I'M SPEAKING IN ENGLISH! NOW GET OUT OF MY FACE ...ERRR...WAY!

English is surely a universal language. We, Filipinos are blessed that the language is in our educational system and being taught in school, giving us an edge over other nationalities. That's how we earned the third spot in the list of world's english speaking countries. Be it in media, academe and business world, english is the medium of instruction and communication. Koreans even leave their country for the Philippines just to study the language.

Back in my school days at LaCo, the teachers were very strict with the students that they required us to communicate with them in english. Should they hear us speaking in the vernacular, they would only send us out of the classroom. Believe it or not, my favorite subject back then was English. Same with the teachers, all of them were my favorites. But my liking to the language did not translate to high grades though. Still my grades were all average.

Funny thing is, here in the Philippines, to be articulate in english is being translated to being intelligent. If China, Japan and the US measure the intelligence of their students on their proficiency in Science and Math, here in Pinas, it's how the students understand, converse, and express themselves in English that earn them recognition and even high grades.

Not only that, english has been a tool as well in identifying as to which social status a person belongs. If a child speaks the language fluently as if it is his first language, undoubtedly his family is rich. If you hear teenage girls converse in english, the way Lindsay Lohan and Britney-hit-me-baby-one-more-time do, you will somehow conclude that they study in Assumption or Poveda or in any exclusive for girls schools only the rich can afford.
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Anyway, the reason why I'm talking about this, because, in various occasions, I had used my skill in speaking in English as my tool in rescuing myself from embarrassment or even intimidating others.

Flash back:

May 1995. It was my first time to leave for Manila. Together with my mother, we were aboard Princess of Negros ship. For some stupid reason, I lost mother in the ship, or was it the other way around? Good thing the ship was still in stationary, but ready to leave in 15 minutes as what the speaker had announced. So I was in panic. I was searching for mother anywhere inside a huge ship. I met two ladies who seemed to be well-off. I asked them in english. Not to impress them actually, but only to get their attention. I was asking where I could locate the pager so I could page mother. Then they referred me to somebody working in the ship. Still I spoke with him in english which obviously irritated him. Well, I could not blame him, aside from my voice getting shaky, i had already sabotaged my grammar. Out of nowhere: PAGING (MY NAME)! PAGING (MY NAME)! PLEASE PROCEED TO BLAH BLAH BLAH.....

Year 2000. I was looking for a job in Ortigas. My walk-in to various companies would only take me an hour or two, and I would spend the rest of the time at the Mall. Once very tired, I took a rest at Shangrila Mall's food court. I was so tired that I wanted to take a nap. And I did. Then somebody was giving me a tap on my shoulder. It was the guard. Boy bawal ang matulog dito (sleeping is not allowed here), telling me in his rude voice. Then I straigntened up, and said: I was not sleeping. I have been waiting for somebody for an hour already, that's why. Embarrassed, he just ignored me and left. I knew that I got him intimidated.

From then on, whenever I meet a guard and inquire something, if the guard looks maangas (rude), then expect me to do the first move to intimidate him - english lang ang katapat nyan! Like: I'm looking for the CR....where can I find NBS.....I'm looking for Mcdonalds...I'm looking for the cinemas. Di ba puro I'm looking ang script ko hehehe. And they will politely give me the direction, sometimes in english as well.

In 2003, I attended the press presentation of an international event (sorry can’t name it here) at the poolside of Intercon Hotel in Makati without encountering any 'security' problem. The following year, I wanted again to cover the event and photograph the delegates. I arrived at the Hotel early, and the press was not yet allowed to enter the poolside. I was not a member of the press, but with a little acting I could gatecrash. After some few hours, the guard gave us a signal that we were already allowed to go inside. I was first in line, confidently walking toward the poolside. Next to me was the Japanese press. All of a sudden: Sir san ID nyo? Press ka ba? San ang pass nyo? NaKa rigister ka ba?(Sir where’s your ID? Are you from the Press?) Oh shit! Now, time to unleash my acting talent. Pinsan ako ni Tamera! (I’m Tamera’s cousin)…. Sino si Tamera Sir? (Who is Tamera Sir?)....Yung delegate ng Pilipinas! (the country’s represenatative)… Sir suri press lang, di kayo pwidi! (Sir, sorry we can’t let you in, you are not from the press!).

Brilliant! I was asked to leave the poolside. It was only me who was denied entry. What an embarrassment. So, I was at the lobby thinking hardly of my next step. I looked around the area near the poolside, searching for a possible entrance. And I saw one. Shit! Another guard. I had to be very careful. I should enter the place unnoticed. I could not be invisible so what I did, I got my mobile phone out of my pocket, put it on my ear, and speak loudly: OH YES! I AM ALREADY HERE, JUST ON TIME. THE PROGRAM HAS NOT STARTED YET, BUT THE DELEGATES ARE ALL HERE ALREADY .....BLAH BLAH BLAH.... I was doing this as I pass by the guard. He was staring at me, but must have thought that either I was with the press or with the organizers. So there, I was able to join the event for the second time.
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Last May 2007, I had a verbal fight with the lobby guard here in our building. He refused me entrance, because I left my ID at home, so there’s nothing I could show him. My initial defense mechanism of course was to intimidate him with my english power. Sorry baby, the six foot guard was deaf to my english that he also used advantage of his size. This time my english did nothing to salvage me.
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Okay! if being good in english can intimidate some and can be used to size-up others, it has also its limitation. It can’t be of no help especially when the one you are talking with is so tall that you need to increase the volume of your voice to get heard or he’s not interested to listen to anything you want to say or worst if he’s deaf/acting deaf at all. For sure, given the said situations, your english is totally useless, so better back-off this time.

LOOK WHO'S READING.....

During the last weekend, I got so glued to Turning Angel by Greg Iles http://www.gregiles.com/, since I was scheduled to return the book to the owner come Monday (which is today).

It's not me to read a pocketbook, but this one is a suspense, and I'm one fan of suspense slash detective stories. Greg Iles was a complete stranger to me, but now he's someone I admire. An intelligent and talented writer who generously shares his gift through his books and this one is no exeption.

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Turning Angel is one page turner. Its complexity makes its reader not to settle for a pause until everything has been divulged and revealed. How the book narrates the issue on racism and its lurid touch on violence, sex and drugs surely make this book earn flak from the conservatives.

No doubt, I highly recommend this book to everyone.

LOOK GOOD FOR LESS

In the past couple of years, the word metrosexual has become a common word. A word kind of associated with football superstar David Beckham. If you are male and looks up at Beckham as somebody your model, and imitates his look, you can probably consider yourself metrosexual. The word is not really a big deal to me, but the look is. I'm no Beckham fan and I don't look up to him, only figuratively though - I’m 5’1”.

If you surf the net and find its meaning, you well get something like this: Macho man has bitten the dust. He's been replaced by something just as tough inside, but softer at the edges.

The metrosexual look is cool. Actually, it's just more on men's fashion, like the cut, color, design of the shirts and pants, and even accessories as well.

So am I metrosexual? No! Eventhough i like to have the look, my features don't allow it. I'm referring to my body frame and my built which is so light. Howevermuch, I wear shirts or pants similar to those I see on the boobtube or on prints, I still end up exactly not like one LOL. I remember buying pants with bootleg cut. The cut is so cool. Very cool, that almost every male at the mall wears the same cut. Since I am short, I had the pants altered. When it was altered, the bootleg cut part was removed and the pants never looked the same again. The bootleg jeans I bought turned into a straight cut jeans after the alteration. It was disappointing, but left me laughing.

It had sunk in me that fashion wise, I would never look like one. But I just did not stop there. What If working on my body. As I see around, Filipino men nowadays, even the teeners have really broad shoulders, toned muscles on their arms and abs. The muscles are not big like those of bodybuilders who basically put so much muscles on their chest, back, triceps and biceps.

In the second quarter of 2006, I enrolled myself in a gym near our place. I only wanted to broaden my shoulder, put a little muscle on my arms, abs, back, thighs, and calves. During the first few weeks, I was still enjoying my time in the gym. In the succeeding weeks, I realized that it's a sad place to be afterall.

The only gym equipment I used there were the treadmill, abs swing, and dumbbells. I did not aspire to lift those huge barbells, afraid of inflicting injury. My officemate who was also into gym advised me to avoid equipment which I think so heavy for my weight to avoid getting injured-internally and externally. My consolation though was the disappearance of my love handles, and my body got firm.

Another thing which I consider an irritation in the gym is the people there. The gym freaks. Those are the guys who show off what they can do inside the gym. They lift every heavy equipment. They can also be noisy, really try to get an audience. So if you are ‘weak’, you will get insecure of them. Either you will just sit at the side in silence and be their audience or compete with them in lifting all the heavy equipment to prove to them that you can give them a run of their money.

In my case, I was more concentrated on what the gym thing could give me back for the money I cashed out. I was more on the compensation and not on competing with somebody else. After three months, I decided to stop this nonsense. It was not working on me the way I had expected it. Yes, I lost the fats, but still dissatisfied.

After some months of not going to the gym, I went back to jogging every Sunday at the Makati Park. This was in the months of January and February 2007. I would wake up as early as 5:30 in the morning and walked my way to the Park, just a few blocks away from home. I would spend three hours there jogging and sometimes doing aerobics with the oldies.

Waking up so early on a Sunday was not really a good idea. I stopped my Sunday jogging, and waited for the Summer to go swimming. I’d always felt the need to get physical. In April, I discovered ULTRA swimming pool through online inquiry. Swimming is a good exercise and a good medium as well to sculpt your body. If you engage into this sport religiously, you will really get good shoulders and toned abs. Since swimming at ULTRA was so exposed to the sun, and getting burnt is the first thing you'd get before a toned body, I decided to shift to a night jogging after office.

To date, I have been doing my jogging twice a week at the ULTRA. There I meet a lot of athletes. Now, I can already distinguish the difference of an athlete's body to a gym freak's. That of an athlete's is well proportioned and toned all over, while those of a gym freak's is distributed. They have toned muscles only on the parts where they have concentrated their muscle -building or muscle-toning on. Sometimes, I get mean by laughing at those who have concentrated building their muscles on their top, and have totally forgotten their bottom. Have you seen a bullfrog? They look like one.

I have also learned, that going to a gym or simply doing exercise by yourself must have a certain program to follow. Learn your objective why you do it. Is it for body building or losing weight or just toning? You can never have them all incorported in just one act. You will only frustrate yourself. Like if you are fat and want to have a toned bod, you first follow a routine which will get rid of your unwanted fats before doing things that will tone your muscles. It's taking one step at a time.

For now, a 'metrosexual' bod is no longer in my mind. I have completely forgotten about it. In fact, It has never been a motivation why I have gotten hooked to jogging. All I want is a healthy, fit and well proportioned bod. I have totally brushed off the idea of going to the gym again, making me turned down the offers of my officemates to join them at Fitness First. Why spend big when you can have it for less.

TAKE A BITE!

I have this weird behavior of depriving myself of eating the food I really love: Shawarma, Tokneneng, and Siomai. Not that I cannot afford. In fact these are cheap food which can be bought anywhere. The reason why I put control over my cravings, is because I want to buy them in times I want to celebrate. Corny as it may sound, but these cheap food are what I feed my stomach on days I feel positive, light, or any emotion synonymous to being happy. They serve as my reward to myself.

Planning of eating them makes me excited. It's something I honestly look forward to.

I remember one charater in Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. There was this Muslim Merchant who became the employer of the lead character for a particular period. I cannot really put into details the scenario, since I read the book in 2003, and have forgotten most of what have been told in the story. Anyway, back to the Muslim Merchant, he kept on postponing his trip to Mecca. Albeit what he had was more than enough already for him to make the trip happen. The reason why he could not materialize the plan, was for him not to lose the dream of going to Mecca. Once he had gone to Mecca, life for him was not worth living for already. He had gotten not just a dream, but a life's aspiration. So what else to look forward to in the days to come.

Although I'm happy most of the time (I should), it doesn't mean, I buy these food often. As I have said, I put it on hold. Until the cravings can be likened to a volcano ready to erupt.

If I was not mistaken, since the year started, It must have been more or less five times (only) that I had eaten a shawarma. As for the Tokneneng, my mother knows that I love this so much, so once she gets in SM Ayala, she sees to it that she brings me home not one, but two pieces of duck egg and it only happens once in a blue moon. Siomai can be bought literally everywhere, even served during parties here in the office.

Another funny thing is, once I buy the food, I eat it slowly as possible. I don't want to finish it right away. Basically, I eat so fast. My officemate even joked to me If I used to be in the prison (knock on the wood), because I eat like an inmate. I eat literally fast, but eating a shawarma, siomai, and tokneneng is totally a different story. I enjoy every bite of it.

Shallow as it may seem, but it's definitely me.

A 'PRIZE' SUNDAY

We heard mass at GB yesterday. I think I really have to share the priest's homily, since it was full of substance.

The Gospel was taken from Luke 14:25-33 http://www.ewtn.com/vbible/search.asp?abbr=Luke&ch=14&bv1=25&ev1=33.

Now here comes the homily. The priest began his sermon with "In life there are two things that we will encounter inevitably. The prize and the price. Ang premyo at ang presyo". He elaborated "Be it in English or in Tagalog, the difference of the two words is only one letter".

He narrated to us his visits to his two priest-friends in different occassions. First was to his 93 year old friend who requested Crispy Pata as a present. Another one was to his 45 year old friend who declined other food except lugaw.

To analyze, the 93 year old priest, despite of his age can still afford to eat food considered by many as unhealthy. This is because during his younger years, he lived a very healthy lifestyle. Now, he is just enjoying his old age without feeling anxious about his health. For him, reaching 93 still physically healthy is just an added bonus, so he can eat whatever he wants. In contrast to the 45 year old priest, who is suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes and can only take lugaw as his food. He may have indulged in so many gratifying food, but were not exactly what his body needed during his youth, thus his health has to pay now for the price.

According to the Priest, the choice is with us. If we are to enjoy the prize (premyo) today and pay the price (presyo) later or 'endure' the price today and live life full of prizes later.

Jesus has modeled to us the right thing. He paid the price first by dying on the cross for our sins and claimed the prize later by giving us the enternal life he has promised us.

So how do we take our pick?

After the mass, we took lunch and watched first Disturbia and later Nancy Drew. The two films fall to the same genre. Suspense. The difference is the weight of suspense concocted in the films. Disturbia has more serious content compared to Nancy Drew which is obviously made for kids.

It was a happy and a blessed Sunday, indeed.

My brother sent me an SMS this morning. He said, that when they attended the birthday celebration of Mama Mary in Fatima, Portugal, last Sept. 8, he was chosen to be the flag bearer of the Philippines.