El Olvidado: Reintroducing Spanish to Fellow Filipinos
July 22, 2018
Spanish has captured my heart since the age of 10 years old. My forgetful mind can still remember how I pulled out the spine of a Spanish phrase book from our mini biblioteca /(library) at home and even tried to create a poetry, translating word for word.
This, however, was not pursued. Apart from not having a formal education, the yearn of a grade three-child to play outside prevailed. Long story short, it was just in the year of 2013 when I seriously got into Spanish. Numerous free courses were explored, Spanish books and other materials bought. In other words, I became obsessed to learn the language.
This didn't stop and eventually I created my YouTube channel where I teach basic Spanish. If I am in the mood, my Facebook status and tweets are in Spanish.
Many colleagues would ask me: Quine, what's with Spanish? Why are you so obsessed with it?
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| My photography in Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros when I was in third year in College |
We all have different advocacies in life. One may promote waste management, or adopt-a-pet, or helping street children...and I believe, mine is promoting the language to the Filipinos. I so want to help my fellow Filipinos to learn Spanish. I want to rip off their consciousness about the language, because this is a huge chunk of our identity!
Going back to the real question, why learn Spanish? Well, here are my 5 reasons:
- It is our identity and it will help us understand more of our past.
- It opens doors of opportunities to many Filipinos.
- One out of six Filipino words is Spanish. Why not learn the other 5?
- It bridges us to our hermanos in Spain and in Latin America.
- Spanish music, movies and dramas are all good!
Our Identity as Filipinos
As I previously mentioned, the Spain ruled the Philippines for 300+ years. Yes, history books taught that Spain abused us and took away of our wealth. Not justifying this, but that's just how all conquistadores were. Spaniards abused us. Japanese abused us. The Americans did. But this shall not inculcate to us the denial of our identity from our amigos.
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| From my stamp collections. A postage stamp in 1965 in commemoration of the 400th year of evangelization of Filipinas |
Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II, initially named Samar Felipinas and then proclaimed as Republica Filipina. During the Spanish era, Filipinos were treated "almost" like a Spanish province similar on how they governed Andalucia, Granada, etc. As a matter of fact, we were considered as Spanish citizens as stated in their constitution in 1812.
So tecnicalmente, if we classify ourselves as Filipinos, it is the acceptance and the recognition of Spain as a part of our identity. Otherwise, if you deny it, you may want to classify yourself as Indio...which nothing is bad being one.
In their three centuries of governance, no Filipino can deny the culture that runs from his blood. From our apellidos, to being a Christian nation, we are really more than a colony of these "bad" Spaniards, as what history books taught us. The Mañana Habit, the tradition of Fiestas (Gigantes Moriones, etc), the oh-so-good siesta every after lunch. How about our currency, Peso?
Without Spain, we wouldn't know the concept of Noche Buena which many family-centered Filipinos value a lot. When you're feeling down, you may pig out eating some of our mouth-watering dishes such as adobo, morcon, chicharron, and menudo. As a trivia, these are all Spanish inspired!
La Universidad de Santo Tomas, which is older than Harvard University, was actually established at the request of a Spanish clergyman Archbishop Miguel de Benavides.
Hearing people say that Americans introduced education to the Filipinos makes me cringe. For as a matter of fact, it was first given by Queen Isabela II. Filipinos have had the access to free modern education since 1863. When I say modern, curriculum includes painting, English, Greek, French, Geometry, Physics, Trigonometry and of course, Spanish. How cool is that?!
Contrary to what we perceive that Spaniards were just plain assholes, this advanced education was given for free to every Filipino, regardless of his race, gender or financial resources. Manuel Quezon was an evidence, which he himself claimed to be benefited from it.
It Opens Doors of Opportunities to Many Filipinos
As a Spanish-speaker, I had a first-hand experience of this so-called opportunity. There were three companies who invited me to apply to their companies and they were offering me P60-80,000 a month. As a fresh graduate, this is way higher than the average salary of a CPA in the Philippines. I guess this is even higher than some of supervisory or managerial positions.
The call center industry also offers Filipinos almost the same range of salary if they speak Spanish. Quite higher than the usual P25,000 offer to call center agents without premium.
Vacancies for nurses abroad require one to speak Spanish. Though I am not saying all, but knowing how to speak the language gives one the edge!
Filipino is Similar to Spanish
I read in an article before that 1 out of 6 Filipino words is Spanish. Want proof? Let's see how we call the following:
a. Utensils (cuchara, tenedor, plato, platito)
b. Days in a week (Lunes, Martes, Miercoles,Jueves...)
c. Kinship (Papa, Mama, Tito, Tita)
d. Numbers (uno, dos, tres...)
e. Months (Enero, Febrero, Marzo, Abril...)
Other words such as cepillo, banco, mesa...so if we already know 1 word, why not learn the other 5? It'll be easier for sure!
It Bridges us to our Hermanos
After knowing the building blocks of the language, I decided to put my Spanish to the next level. I Skyped with our hermanos from Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, etc. to test my language proficiency.
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| My photograph in 2015 when I was in Intramuros, Manila. |
Estoy muy soprendido (I'm so surpised!) Because of their interest in our country as well. Some of them told me that they are happy because they met one Filipino who knows Spanish. They always love to reconnect with us but the problem was the langauge.
In every competition, be it football or pageant, one latino's victory is the victory of all. As I see it, Latin America is an enormous brotherhood, connected by one culture and one language, and that is Spanish. Isn't it a good idea to reconnect the Philippines to this brotherhood? After all, we were part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, together with Mexico.
Just Love Spanish Music, Telenovelas and Movies
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| Credits to the owner. Picture not mine. This shows a Cinema Picture of a Filipino film. |
Who didn't know Fonsi's Despacito?
How about Thalia's telenovelas Marimar, Maria del Barrio, Maria Mercedes? Ever remember Gata Salvaje, Inocente de Ti, Little Amy and other drama-rama sa hapon? Miles away from the Philippines, many Filipinos have appreciated these Latino dramas.
But the thing is, they are dubbed in Tagalog. Sadly.
Many K-drama lovers would agree that they prefer their Oppas speaking in Hangeul rather than in Tagalog!
Knowing Spanish would help you more appreciate these forms of arts if they were in their original language. Interestingly, why don't we try to read El Filibusterismo or Noli Me Tangere in their original text?
Conclusion
Woah! This is quite a list, isn't it? I do hope that this article made you more interested about learning the language. Spanish should never be addressed as a foreign language because it has been part of our history. It has been written in papers, and even our national hero spoke it. More than a hobby, the Spanish language gave my life more sense by sharing these words to the youth. As I said, this is my advocacy, so if you want to learn Spanish, feel free to leave your comments below. I'll be more than willing to teach you!
Vamos a apender el Español!
Don't forget to share this article and help me spread Spanish across our nation.
4 comments
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHola Arvin. Gracias por leer mi articulo. Yo tampoco. Mio no es perfecto. Jejeje pero si tu tienes preguntas sobre el idioma, puedo ayudarte. ^_^ Leave me a message on Facebook bro. :)
DeleteI agree with this list
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of Spanish music, I literally singing in Spanish without knowing the language and
it still amazes me whenever I encountered a words that are similar to us