Excuse me, your english is showing...

Nakakatawa talaga when you try to translate something literally from one language to another tapos it came out somewhat wrong. Have you ever had that experience? Well, if not sorry for you! You're missing an opportunity to laugh at yourself.


Well, I did have one episode last night. I was on my way to the grocery to buy some beer (they say a bottle of beer is better than a glass of soda. I couldn't agree more!) when I noticed that the car on my right doesn't have his head lights on. So I rolled down my window and said to the guy “Excuse me! You don’t have a headlight”. I was supposed to say “you don’t have your headlights on" but it came out wrong. Hindi ba sa Tagalog we say “ Wala kang ilaw” and if you translate it to Cebuano you translate it as it is: “Wa kay suga”. And my brain did just that, translating the sentence directly to English so it came out “you don’t have a headlight”. Well the guy understood me anyways, thanked me, turned on his lights and went his merry way. After the episode, my brain started to analyze what I said and I suddenly realize that I had another spoken language mishap.

I remember a joke when I was still working with PLDT and assigned to the province. I have this co-employee who one day remarked, kiddingly of course, “buti pa itong mga bata dito sa Iloilo ang galing magsalita ng ilonggo. Ako ang tanda ko na di pa ako marunong magsalita nyan.” It’s so funny di ba? But somehow that statement is true here in the US. Not that I don’t know how to speak the language. Goodness! English is our second language in the Philippines. I aced several of Ms. Gasingan's (my english teacher) periodical exam in high school.  I am even tell the some of the people I had the pleasure of working with that wherever you go in the Philippines, you won’t have a hard time (well little I guess) communicating because, english-barok or what, the locals have some command of the English language. Try going to the Thailand or China or some other non-English speaking country and for sure, you’ll find yourself doing some sort of a sign language.

I am so amazed about the children’s brain and how quickly they absorb knowledge. My girlfriend’s niece and nephew were both born in the Philippines and just moved here in the spring of 2007. The boy was just 5 and the girl was 3 then. At first, the boy had a little difficulty communicating with his cousin who was born here in the US and the girl is just starting to learn how to talk. The long and short of it, both now speak English flawlessly complete with the twang and idioms and day-to-day conversational English. They still understand Tagalog but not after asking “what” first. As for us “older” people, a friend once made a comment saying that our English is too formal. Probably so. We learned it from school. And this is the reason why we are so prolific a writer but poor conversationalist. At least I am. I know I can write better than most of the people I deal with but when it comes to just having a chat with them. Oh goodness! I have to compose something first in my brain before saying it out loud or else, I will have another “No headlight” incident.

Moral or the story:  Help is understood in any language.  Also, chat more with your friends even if you sound silly at first.  You'll get the hang of it sooner or later.

P.S. My gratitude to my followers who I found out just now that I already have two. Thanks Nori and Nancy.  Spread the word. It’s nice to have some audience for a change. Godspeed!