Nakakahiya Ka
So yesterday I attended the mandatory orientation for new international students before school started on Monday (Tuesday for me). I really wasn’t expecting to meet any Filipinos as I was fully aware that most Filipinos who arrived on American soil were either tourists or immigrants, and not on student visas. There I was with a group of foreign people the same skin color I had awaiting the instructor who would take us to our venue. There was this one girl whose eyes met mine and we smiled at each other. I then asked her "So where are you from?" and she goes "Philippines." Hah! Would you imagine my delight to have met someone at the beginning of the day?
During the orientation, we received an abundance of information. Not quite overwhelming just yet, but I did have to keep up with writing the things down. She and I were looking around the room to see faces of other Asians, mostly Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, and Japanese, wondering if there were other Filipinos there. And while we were having lunch and chatting away, one girl comes up to us and says, "Pilipino mo?" How very obvious that she was Bisaya, I thought to myself. Of course we were all chatty catching up on what our majors were, and how long we’ve all been in the country, and what visas we had when we entered. You know, the basics. Both of them already had a bachelors degree from the Philippines and both entered the US as tourists who applied for student visas after their extension AND were both taking the road to nursing. I had a completely different story - left in my sophomore year, dependent of a working visa, psychology major. It was cool.
The only problem was: they talked in Bisaya nonstop. The first girl I met was from Cagayan De Oro, but we were speaking to each other in Tagalog the whole time. The second girl, who started the conversation with her unintentional Visayan question was from Cebu. I really had no trouble understanding what they were saying because I’ve been hearing that same dialect for almost five years that I’ve lived in Cebu. But what I did realize was that my Visayan Dictionary and Grammar were quite rusty. Oh I could easily speak in Visayan phrases, I can still understand the basic conversational ruels and syntax and where to put the accents and whatnot, but when I have to say 3 or 4 sentences, one after the other in Bisaya, I end up grammatically challenged. Come on and give me a break, I haven’t heard anyone speak the dialect in almost 5 years since I’ve been here.
Of course I ended up talking in Tagalog for the most part. I know that was the solution all along, but the trouble with me (i think it’s just me) is that because I was so used to using the dialect myself, that when I hear people using it, I assume I can still speak the dialect with no trouble, forgetting that I am really not used to speaking it anymore. And yes, I was wrong to think I could still easily hold a Visayan conversation at a drop of a coin.
And as if that wasn’t enough. I made a complete doofus of myself when I was barok for a moment.
When asked, "Anong visa mo nung pumasok dito?" (spoken in Bisaya of course), I replied, "Etch four" Huh? Ano? Unsa? Leche! "H4," I said again, correctly pronouncing the "H." Ano ba yan, Laureen, pati ba naman inglis ang pangit mong sabihin. Kahiya lang. I wanted to hit myself.
And what a relief it was when "Ms. Cebu" had left because I was actually getting tired of my personal boo-boos. The great thing about that little chatty moment was that I did meet people from the Philippines, and meeting people from home is always a good thing.
