Sunday, May 04, 2008

Taglog Pangako Or Not

I am so jealous of this little girl I found on youtube who can speak Tagalog better than me. That's not such a huge feat, but if you take into account that I'm in my 20s and she's in her fours, it is a little embarrassing. What's even cooler is that she's a Ukrainian-Canadian baby who was adopted by a Filipino family in Canada. So take that, me!

But, oh how she's just the cutest thing in the world. She reminds me of how much I miss my little cousin when she was four. My cousin had the cutest voice with a slight lisp which made her so cute (I'm oozing cute thoughts right now). She would call me Kuya (0f course) and one time started calling her own mother Tita because she heard me and my bros call her that. Then my tita would be all "Anak, don't call me tita. Call me Mommy".

Good times.

Anyway, I realized a couple of things from this video. Even though I'm relatively young to be thinking of having my own family, I realized that I'd be perfectly happy with adoption. Color doesn't matter. I know I can genuinely have feelings for a child who's not my own blood. Plus, blood is overrated.

Secondly, I think I'm going to start speaking Tagalog at home. Sure, my family speaks English to each other, but my mamay (grandpa, but in reality great-grandpa) does not. He's really old and it would be great if I can tel my mamay to stop dancing or tell him a joke or ask how he hid from the Japanese during the second world war. I see it all the time-- Americans who can communicate with their older relatives. Why can't I?

The first thing though, is I have to get over how stupid I may sound sometimes. I can sound decent when I say things like "Na saan sila Daddy?" or " Give me the remote. Tumotulog ka lang." Basically, it's pidgin Taglish. But I think I'm going to start trying to form sentences, regardless of how much of a manok I sound like. If I combine that with English Tagalog dictionaries, I think I'll be fine.

We'll see what happens. I have made so may promises like this before. Plus, I would like to be able to talk to relatives in the Philippines who live in the bukid/country-side. Some live in Manila, and they speak English, but I would love to joke around and be relaxed in the bukid.

Ciao. (God, I can't stop watching this cute little girl speak Tagalog!)


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