From The Province

There was this temporary feeling of relief and liberation after I posted something in Cebuano. But somehow, I felt guilty. Plenty of my blog friends could not understand what I was writing. Lost in translation, as Sexy Mom puts it.

I remembered when I was in college my sister had this visitor from Manila. She was staying overnight at our house and we had this lively conversation about many topics.

We called her Ate, as she was 6-8 years older than me, and that’s how the young people at a youth camp called her also. In the middle of our conversation she suddenly asked me, “Ba’t ang galing mong mag tagalog?”

Toink! I was shocked. Right then and there I could no longer find my line. Somewhere across the table my sister was laughing. “Natanga si Manoy.” Ate laughed also.

I told her that we have Filipino subjects at school and we also watch tagalog movies. Cebuanos find it difficult to speak tagalog probably because of the soft tone. Medyo matigas ang dila ng mga cebuano.

Or it could be due to attitude. There is this regionalistic pride. Most of my classmates then hated Filipino subjects. I just don’t know exactly the reason why. Even us cebuanos don’t know much about our own dialect. There are many shortcuts and slang, and the grammar is unstructured. It is really easier to learn tagalog than learn any other dialect.

When I was already working, I had this colleague before na nainis sa speaker who introduced us as from the province. “Why can’t he just say that we’re from Cebu Office or Davao Office?”, she complained. But I kept mum on it. We Filipinos still have that regionalistic attitude. Most of the time, that attitude is a hindrance to our growth as a nation.

When you say that a person is a Bisaya, or Illongo, or Kapampangan, or Tausug, or Waray, or Bicolano, what comes to mind is not really the dialect, but the traits associated to the region they belong. But I just want to see the day when we think of ourselves as Filipinos and as one nation. And the politicians, would not just think of representing their regions or provinces, but uphold nationalism.