipino and English, unless their parents taught them another language. These two languages are the usual mainstays in many households. If both are not practiced at home, at least they are both understood and used outside of the home.
In school, Filipino students are required to present their reports in English. All subjects, except for the Filipino subject and ‘Sibika’ (Social Studies, which is taught in Filipino in many schools in the country), are taught using the universal language. Therefore, recitation in class is also in English. But outside of the classroom atmosphere, the students converse with friends during recess and lunch breaks in Filipino (although there are schools where the students still speak in English among friends, or at the most, what is called Taglish—a mix of Tagalog and English ). And because of this, as the child gets older, this shifting becomes ingrained in the system of the individual that to shift from Filipino to English, as the mood of the conversation changes, becomes second nature to the person. I would hear fellow Filipinos say ‘nosebleed’ when they hear others speak in English. Nosebleed means ‘a difficult time to keep up with the flow of the conversation due to the constant use of the English language’, but what they are not aware of is that they do the shift, too. It just depends on when and where sometimes.
Filipinos like to use the Filipino language when with friends and in casual chit chats, but when in meetings or at work, in front of the bosses to present a report, the shift comes with ease. Suddenly the medium becomes English. And this, I feel, is because of the practice the Filipino adults had as students. The environment of the canteen, having lunch with friends, will call for speaking in the vernacular; but when in front of the teacher for group reports or debate class, which calls for a serious tone, the student is always required to speak in English. And this is why when politics is a topic even among friends, there is also the tendency to shift again to English because of the seriousness of the subject in hand. But when the conversation rolls back to a light mood and jokes are thrown at each other, the shift goes back to Filipino.
This may also be true in writing. Pinoys are trained well to write in English. And for some reason, many Filipinos find writing in the native language more difficult than writing in English, especially in expressing thoughts or insights. And I see this as the reason why many statuses in Facebook or in Twitter are expressed, most of the time, in English. But if it is joking time, the shift again goes back to the vernacular.
Nowadays, the shift is even more frequent since casual conversations are slowly being done in English because of the many guests from other countries the nation has. And the serious tone is also spoken in the vernacular because, unlike then when news on TV used purely English, reporters are now using Filipino, influencing the Pinoys to also speak in the native tongue even when the topic becomes a heated argument about politics.
So there it is, another Filipino behaviour—code shifting. I am quite proud of it since it enables us to speak to people of different races, then go back to the vernacular when needed. Maybe this is where the behavior pakikisama also comes from, but that’s another story.
Next entry?
We’ll see...
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