WTF! What Teaching Failure is this? Naa kuno’y Tourism Teacher sa usa ka inilang government university dinhi sa ato nga miingon sa iyang estudyante with a pronounced Jagna accent: better lose your accent while in Tagbilaran. Ang iyang rason? Kay taga-bukid ra kuno ang moingon ug “gajod.” Mao ba, Ma’am? Wa ko kahibawo taga dis-a ning maestraha, but this is what I would like to tell her: 1. It was only around 1992 that we found the courage and enlightenment to accept the fact that we have our own unique Boholano way of expressing our language. This was after the Torralba administration put up signs at the pier announcing “Maajong Pag-abot!” At first there were embarrassed murmurings. We have been taught for generations the Cebuano version of Binisaya was superior to any other variations, so we were taught to be ashamed of our real selves and tried to imitate the Cebu way of speaking. But in the year the pier sign was put up people started to realize,”Why not? Why should we be ashamed of who we really are?” From that time on, our sense of cultural identity soared, AND WE HAVE NOT LOOKED BACK EVER SINCE, thanks God. So, Ma’am, dili ni jaga-jaga; dili ang nag-Binol-anon ang backward. Maybe your teaching IS Jurassic. 2. Taga-bukid ba ang mo-ingon ug “gajod?” Unsa diay ang sakto- gayod? Kinsa’y nag-ingon, taga-Cebu? Why should we let outsiders teach us how to express our culture? In all my classes in Cultural Heritage Tourism development, I always tell my students: Culture is our own unique way of doing, thinking, speaking, etc. ; culture is part and parcel of our identity; there is no such thing as superior culture because every culture is unique and valid within its parameters. Lastly, since Cultural Heritage Tourism aims at providing travelers with up close experience in the culture of a place, we locals should endeavor to provide visitors with exposure to what we are and really are, not to what we are not. 3. “Angay Ika-uwaw ang mosulti ug gajod?” Why should we feel shame? Shame for your information is a feeling emanating from the realization that one had done something immoral, from having violated the Moral Law. The “j” sound may grate against your sense of aesthetics but definitely, it does not violate any of the Ten Commandments. Jamo jod, Ma’am. 4. I have nothing against Cebuano. This is our mother language. I love to hear our people speaking good and upright English, but I take greater pleasure in hearing our young people speak their own language, our own dialectal variation. Sometime ago, when I was asked to critique the musical production of the cultural collective of Punta Cruz, Maribojoc( the play was about life during the piratical raids of the 18th century) I insisted that they use their endemic Maribojoc accent. Ingon sila, “Lain man paminawon, sir.” Akong gitubag, “ Mas lain paminawon kon mogamit mo’g tono sa taga-Mambaling imbis nga taga-Maribojoc.” Mao ni, Ma’am. To paraphrase our beloved Dr. Jose Rizal, “ Ag mauwaw molitok sa kaugalingong sinultihan,ubos pa sa bitok ug isdang kina-anghitan.”
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 04:56:33 +0000
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