Articulate

This week I've been bombarded with translating Filipino words to English and vice versa. My Filipino class' main highlight is all about wika, komunikasyon its components and a deeper focus on speech and the manner of execution. Most prominent thing I've learned from this class is how our own language becomes obsolete by the minute; we've been losing the direct translations for words and resorts to morphing like retaining the original pronunciation but omitting letters.

In the colloquial setting, we use words like keyk, titser,varayti and such words where there is no direct Filipino equivalent. This is a more common way of translation but in this manner we never establish our own identity, our own language. It clearly indicates our words are still heavily dependent on its grass roots, the colonizers' language.

I have a homework about Komunikasyon where I have to research its definition and its forms. Of course the main source would be the internet but there is no guarantee results will turn out all in the Filipino language so what I did was to translate it on my own and its no easy task. In the process I may have already reduced the essence of the English definition the moment I wrote it into Filipino. Our lack of words shows not only in our own usage but also in other medium like TV shows. Try watching Tagalized-Animes and notice how some dialogs are so repetitive. One character will say something only to be echoed by the other. Set the real English subs and see how far the real message the character is trying to convey from what the Tagalog version did. No wonder our giant networks are afraid to dub TV shows like That 70's or Pushing Daisies cause they'll only depreciate the humor. Another funny thing about our language is the problem with circulation and preference. Go use the word "paaralan" or "bangkarote". How about "guro", "kwaderno", "pisara", "luntian". In the dark ages maybe those words were conventional but you get the awry feeling if you use them nowadays. They're already buried somewhere in our word bank but in the English sphere they never hesitate to still use beseech, bask or mire, they even find new ways of making it more creative in a play-by-ear contexts.

If there is an Anglophile: a lover of the English language, there would be no local version of it. "Mahalin natin ang sariling wika" is just a cliche for formalities.

Kung sa Filipino ko isinulat ang gusto kong iparating sa blog entry na ito, hindi ko magugustuhan at makokornihan ako. Bakit? Ganun na kababa ang tingin sa Filipino sa aking pananaw. Realidad na at pagiging praktikal ang pagsasabing pawala na ang sarili nating wika. Hindi ito pagiging pesimistiko, pagiging makabago it at pagtanggap. Hindi na dapat Filipino ang ipangalan sa subject, Wika na.