Pinoy English guide: Amalayer, major major, weather weather, comfort room

The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn’t be any of this. — Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

First of all, this columnist wishes to disclose the fact that the so-called “Amalayer” girl — shown in the controversial Nov. 13 YouTube video in an altercation with a lady security guard at the Santolan Light Rail Transit (LRT) Station — was my college student last semester. In the video, she is shown berating a guard.

I was interviewed by TV5 for my reactions about this news — the hashtag #Amalayer has amazingly trended to the No. 1 spot worldwide for several days on Twitter and the student’s name trended globally to No. 4 at the start.

Even though it’s still over a month ‘til Christmas time, I sincerely wish my ex-student and the lady guard peace on earth and goodwill among themselves.

My advice? Let us try to keep our cool always and smile, whatever the circumstances. Count to 20 or 100 first before losing our temper.

On the issue of cyberbullying, I believe it happened in this case.

Yes, my former student was wrong to have raised a ruckus at a public place in response to the lady guard’s supposed infraction, but the zillions of Twitter, Facebook and other online attacks by haters seem disproportionate and uncalled for.

Ateneo Law School professor and TV5 resident legal analyst Atty. Mel Sta. Maria said: “But this (the student’s mistake) does not give any other person the license to humiliate and embarrass her with millions of people by posting the video…”

One of the questions the TV5 reporter Mon Gualvez asked me was: “How was her English?”  I replied: “In fairness to my former student, I watched the video and her English was grammatically correct. However, I still believe she could have sounded better if she didn’t use slang diction and if she wasn’t angry.”

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My student’s shouting “Amalayer” (from “I’m a liar”) reminds me of Venus Raj’s “Major Major” quip in the Miss Universe pageant, and also beauty queen Melanie Marquez’s supposed quote: “Don’t judge me because I am not a book.”

Like it or not, as I have been reminding my journalism and literature college students at La Consolacion College Manila — who I’ve required to only speak straight English in my classes — the English language has become part of Filipino culture and life. English is and shouldn’t be considered a “foreign” language in the Philippines.

Proof that English is already Filipino? I want to share some English words or phrases that we have colonized and thoroughly Filipinized with unique or funny twists in meaning. It’s like the Spanish word “bulsillo” for “pocket” which we have Filipinized into “bulsa” or the Filipinized Chinese Hokkien word “pala” meaning “to pay” (existing only in the Philippines and probably from the Spanish word “pagar”).

Here are some Filipinized English phrases or words:

Comfort Room or CR. Euphemistic Filipino equivalent of toilet, powder room or the British “loo,” “WC” and “washroom.”

Senatoriables and presidentiables. Senatorial or presidential candidates in election fiestas. Example: “Let us vote for only truly good senatoriables in 2013.”

Weather weather. Popularized by ex-President Erap Estrada to refer to the fickle vagaries of political fortunes.

Brown-out. This refers to power failure or what Americans would call a “black-out.”

Salvage. Instead of the original English meaning, “to save something,” I think the rightwing military or police in the 1970s used this word to mean summary or extra-judicial executions of people out of public view.

Jeepney. A Filipinized version of the US military jeeps used as public transportation in our cities ever since the end of Japanese military occupation.

Mosquito bite. I believe mosquitoes never actually bite, they just pierce our skin!

Long cut. Used in Filipinized English as meaning opposite of “short cut,” instead of using “the long way.”

Next next week. This Filipinized phrase refers to “the week after next week.”

Tuck out. Filipinized phrase meaning a shirt not tucked into pants, or untucked.

Main branch. Filipinized phrase referring to the “main office.”

You can never can tell. I heard a famous movie star say this, meaning “You can’t be sure.”

Super duper. Meaning “extraordinary.”

Hand carry. Meaning “carry-on luggage.”

Viand. Originally from the Spanish word “vianda,” meaning a dish served to accompany cooked rice in a Filipino meal.

Open the lights/computer or close the lights/computer. Derived from literal translations of the Tagalog “Buksan ang ilaw” or “Isara ang ilaw,” meaning “switch on lights” or “switch off lights,” or the computer.

Rubber shoes, slippers, step-in. Respectively meaning “sneakers or athletic shoes with rubber soles,” “sandals” and female footwear with straps in front.

Air-con. Air-conditioner.

Coke, Frigidaire or ref, Kodak, Xerox, Colgate. Respectively meaning “soft drinks” or “soda,” refrigerator, camera (or to take pictures if used as a verb, usually in Tagalog), to photocopy, toothpaste. 

Wet market. A public market with small peddlers or vendors retailing usually fresh foods like raw fish, squids, vegetables, meat and poultry from stalls.

Take-home. Referring to “take-out” food.

Officemates. Referring to co-workers or peers in work/office.

Captainball. The captain of a basketball team.

Holdupper. Crook engaged in armed hold-ups.

Bottomless. Here it means “refillable,” like in “bottomless iced tea.”

Traffic. This is a Filipinized word meaning “traffic jam” or “traffic congestion.” Instead of a noun, we use it as an adjective: “It’s so traffic!”

Feedbacks. Adding “s” to collective nouns to make them plural, such as “luggages” and “feedbacks,” is unnecessary.

Jejemon. SMS texting or Internet language w/c r popular in the Phils. LOL JK.

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