#ngani

[rehabmusik]

Neasy Beatz ft Tamarsha - Ngani

Neasy Beatz ft Tamarsha – Ngani

Neasy Beatz ft Tamarsha – Ngani :Soweto’s extraordinary Producer/Artist Neasy-Beatz drops a brand new single “Ngani”. (more…)

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[deeper-authentic]

Nahuhulog ka na sa kanya, biglang biro lang pala lahat.

[oppositionaldefiant]

Puntong Marinduque

I was hanging out at my relatives’ place in Sampaloc, Manila yesterday relishing the free Wi-Fi when I read this Facebook status from a certain John Seigfred Manzanares appeared on my TweetDeck which goes something like “kayamot ang taong trying hard mag english... kabanas ang grammar... >.<” (translation: “pipol hu trying hard speaking in English are annoying coz they are wrong grammar”...pun intended). Since I agree with him, I liked his status and posted a comment saying it’s true, and since I’m also an a-hole with nothing much to do at the time, I compared Filipinos who try hard to speak in English with Marinduqueños who try hard (or don’t) not to speak in their native dialect (Seigfred is from Marinduque himself and I’m actually a former tambay in Mellec, their internet cafe in Murallon). The comversation (comment conversation; see the snapshot below for details) that followed actually inspired me to write this post.

Being the papampam bastard that I am, I posted a new status on Facebook to promote this entry last night (see snapshot below). I was flattered at the number of people who actually agree with me, but then there were those who posted the 4th and 5th comment to express their disapproval.

Person 1 (Jake Marciano Llamas) said I get annoyed at people from Marinduque who talk to me like I met them in college because I actually am like these people (he however, texted a while ago that he just felt like saying that). Person 2 (Jason Albriggs Calayo), on the other hand agreed with Person 1, saying “baka nga” rather than the more Marinduqueño “baka ngani”.

So why do I really dislike my kababayans who speak as if they are not from Marinduque? Let me explain why, but first, a disclaimer. Please allow me to continue writing this entry in English because as much as I enjoy blogging in Filipino, English is still my first language in creative writing and thus I express myself more effectively and creatively using the language our high school teachers made us pay dearly (both literally and figuratively) for not speaking. I still promise to speak (and comment!) to my fellow Marinduqueños in our language, though.

Since it’s hard to keep typing “people-from-Marinduque-who-don’t-speak-Marinduqueño” all the time, let me borrow a term introduced by a friend and (almost former) blockmate Denis Policar back in 2008. Apparently, there is a word in the Cagayan Valley for people who speak and act as if they lived in Manila all their life and that word is pangas. For the purpose of this blog entry, I will refer to people-from-Marinduque-who-don’t-speak-Marinduqueño (I just copy-pasted this) as pangas.

So why do I really have a thing against pangases (I just made up this plural form). Does this have anything to do with my being matangmayaman (see Matangmayaman blog)?

In a curious way, yes.

What I notice in many, if not most of my pangas fellows is their subconscious denial of their home province. When asked by a college where they live, they would give their address in Metro Manila rather than saying “I’m from Marinduque. It’s actually in South Luzon, near Palawan and Mindoro. It’s not found in Mindanao, that’s a common misconception.” These people would rather save themselves the trouble of having to explain where in the Philippine map Marinduque is located and give their friends a free lesson in geography and in the process sound very smart, than be labelled poor and promdi (which I believe isn’t at all a bad thing). Some pangases are able to explain where Marinduque is but get ashamed because of people not knowing where it is in the first place, or with other stuff that has to do with Marinduque, such as the fact that it used to be the second poorest province in the Philippines (I forgot the first) and that Filipino sex tape king Hayden Kho is a kababayan.

While there are pangases who treat Marinduque as people from the Book of Genesis did Sodom and Gomorrah, there are those who say “mahal ko nga ang Marinduque e.” in front of their native dialect-speaking peers. While their claim may be true, they fail to show it through their speech. These people are usually those of the more affluent sector of the province. The Gossip Girl cast (see Matangmayaman) of Marinduque who have experienced life in the city and lived it to their fullest. And like the expensive cocktail they drink almost every night, metropolitan speak deposited its taste in their tongues – the hangover being eternal.

With the two types of pangas, it’s quite easy to see that one of the reasons I despise them is their lack of provincial pride. I can now see the guilty ones commenting that I’m just being judgmental.

Pangases are living things, too. They have the ability to adapt to their environment and respond to possible threats. I once posted a status in all capitals expressing my annoyance towards Marinduqueños who no longer speak their semi-dialect on Facebook (snapshot unavailable). One kababayan responded saying “dapat marunong din tayong makibagay.” (translation: we should also relate with the rest of the Philippines), which is true. I, too, don’t want other Filipinos thinking people from Marinduque have a world of their own or something. HOWEVER, pakikibagay is only applicable with non-Marinduqueños and with that kind of argument, not speaking Marinduqueño with people from Marinduque is a form of alienation. If we can relate with others, why the heck can’t we relate with our own?

I also had this sort of argument two years ago with a friend who spent the better part of her summer vacation attending review classes for the college entrance exams she would take. She came back speaking Manileño (nothing against people from Manila but I’m going to use this term to refer to the standard Filipino language) despite people talking to her in Marinduqueño because “nasanay na ako dito e”, and yes, she’s from the Upper East Boac. I didn’t buy what she said and I couldn’t explain why at the time but now I can. I just recently learned that language is developed at 7 years of age and that learning multiple languages “could cause confusion for the child especially when it comes to construction of sentences” (J.U. Soriano, 2009 as cited by D.S.Y. Escano, personal communication, April 2010...TAMA BA ANG CITATION FORMAT KO???). So unless she’s actually six years old when she was reviewing for the ACET, she shouldn’t have any trouble learning and relearning her native language the same way she learned (and relearned) to speak coño in her school.

On top of everything, I think so lowly of pangases because they, with what they’re doing, slowly eradicate a huge part of our province’s culture. More and more Marinduqueños are speaking in Manileño fluently and naturally in their own province. In some areas, only the elders speak mandin, ngani, yano, and baya. There might come a time when a recorded conversation between two people speaking in Sta. Cruz-style Marinduqueño could cost thousands of pesos. Imagine a museum two scores from now shelling out millions for an mp3 file that plays a dialogue like this one:

“Ay yano parihin, saan ka galing kanina?”

“Ay ako mandin ay naggapas ng damo. Nagtikangkang pa ngani ako dyan sa may tubigan ay.”

“Ay inaha ka naman. Ay di kainaman ang putik mo nyan. Ay nasaan yung sinuot mo?”

“Ay naro’n mandin sa lamugan. Napigtal pa ngani yung butones kaya nilagyan muna ng gapat.”

“Ay yano ka na! Anong luko mo baya!”

“Mandin pa. Hala ay inom na laang kita.”

“Ay sya sige, tarine na ay.”

Despite feeling out-of-place sometimes, I actually admire my Bisaya and Kapampangan friends who speak their “alien language” even in Metro Manila, at the presence of non-kababayans. I am quite confident that their dialect would survive even after cockroaches become instinct. Now why can’t Marinduqueños do the same?

To my pangas fellows, I say this. If you want to run like hell away from Marinduque and never look back lest you want to turn into a block of salt, fine. If you want to try and love other cultures, go ahead. But please. PLEASE. Don’t let whatever you are doing be the cause of the dismemberment of a crucial aspect of our culture. I love Marinduque so much. And it’s not just annoyance per se that drives me to snort at a high school classmate’s Manileño. If you don’t want to receive similar tongue-lashings from me, at least speak our language when talking to me. I could care less if we’re in Metro Manila and with your friends who never knew you could speak a dialect. If you want to be cool, you’d fail big time if you don’t acknowledge where you came from. Kakaluko ka pa ay.