Tagalog Blues

     Back in high school – or even in college – I got decent grades for my subjects in Filipino.  At one point, I even got the top prize in an on-the-spot tula writing contest. What I couldn’t quite figure out is why they call it Filipino when most of it is Tagalog. Spare me the history lecture though – I’m just stressing a point here.  I don’t object to having Tagalog as a national language but just allow me to call a spade a spade.  You call it Filipino but from where I sit, it’s still Tagalog.

     Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not inviting some needless debates here.  Being a true-blue bisdak (short for bisayang dako or my translation: bigtime bisaya), I’m just trying to ventilate this personal concern: my Tagalog or more particularly: my Tagalog with Cebuano inflection.

     I could get around talking to foreigner clients in English but when I converse with some tagalog-speaking ones, I couldn’t help feeling a bit conscious.   Not that they are of loftier origins, it’s just this second language forced on me since childhood – most of which I never get to use.

     I remembered asking my tagalog friend in review school, “Pare, pahiram nga ng aklat mo?”  I couldn’t quite picture that surprised-turned-frowning-turned-confused-turned-amused look in his face anymore.  “Aklat, pare?”  I was glad I didn’t follow it up with, “Punta muna ako sa silid-aralan, pare.” 

     One bisdak guy committed the worst howler, “Manang, pabili nga ng sigarilyo, gitna lang.” You could not possibly draw the grimace from that lady’s face. “Ano?!”  My bisdak friend, replied, “Gitna lang ba…Tunga!! Half! Half-pak… aw…hati pala… gui-ahak ani uyi!.”

      When I speak tagalog, I do it however with a much dignified Cebuano accent.  My wife, a good tagalog-speaker had no qualms poking fun at it.  But behold my bisdak friends, I do not feel the tiniest bit of ignominy, much less, diffidence as in fact I am proud of how I speak it – the only way a real bisaya would.  I join the ranks of the great.  Are you not in awe with the granite-like, sturdy, and solid accent of Pimentel, of former senator Ernesto Herrera?  How about that flinty, Herculean intonation of Cerge Remonde, or better still, of Manny Pacquiao?  Ha!

     So when I chanced upon this e-mail this morning, I laughed hard reading it.  It is a sampler of English words translated into Bisaya with a twist of Tagalog.  If you don’t get it, chances are, you’re not a bisdak.
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