Exploring The Filipino Psyche Day 24: “Code Shifting"

              

             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...

                 

Exploring The Filipino Psyche Day 23: “Languages”

            If we go back to the 1^st days of history in the Philippines, well, not far back to the Tabon cave man, but just to that day when the country was discovered by other men of other nationals, we will remember how things began.

            In the beginning, there were only the Aetas, the original dwellers of the country. Then the Malays came. The Malay Datus and the Aetas harmonized their differences with a contract that was done only with the spoken word. The two races agreed not to bother the other. The Aetas, as hunters and nomads by nature, stayed in the highlands, and the Malays stayed in the lowlands. I conclude, though, that up to this day, the Aetas honor this agreement. And if it weren’t for the Pinatubo explosion that happened in the ‘90s, and the excessive cutting of trees in the mountains, they would have continued to keep the pact they had with the Malays centuries ago. As I see it, the only reason the Aetas came down from the mountains is because of survival.

            Time passed and other races came. But unlike the first guests who came to stay and discuss a pact, the Spaniards came to colonize. For centuries they stayed and governed the country. Then the Chinese came to the Philippines as merchants. The Japanese came, too. And because of the open trade, countries such as Indonesia also dabbed its influence to the people. Then by the 19^th century, the Americans entered the country.

            And in the end, the Philippine Islands was left with 170 languages and several dialects, which I need to admit, I do not know how many. And even though there is a variety, one language was chosen to be the official and national language for all—Tagalog. However, problems arose when people from the Visayas area refused to use the language since they felt that there were more Visayans than ‘Tagalog’ people in the country. Thus, many Visayans in the ‘60s refused to speak Tagalog. They opted to use their local Visayan language and English as their second choice.

            Nowadays, the national language is embraced, and the name has been changed from Tagalog to Filipino. Filipino is the simplified version of Tagalog, where we do not speak in a ‘Balagtasan’ manner anymore and the words are more simple and more casual.  English words such as exam and notification are easily translated to Filipino as eksam and notifikasyon. But in Tagalog, these words are pagsusulit and pagpapatalastas.   

            Another invented language in the country is the mix of Tagalog and English. This is called Taglish. My friend and I, I guess for lack of a better thing to do, wondered and pondered on the idea of the ‘Taglish’ language. We debated and discussed on why ‘Taglish’ only chose to use the simple Tagalog words to be mixed with English.

            Examples may be:

            “Oh my! Can I just make you kwento? I saw him kanina  and he’s so guapo talaga, ha. You call me mamaya. Hay naku...I have tsismis.”

            “Oh no! We have an assignment pala! My things are so gulo kasi eh. I forgot tuloy.” 

            Then my friend and I thought, again, maybe for lack of a better thing to do, of trying our hand on doing our own mix in the language, and having our own version of ‘Taglish’. We thought, since Tagalog is pure in nature and the language is not really very casual in style, what if the bigger words were used in the combination?

            So my friend and I tried our own version of ‘Taglish’:

            Me: “Oh my! Don’t we have a pagsusulit  later? Come, let’s go to the silid-aklatan. We also have to do our gawaing-bahay eh. If not, hay naku, our guro will get angry.”

            Friend: "Wait! I have to make you salaysay  what happened when I saw him! I’m really nabibighani with his beauty! I like him bagamat I’m not sure if he likes me eh. I’ll give you the whole kasaysayan."

            I also found out that English is also mixed with the other languages in the country. My sister told me about a high school student she heard in Ilo-ilo speak to her friend and said, ”Gani. Let’s pass here para dasig.”  So I guess, because there are so many languages in the land that a mix of all this is normal. In that sentence alone there was English, Ilonggo and Tagalog.

            And even though the country has numerous languages, there are words that are the same but are different in meaning. For example the word subay means ‘bird’ in Cebu and it means ‘ant’ in Iloilo. So if someone was with a Cebuano and an Ilonggo and that person shouted, “Subay!”  one would look up, while the other would look down. I experienced something similar when I was in Kalibo, Aklan—this is in the Visayas area. I used the statement “saka na”, which means ‘next time’ in Tagalog, and means ‘go up now’ in Ilonggo. One day, my friends and I helped in organizing a talk for Maharaji—an Indian who inspired people to believe more in love and happiness. So there we were, my friends and I, walking around and checking what else was needed and how else we could help; those who attended waited by a bench near the staircase. My friends and I welcomed them and said our ‘hellos’. Then another friend, who was quite far from all of us, opted to talk to me from where he was. So suddenly he said with a loud voice, “ Carla, bayaran ko na ngayon (I’ll pay now)!” And I answered, also in a shouting manner, “Saka na!” I was using the Tagalog meaning as my reply to my friend, but when I looked again at the guests by the staircase, nervously and hurriedly they went up the stairs. “Ay,sorry, po. Hindi, po. Hindi po kayo kausap ko. Siya, po ( Sorry, sorry, I wasn’t talking to you, sir, ma’am. I was talking to him).” They thought I commanded all of them to go up right that instant.

            So this is how my country is, there are numerous languages and dialects. And also because of this fact, the preferred medium still, in dailies, directions, signs, and even in school, is English. Sometimes there will be signs or instructions, written in English, with their share of errors in grammar and construction. Nonetheless, this medium is, if not understood by all, is indeed understood by many Filipinos. It is a plus, in many ways, and sometimes a minus, when people identify too much with the English language to a point where they discriminate our very own.     

              And as a nation, this is our make-up. It may be quite difficult to have so many conversation tools for the people. But maybe this diversity also adds to our color. Maybe it also adds to our spice as a people. Maybe it also adds to our pull as an interesting race.