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Basically naman pala e.

Basically ka jan!

Mukhang kagalang-galang na ako ngayon, mga tol. Sa galaw at salita. At pag sinumpong, pati sa suot. Pero di ako ganito mula pagkabata. Me panahong astang lumpen ako bok. Siga sa suot at salita. Pati sa gawa kung kelangan.

Tibak kasi ako nung kabataan ko, at marami akong barkada na ganundin. Kahit galing kami lahat sa uring petiburgis, talagang itinulak namin ang sarili na bumabad sa masa, at umastang masa. Maski minsan e O.A. na, at wala sa lugar.

Ganun kami nun ng mga barkada ko. Puro barumbadong maka-masang intelektwal-kulturati-kuno. Sipilyo, twalyang Good Morning, bolpen, at pang-Grade 6 na notbuk. Yun lang halos ang baon namin, pwede nang bumabad sa purok-iskwater. Continue reading “Basically naman pala e.”

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I’ve decided to invent my own krazy kalligrafi

Krazy kalligrafi

That’s it! I’m through with all these debates on Philippine orthography, whether to use P or F. I’m inventing my own krazy kalligrafi! (Or is that kalligraphi?)

I mean, why should I be forced to follow a decision whether to use F as in Filipinas instead of P as in Pilipinas to reflect the faithful truth about our nationhood, or at least about its original name? Will genuine land reform and national industrialization proceed in earnest, and will we stand prouder in the eyes of other nations, if all 95 million Filipinos (or is that Pilipinos) agree to use F or P? Continue reading “I’ve decided to invent my own krazy kalligrafi”

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So I speak weird English. So what?

IRAIA thoughts
IRAIA thoughts

Some years back I attended a lecture on world English. The lecturer gave a very interesting presentation, with many insights that woke up a monster inside me from its long slumber. The presentation was about a study by Evelyn Nien-ming Ch’ien, when she was Assistant Professor of English at the University of Hartford.

The lecturer (whose name I still need to retrieve from my archives) quoted extensively from Ms. Ch’ien’s monumental 352-page work, which celebrated world English by tagging it as weird English. Explained simply, weird English is non-native English, which typically drops many of the arcane and complex rules of English grammar so that its non-native speakers can comfortably express their own cultures. Continue reading “So I speak weird English. So what?”