Topsy Turvy

I am a firm believer that language is a reflection of the people's culture. Just as the people of Nigeria have 34 different words for Green, Filipinos have a lot of words for Rice.

For the Pinoys out there, think about how many words we have for rice? From Palay to Bahaw, we've got it all covered. Just to show you foreigners that rice is life. In a lot of SEA countries, the word rice is the same as the word eat. In Tagalog, Kanin and Kain don't sound so dissimilar.

As you know, I am currently studying Spanish in preparation for my trip to Spanish. It's actually harder to learn a language that is very similar to my own. What made retaining German hard was its similarity to English. I still have difficulty switching from English to German, but it's a cinch from German to Tagalog, because the languages are so different. I suspect that I will have the same difficulties with Spanish and Tagalog.

I have to get over the fact that in Spanish, Almozar means lunch, not breakfast, that my casa has four paredes, not pader, , that the accent of panaderia is at the "ia ," and not at the "pa."

But what really blows me away is that most of the verbs that Tagalog adopted from Spain are in the third person singular, which is the way Spanish issues its imperatives! I participated in one of Carlos Celdran's tours, and I was struck by something he said: That Filipino street food is a cuisine of tira, or leftovers, a slave's meal. I was struck by the fact that while Alipin seems to be a Malay word, Amo, or Master, is Spanish.

I can imagine how Tagalog picked up certain words because these were the only Spanish words that the poor muchachos picked up, from the orders of their masters. Puede became Pwede. In Visayan, Saka means to climb, which is of course the third person singular of, guess what? Sacar. Cierra? Sara. Sigue? Sige!

I am not begrudging the Spanish for not teaching us the language. I thank them for it because they preserved Tagalog, a very interesting mix of Malay, Chinese, Spanish, and English. What has been done has been done, and I am grateful for the variety they introduced to my language. I actually damn the Filipinos that followed. For all our words for rice, they have failed us by failing to implement Land Reform and actually have our country self sufficient enough to minimize imports. For a country that eats rice morning, noon, and night, we need to import 90 % of our rice, and we are currently at the mercy of ballooning rice prices.