talk a lot of drama nowadays in a couple yahoogroups i lurk in. i know. i'm in those caves again. they're fun. ahahahaha. learning can't always be serious.

it's interesting because i get to watch how writers here in the u.s. fight over what they believe versus how writers in the philippines post what they think is important - coz replies and discussion seem to be rare that second yahoogroup. i think. i haven't been around either group to really tell. but the things participants in the second group let cross over the e-mails are indication enough of what lurks in their minds that everyone should know about.

no, this isn't just malicious eavesdropping - ok, so it's a more innocent form. it's an interesting experience to cross from one group to another - i have to remind myself where the writer is coming from.

there is a piece by butch dalisay on how, in the shores, english isn't just a language, closely followed by filipino-american academics insisting that books are far from neutral resources; knowledge is always written by the one left standing after a war, any type of war. that's why it distresses them that certain organizations are sending what they consider junk material to small towns in the homeland, furthering colonial mentality. after a couple readings about this issue, i finally got it. dammit, i said to myself. how come it's so hard to see?

somehow that argument morphed into the views and uses of english itself as a language. the latest is an essay on how english is used as a service tool to the burgeoning call center industry in the homeland. that, and the hairsplitting agendas raised by academese, plain and classroom english used in, well, classrooms and e-mail groups.

filipinos in the philippines think of english as a foreign language, not a second language on equal footing as filipino (based on tagalog), or their regional tongues. (for hyperbole, one regional tongue each for every island. and then on that island, a variation every hour or so travel by flying jeepney.) language is an instrument, and you are for the better the more expertly you weild it.

filipinos elsewhere, particularly in the u.s., have no choice but to use it for discourse running the length of spectrums and horizons. we gotta be understood by filipinos and nonfilipinos who know of no other language but english. sometimes we use spanish to amicably work with clients and colleagues. language has a life of its own, so filipinos here have become adept at distinguising which type english to use for who.

everyone seems to ignore what's going on with the kids - they talk funny! but hell, what else is new. i think we like to keep it that way, though. ahahahaha. i guess that's why when my friend lorraine and i tried to schedule a day out at the movies, it took us all last year to decide when.

-- anong movie mo gusto?
--- uh, i dunno. the incredibles?
-- sige, the incredibles.
--- pa'no tayo pupunta dun?
-- susunduin kita, me car ako. ano cell mo?
--- eight seven one, three two six four.
-- sige, text kita. alis muna 'ko, help tulong sa dinner.
--- redundant yang salita mo!
-- oo nga, no!
--- nakakahawa.
-- ahahahaha.
--- uy, akin yang tawa.
-- oo nga, no! ahahaha!
--- ahahaha!  ¶ 2/28/2005 04:31:00 PM