PinoySpeak in Signey language

The last time I saw Richard was also the first time I saw him, Richard being Richard Signey, the fledgling theater actor and not having anything to do at all with the Joni Mitchell song "The last time I saw Richard."

Signey, who must be around 28 years old, is a former financial analyst who did time with the big multinationals, until he decided to chuck it all for–Signey language.

Aside from appearing in two plays produced by different outfits late in 2003 and well into the new year, as well as commuting to and from his hometown of Baguio to help in the family construction and real estate business, Signey does the round of seminars on Pinoyspeak, comprising assorted oddities and distinctly Filipino usage of the English language, as culled from the accidental researcher’s different travels abroad where there is a Pinoy in practically every nook and cranny touched by the four winds, from Brunei to Morocco to Istanbul.

"What’ll you have?" Signey’s manager Bibsy Carballo asks us as we sit at a table one evening at Café Adriatico.

"Kahit ano lang."

"One of these days, I’m gonna set up a restaurant, and list kahit-ano-lang on the menu," Signey says.

It so happens that Malate is one of the places where Signey makes standby, the other being Greenbelt, Makati. Lately, though, he’s been pre-occupied with rehearsals, for the Gantimpala-produced Grethology where he plays the Greek god Ares (the play returns to the stage next month), and for Dramatis Personae’s Butterflies are Free, where he plays a minor but pivotal role and "cannot hide behind song-and-dance," in which movie version starred Goldie Hawn perhaps before Richard was born.

For Signey, his entry into theater seemed like a natural progression. "But not once did I say, ‘I want to be an actor’‚ though I would regularly watch plays on Broadway and enjoyed watching the actors."

It was while working in New York City that he fell in love with the place, which he says has character rather than quaintness, a city that derives its energy from the immigrants, a place that is all about the struggle of people trying to make the American dream into a reality.

And so he admits that Manila, too, is like that, a city with dirt and grime and dust and character.

Part of his interest in Pinoyspeak –he also teaches part-time a course in English as a Foreign Language in Languages International, Makati –comes as much out of his desire for self-expression as from his encounters with various kababayans worldwide, where Pinoys are instantly recognizable as soon as they open their mouths to speak.

"It’s not difficult to look for Filipinos abroad–just go to the nearest church," Signey says, as he recalls having once spent Holy Week in Brunei and, feeling so homesick, just went to church–it wasn’t even Catholic–only to find several other lonely Filipinos there. It is in itself an anecdote on the innate Pinoy religiosity and devotion.

Or, if not a place of worship, then a karaoke joint, which cannot be less devoid of fervor whenever Pinoys are around.

"If Latin Americans learn to dance before they learn to walk, I think Filipinos learn to sing before they learn to walk," Signey says of his countrymen’s love for the karaoke and videoke.

In his teachings of English as a second language to prospective overseas Filipino workers, Signey narrates how one student of his, a nurse, seemed to be in a hurry to go to London to join her "papa".

" ’So your father is already there ahead of you,’ I told her, but she replied, ‘No, I mean my boyfriend’," he relates.

The word "papa," he says, no longer even refers to just sugar daddy, like in the old days, but to any lover who is also a good provider, or provider who is a good lover. Whatever.

"Even the expression ‘I’ll go ahead’‚ has a different connotation among Pinoys. Because it is normally used if the person who will follow will be going to the same place, but for Filipinos, it means they’ll go ahead to different directions."

It is, like many examples of Pinoyspeak, a transliteration of "mauna na ako".

Signey also cites the term "deadma" which, he theorizes, is short for "dead malice" or transliteral "patay malisya," and thereafter "patay-mali" or poker-faced. Ah yes, the never-ending evolution of language, much like global warming, the greenhouse effect, or the matrix.

The matrix, you say? Language, in a sense, can be a separate, virtual reality, with occasionally inter-secting points of reference, such as a Filipino in Britain trying to look for loo roll in a comfort room, or CR for short.

Talk eventually drifts south-wards, as in the southern hemisphere, and how one traveler was excited at the prospect of witnessing the direction of water in a flushing toilet, going opposite its direction in the northern hemisphere.

"Maybe the clocks should also be going backwards," Signey volunteers, since the seasons go counter-clockwise south of the equator.

Another topic of interest is Pinoyspeak in Spanish, such as the words resulta (actually a verb) versus resultado (noun), or alminario (closet) versus aparador (china cabinet). In fairness, a wealth of examples can be found in Chabacano, the pidgin Spanish spoken in Zamboanga and parts of Cavite, and for which major research could be in store.

There are other word borrowings for Pinoyspeak, as evidenced by the fact that there is no lumpiang shanghai in China, and that garbage is not necessarily placed in a Bahasa palanggana.

Asked whether he has any plans to come out with a book on Pinoyspeak, Signey says if one does come out, it won’t be a serious and scholarly work.

"Not that like that academician who came out with a whole tome on the use of the hyphen," Signey says, almost in stitches.

We suggest that he guest in the NU 107 show of Jessica Zafra, where they can talk for an hour about film, maybe about "Temptation Island."

But since he’s busy with rehearsals, any imminent guestings are out of the question. Whereas, he doesn’t have to be an awardee to be able to speak his mind on anything under the tempting sun.

Whereas, he was disappointed to find out that bald-headed Mr. Clean is not a Pinoy original but a multinational symbol by Procter and Gamble.

Before the whole party evacuates from the freezing second floor to warmer al fresco surroundings downstairs, Signey shares his theory on Pinoy indolence: if only we can make the whole country air-conditioned, maybe we can be a first world nation in no time.

Much like the proposal of one candidate for president in the pre-martial law years. Not that Signey is running for president since he is underaged; what he wants is to get hold of a copy and read Jose Rizal’s essay for awhile, "The Filipino, a hundred years hence" to see how much the national hero’s insights tally with the present matrix of our interesting times.