Huwag mo nang itanong

Last week pumunta ako sa office ng kaibigan kong si Derrick upang i-discuss ang maiksing project na gagawin ko para sa NGO na pinagta-trabahuhan niya dito sa Phnom Penh. He shares his room with three other people: 2 Cambodians and a Caucasian lady who sounded American. I sat by his desk, poring over some documents, brainstorming and drawing out plans on how the tasks should be done to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. Yung Amerikana was talking to someone on the telephone beside us, and napansin ko na patingin-tingin siya sa amin habang nakikipag-usap sa telepono. When Derrick saw that she had finished her call he introduced me to her.

'That was remarkable', sabi niya. Una hindi namin naintindihan ni Derrick kung bakit sinabi niya yun. 'I have never heard a conversation that seamlessly blended two languages. My friends have told me about it but I've never heard it up close. It's amazing.'

Yun pala yun. She meant our Taglish (Tagalog and English) conversation. We explained to her na sa Pilipinas, ganoon makipag-usap ang maraming tao for many years na. There are many other languages in the Philippines but Tagalog (or Filipino) and English were the languages that were taught in school so most people can speak it. Derrick added that this is easier for him because his mother tongue is not Tagalog but Waray, one of the many Philippine languages.

'But to be able to speak the way you do, it requires fluency in both languages, doesn't it?'

This was something that I hadn't thought about. Oo nga, no? She raised a good point. To be able to effortlessly shift from one language to another in each sentence is something that is really magaling. Pero in the process, meron bang language na nalalamangan at napapabayaan? Filipino language advocates would say that in this, lugi ang Filipino language.

Personally, I think this is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways. Both languages are diminished in some ways and enriched in other ways also. Analyzing my use of Taglish, I realized that I shift between the two languages usually when I'm trying to find the right word to use. But this does not mean that my vocabulary of English and Filipino is small. I am particularly proud of both of my vocabularies, let me just say. Kaya lang, minsan, you can say some things better in English, yung iba naman mas maigi sabihin in Tagalog. See? Pero siyempre, I can only do this with my fellow Filipinos.

My short knowledge of history tells me that speaking Taglish started in the 70s, originating from young colegialas–female students of exclusive schools in Manila. And for a long time, as I recall, speaking this way was often done in jest. Whether making fun of the privileged set or just having fun, this manner of speaking soon surfaced on television (who can forget the late Ma. Theresa Carlson's Si Ako character in the seminal sitcom Chicks-to-Chicks?), in the movies (too many to mention, although Bagets comes to mind), in songs (Bonggahan by Sampaguita) and in print (mostly tabloid newspapers and some broadsheet columns). There is even an interface between Taglish and Swardspeak (the Filipino gay slang as it was called many, many years ago) that exists to this day.

From these seemingly frivolous beginnings, the use of Taglish slowly normalized, in the same manner that many words from the gay slang vocabulary has made it to the mainstream lexicon. I recall a conversation with my uber-butch uncle that became awkward when he said he felt bad for his kumpare (friend) dahil na-chugi ito sa kanyang trabaho (because he got fired from his job). Chugi is the gay term that could mean dying, or getting fired from work or losing something that is very important. Pero hindi ito ang point ko. What I'm trying to say is that over time, Taglish took hold in the Filipino way of speaking. In the Oxford dictionary of the English language, there is a substantial section devoted to Filipino English (grammar and literature).

I don't see this happening between Khmer (Cambodia's language) and English, although I know many Khmer words have some French in them too. Could it be an issue of colonization also? After all, English is the language of our second-most influential colonizer (the first being Spain).

This could also be because of the inherent nature of our language. I am no linguist, but as a speaker I feel that grammatically, Filipino (or Tagalog) shares many similarities with English, so it is easy to merge one with the other. When I went to Indonesia last year, I noticed that some Indonesians also have a certain way of mixing Bahasa with English. Tagalog (as well as other Philippine languages) is rooted in Bahasa so there's a connection.

Now there is a growing debate regarding the government's plan to mandate a shift in language of instruction in public schools from Filipino to English. The groups opposed to it argue that this is anti-poor, that doing this will affect our Filipino heritage. The legitimacy of this measure in the constitution has also been questioned. Ayokong makisawsaw sa debateng ito. However, let me just say this: we are the third largest English speaking country in the world as it is. Do we want to beat the US and the UK and become the largest?

Marami sa mga magagaling na English teachers working in the States ngayon ay mga Pinoy. Kahit dito sa Cambodia actually. We have a robust English literature. And Filipinos, regardless of social status, can speak and understand English in varying degrees. All these, in spite of having Filipino as the medium of instruction in the public schools. At this point in time, I do not see the point in the shift. I think that in the Philippine public school system, English and Filipino can coexist peacefully.

Be it in their pure forms or in Taglish.

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The long & winding road

I started the new month by accepting a quick project, even if the latest project I am working on is not entirely over yet. But there are many reasons why I accepted this project: I could spare the time, it was for a friend (Derrick), it wasn't complicated (a proposal for extending an on-going project), it's a good opportunity (my first time to work with CARE Cambodia), and the pay is not at all bad (more moolah for my upcoming birthday–yey!). So I figured, why the hell not?

Derrick thought it'd be a good idea for me to see the project site to get a better feel of the project and the people involved in it. So this is another plus for me because I'd never been to Koh Kong, a southwestern coastal province in Cambodia, which is currently is accessible only through 4-wheel drives, smaller vans, and cars with brazenly brave drivers. 

We left Phnom Penh before 9AM on Wednesday. Along the way to Koh Kong we would pass by a referral hospital and a couple of health centers that were part of the project. In between these we passed through long stretches of highway (with minimal traffic) and winding mountain roads that were either carved along its side or cut in between chunks of rock and dirt. Derrick's mother (whom I fondly call 'Mother') and younger sister (Olga), who are visiting Derrick, came along and it made the trip a whole lot less boring.

The previous night I bought bottled water, which I kept in the freezer prior to leaving, some fruit and crackers to bring with me. Derrick's mother, however, seemed to have bought at least one section of the supermarket with them. One moment we were eating rice crackers, then she gave out sauteed tuna and cheese sandwiches for lunch, and then later we were cracking sunflower seeds. These were topped with bottles of water and soda and I was full, and my own food untouched. Fortunately we were making these stops at the health centers, where I was able to empty my bladder properly (against to doing it on the side of the road, or against a tree).

The view was breathtaking. My camera, however, was in my backpack, which was stowed away in the baggage compartment at the back of the pick-up truck. The pictures you see here were all taken on my journey back to Phnom Penh on Friday. A lonelier trip, if I may say so, because only the driver and I made the trip back to the city. 

Like almost all the other Cambodian provinces I have visited, Koh Kong is fairly quaint and quiet. It differs in its topography because it is nestled by both mountains and the coast. It is also a border area so instead of just Cambodian Riel and US Dollars, Thai Baht is the other currency de rigeur. During my last night the four of us went to the Thai border, gawked at the monstrous casino, and marveled at how Thai the area looked, in spite of it being still Cambodia.

I also failed to mention earlier that the trip to Koh Kong is further punctuated by 4 ferry trips, each one with its own distinct personality and each ferry in varying states of decay or disrepair, making the short crossings really exciting!

 ferry#1

 ferry #2

 ferry #3

 ferry #4

Meanwhile, the videos show us boarding ferry #2, which felt like a leg in the Marlboro Tour, on account of the muddy terrain, and ferry #2 docking on the river bank.

 boarding ferry #2

 ferry #2 docking 

I have many other stories to share about my trip to Koh Kong but these stories deserve their own post. Till next time then!