MOVING ON

I just want to give credit to the wife for patiently teaching her American husband to learn to  speak Tagalog.  And she is a Visayan at that!  Very good work, indeed!  It also shows volumes about the kind of loving this couple must have for each other. I'm always surprised when I hear some Filipinos I meet here who'd apologize to me when they can't speak really good Tagalog to me.  I don't take it really as a slight (even if they don't know I do Tagalog tutorials here in NYC).   Now, it's always easier for people to relate better with their loved ones if they speak a common language.  There are practical considerations for this.  It makes everyday life lighter and easier to pursue;  so much is lost in translation which can be frustrating for someone who likes to express something in a language that he/she knows best. But I'm just sure the wife is just like most Filipinos who are tri-linguals, i.e. they speak at least 3 languages including Tagalog (on which ...

I'm reminded by a hasty remark by a friend of a friend whose family have lived here in the US for the past 25 years.  She got so surprised at the idea of me teaching Tagalog on tutorial basis. She didn't ask about other details, but from the look of her eyes, she found the idea so disconcerting.  She's also from the Philippines, and their generation still speak the kind of Tagalog that's deep and respectful in tone (you'd know they speak their Tagalog in that particular manner by their age, certainly....noted for being deferential, kinda slow, & reserved); unlike the Tagalog that I've always known to be "Taglish (Tagalog & English combined or some say "conyotic"---don't know how to put the right N, if you know what I mean)," clipped and fast, without the "ho, po, opo, oho," & in a style that's notably as being from Manila as described once by a dear Visayan friend who remarked that Tagalogs speak Tagalog with a d...

I remember this ad to be last Coke ad I've seen on local Philippine television prior to my leaving for the US in the start of 2nd quarter of 2006. It has that certain quaint appeal that's not difficult to miss. Of course, it's a TV commercial, and an apparently, very effective marketing material at that, without trying too hard, but a bit sweaty pie-ish in delivery (sigh! what can I say about good looking people who are smiling a lot, enthusiastically, and with lovely looking eyes from those joining the crowd, and the smooth flow of moments in this brief ad!)...I could be not among its targeted audience, but I nevertheless can sense its alluring quality. I also know from my knowledge about Manila that this ad was shot somewhere in Binondo, or Sta Cruz.  Being a Tagalog tutor in a country other than the Philippines, I can see some other special things about the use of Tagalog in the ad. And in this analysis-of-a-response, I understood something in Tagalog, and I'm desc...