Taglish Redefined

when we hear the word taglish, "i wanna make tusok tusok the fishball" immediately comes to mind. i grew up making fun of that sentence. my teachers couldn't help but overemphasize the importance of speaking straight english or straight tagalog for that matter.

so, do you think that nothing can trump "tusok tusok the fishball?"

how about "mom, i'm gonna ligo?" or worse, "im ligoing."

during my first few days in canada, when my aunt was looking for my cousin, he replied, "im ligoing." i go, "what?! he's what?!" "he's ligoing. ligo-ing. as in taking a bath." whew... and i thought tusok tusok the fishball was bad.

yup. taglish definitely has gone on to a new level here. a whole new hybrid. gone are the rules. naliligo = ligo + ing. makes sense? maybe it does. maybe it doesn't. i hear words like, "you subo" to mean take a bite. "i wanna tulog" to mean i wanna sleep. "you kain the food" to mean... well you know what that means. and though i have strong objections to this kind of taglish, i have taken to speaking this kind of language to my kids in an attempt to teach them tagalog.

unfortunately, my kids did not get to learn the language when we were in manila. why they never learned it is beyond me. it's not that i don't speak tagalog. i do. my husband does too. but somehow, tagalog just didnt seem to funnel through them. and when we were in the philippines, the absence of tagalog words in their vocabulary didn't bother me one bit. neither did it bother anyone else.

so now, i am handed the difficult task of teaching them tagalog. and in my attempt to do so, i have utitilized the same method as above. you subo. you kain. i want tubig. lets tulog. little words. repeatedly. translating one word per sentence at a time in the hope of finally reaching the sentence tulog na tayo.

funny sounding words i gather have more recall with my kids. therefore no difficulty in teaching them kiliti sa kilikili. or you wanna face the dingding?

and while this kind of taglish has taught my kids to finally say, "gusto ko ng tubig," translating word for word is not the way to go. once i asked my daughter, "gusto mo ng isda?" she looked at me and i can see in her eyes that she had understood and was formulating her answer in her mind. after a moment, she smiled and proudly said... "hindi... ako... isda!"

enough said.