Seeing Red

The gist of it is that you'd be branded as the town leper.


Sore eyes---Conjunctivitis if you'd like to come off like one of those pompous sorts who always insist on using  "Photocopy" instead of the very proletarian "zerox"---can really hurt you in many ways. And I'm not talking about waking up in the morning feeling as if your eyeballs are about to pop out of their sockets like that disgusting film sequence in Gov. Schwarzenegger's Total Recall. 





Like getting stuck inside a bus in a 4 hour trip with  no possible means of stopovers, and it hits you: A subtle tingling sensation at the very core of your stomach; nudging, even playful at first., like a fart that's itching to get out as silently as possible. Then a sudden gut-wrenching pain that demands your full attention. And you're barely 45 minutes into the trip.


At first I thought it was just your average, shampoo-irritated red eye after bathing. I mean how would I know? The handbook says you'd have to wake up with your eyes sealed off by a disgusting sticky discharge with enough adhesive strength to repair broken vases. I went off to work thinking it'd just disappear like most of my bathroom mishaps. When a colleague commented on the grounds for termination because of smoking grass, I knew I was in trouble.



That the damned things stated itching only confirmed it. Before you know it, everyone starts telling you to go home lest you contaminate the workplace and spoil everyone's great time. Fine, it gives a sort of notoriety and fame that can't be achieved by endless preening and name-dropping like most guys at the office do, anyway. 


The eyes are the windows to the soul. 


I'm using tobramycin to heal my soul.

Proficiency

I recently had a lengthy discussion in Facebook with a cousin based in the US about the medium of instruction to be used on schools in the Philippines. It started with a status message I posted about a local TV program that featured a debate whether to use Filipino or a combination of Filipino-English in selected subjects. It was an interesting topic and allowed me to discuss my stand about most Filipinos's fascination and awe with English-speaking people. Hence the disturbing practice of forcing children to learn a foreign language at an early age where proficiency for their own tongue is still in the developing stage. What you'd eventually end up with is a person who's neither good at both and grasping at straws as far as clearly communicating what he wants to communicate properly. And it doesn't help that the so-called English "teachers" who guide the said children have neither the aptitude nor skill in English to effectively train people in the first place.

The explanation was so long I figure I may as well have blogged it.

The conversation in its entirety:

Roman: Interesting debate on Mel and Joey tonight about whether to just stick to Filipino or Filipino-English combination as the medium of instruction in schools. I think that's a very minor problem considering the guest science teacher they have at the show defined 'photosynthesis' as the green component in plants.

Jing: Roman, what's your take on this? (just curious hehe)

Roman: Personally I'd go for Filipino as the medium of instruction in our schools. And by that I mean teachers can explain their subjects in the language they and their students have no problem relating to or understanding. The debate has sparked an extreme form of mentality that references Gestapo-like directives that seem to constrict the use of language exclusively for only the medium chosen. As if foreign and common terms that do not have Filipino counterparts cannot be uttered in class anymore because, like the naysayers have been saying all along, it is not Filipino. Like mathematical concepts that have no known Filipino counterparts---specially complex subjects like Trigonometry or Calculus. But I came from a science high school and one of the best Trigonometry teachers there was able to explain and make us understand the difficult concepts in the subject because he explained the most difficult points and related it to their practical/realistic applications in our local dialect. 

I am no expert when it comes to Linguistics but the difficulty I see and have observed with imposing an English-only policy in some subjects is that 99% of the time, the teachers themselves have no command or aptitude whatsoever in that language. And 'Filipino' itself does not automatically mean 'Tagalog' either. It is a lot more dynamic than people think. If the boo boo above is any indication, I'm sure the teacher knows what 'photosynthesis' means. But look what happens when she explains it in a language that requires her to exert an additional effort just to get her point across. Now imagine that scenario in a classroom setting filled with bored and uninspired students. English is good, no doubt, but I think it should be a supplementary resource instead of the glorified entity people perceive it to be. And there is the mistaken idea that Filipino is limiting. On the contrary, it allows more freedom for teachers to express themselves better than when they are strictly adhering to an English -only policy during class hours.

Big talk about Filipino and here I am explaining myself in English right? True. But school has very little to do with this than my parents (your uncle specially), comic books, and television. I even sucked at grammar when I was in school. The thing is, before I started with this 'inglisan' crap I devoured hundreds of Pinoy komiks, endless reruns of Dante Varona, Lito Lapid and Chiquito movies on Channel 13 and Eat Bulaga. All before I even started first grade. The only reason I gravitated to English materials is because I wanted to read The Fantastic Four and understand what the hell Darth Vader was saying to Luke Skywalker on Cloud City.

Jing: Very well thought of and perfectly written :) I am glad I asked your take on this subject since I am not fully aware of what the debate is all about. I do not think converting the language of instruction to Filipino is limiting; learning EVERYTHING in English is limiting. As a health care worker here in U.S. it is (almost) embarrassing that I cannot translate medical procedures and anatomy in my own language.It would have been great to learn proper Filipino terminology, that would have saved me from explaining to my co workers my inability to properly and effectively translate..tsk tsk tsk..Thanks Roman.

Roman: Salamat Ate Jing. I don't think its your fault for not literally translating certain medical terminologies and jargons to Filipino. I doubt if there are literal translations of most of those in Filipino, anyway. And secondly, you are geographically located in a place where English is the dominant language. Of course you have to adapt. You see, the point is not the blow by blow literal translation of terms---that seems to be what everybody is so focused on when it comes to this topic---but the CLARITY of the message with which you wish to convey to the person you're talking to. 

It has always been about clarity and ease. If you can teach mathematics and science comfortably without worrying that someone will report you for not "ispokening ingglis" during class hours, then good for you and your students. Just because the textbooks are in English does not mean you can't discuss productively using Tagalog, Bisaya or whatever dialect you happen to find yourself belonging to. Just because you watched a Hollywood movie with friends does not automatically mean you should discuss the merits (or lack of it) of the film in English. You say "Hanep talaga lightsaber duel nina Darth Maul, no?" and not "Ang ganda ng ilaw-na-espadahang eskirmahan nina Darth Maul." Not only is the latter statement annoying and stilted, but that's how the majority of Pinoys view the topic of using Filipino as a medium of teaching. I think you get the drift of what what I'm trying to say.

It's also the reason why you react more strongly to "PUTANGINA MO" than "YOU SONOFABITCH."

There's just something about your own language that sticks and refuses to leave when spoken to you.