The story of Balzac and The Little Seamstress is that at the height of Mao's infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for “re-education.” The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of the Phoenix mountains, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down the precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin and, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. However, it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. In addition, after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed.
The historical background of this novel was Mao's Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966 and continued until the dictator's death a decade later. It was intended to get rid of the educated class and directed specifically against the “Four Olds”: (1) old ideas, (2) old culture, (3) old customs and (4) old habits. The urban bourgeoisie were deemed enemies of the people, and so-called young intellectuals, youths who had attended secondary school, were sent to the country to be “re-educated” by the supposedly virtuous peasantry. Between 1968 and 1975, some 12 million youths were thus “rusticated.”
Born in China in 1954, Dai Sijie is a filmmaker who was re-educated during the Cultural Revolution. In 1984, he left China for France, where he has lived and worked ever since “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” his first novel, was an overnight sensation when it was published in France in 2000, becoming an immediate bestseller and winning five prizes. Rights to the novel have been sold in nineteen countries, and it is soon to be made into a film. I think the author is able to write this award-wining novel because he is first, Chinese author and filmmaker. Then, has lived and worked in France since 1984. Finally and most importantly, was one of these young intellectual men. He spent the years between 1971 and 1974 in the mountains of Sichuan Province. Thus, turned his experiences into a poetic and affecting novel “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” which was first published in France a year ago, to huge acclaim.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is more like a fable with a theme of hope. Moreover, this novel is saying that if we keep ourselves only in our very own literature and culture, we will makes ignorant, impotent, and illiterate of who really we are, and the way for us to achieve a total understanding of ourselves is through learning and embracing the Western Ideologies. We know our identity by knowing others’, so to speak. Ironically, the seamstress is only enlightened of her identity by knowing the Western culture and literature.
To analyze and prove these statements, I used the thematic analysis (in a way of trying to bring forth the theme of the novel) and characterization (in a way of studying and analyzing the motivation and actions of the characters). Along with this analysis are some of the literary criticism approaches like post-colonialism, in general, and the theories of post-colonialism by Homi K. Bhaha.
Post-colonialism is an approach to literary analysis that concerns itself with literature in formerly colonized countries. This theory (1) looks at the canon and (2) rejects the universal Western canon, (3) points out colonization, (3) deals with hybridity, (4) depicts ethnic differences and perspectives, and (5) exposes “the other”. In this study, side-by-side with Bhabha’s theories, from the Post-colonialism, I would only use numbers three (3) and four (4). The term ‘post-colonial’ is used to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is because there is a continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression.
Bhabha is a leading voice in postcolonial studies and is highly influenced by Western poststructuralist theorists, notably Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Michel Foucault. In Nation and Narration, he argues against the tendency to essentialize Third World countries into a homogenous identity. Instead, he claims that all sense of nationhood is narrativized. He has also made a major contribution to postcolonial studies by pointing out how there is always ambivalence (fluctuating choice whether to accept Western Ideologies or not) at the site of colonial dominance. In the Location of Culture, Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry (tendency of the Third World countries to imitate the Westerns), interstice (the overlap and displacement of domains of difference), hybridity (the national identity being not pure but a mixture), and liminality (the in-betweeness, the middle of two conflicting and competing cultures). All of these are influenced by semiotics and Lacanian psychoanalysis to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent.
I have three major objectives in this paper. First, I would present the bird’s-eye view of the novel, to prove that it is more like a fable. Then, a thematic analysis would be presented to extract only one theme from the novel and that is hope. Finally, I would have critical analysis using the post-colonial approach and the theories of Post-colonialsm by Homi K. Bhabha to prove that the novel is saying that if we keep ourselves only in our very own literature and culture, we will makes ignorant, impotent, and illiterate of who really we are, and the way for us to achieve a total understanding of ourselves is through learning and embracing the Western Ideologies.
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” is a worthwhile book, but in many ways an unsatisfactory one. Its problem is that the tale is more interesting than the telling. The author has elected to present his story as a fable rather than a realistic novel, a perfectly respectable choice except that the descriptions of life in this strangest of times and places are so fascinating that the reader longs for more. His decision to streamline his narrative, withholding all but the most significant details and his coy habit of giving his characters epithets rather than names, work against the very real power of his material. However, he delivers an important message: “Any system that fears knowledge and education, any system that closes the mind to moral and intellectual truth, is evil and will prove in the end to be impotent.” This message will be discussed further in the latter part of the paper. This is brought beautifully home to us when the narrator meets a doctor who has also read Balzac. Their brief conversation makes the narrator weep, and it takes him a moment to understand why “It was hearing the name of Fu Lei, Balzac's translator -- someone I had never even met. It is hard to imagine a more moving tribute to the gift bestowed by an intellectual on mankind.” Somewhere along the line, as mainstream Western culture “matured,” we seem to have determined that the fable is a lesser form of literature. Like children, we have outgrown “fairy tales” and, indeed, think of fables merely as kiddie lit. In other cultures, however, the fable remains a respected literary form, and in the hands of artists who understand that its simplicity can be provocatively deceptive, the fable can be both vital and compelling, even for contemporary Western audiences. The dictionary defines fable as “a narrative designed to enforce a useful truth.” Yet, in literature, we generally prefer either that our useful truths be sublimated in three-dimensional characters and realistic plot development, or, heavier in the truth department than useful. Our general disregard of the fable in literature is not only misplaced but can cause us to lose out on the chance to experience thrilling and occasionally truly great novel just like this one that is even award-wining.
The theme of this novel is hope. Nonetheless, hope is not always a positive force. If we think Sijie is going to tell us how the books give the boys hope, which in turn empowers their salvation, we find that his “useful truth” is more complicated and, accordingly, more challenging. The narrator begins to learn that hope can be not only cruel but also corrupting. When Four-Eyes receives a letter from his mother telling him that she has secured a job for him with a revolutionary journal if he can give the editor the lyrics to authentic mountain songs, Luo and the narrator strike a deal to get the lyrics from a hermetic miller in exchange for more books. Nevertheless, when they return with less-than-satisfactory material, Four-Eyes lashes out at them, “The change he had undergone since receiving his mother's letter was truly remarkable. A few days before it would have been unthinkable for him to snap at us like this. I hadn't suspected that a tiny glimmer of hope for the future could transform someone so utterly.”
Moreover, this novel is post-colonial and thus, can be analyzed using post-colonialism. This is how it goes. The novel’s narrator is the son of hard-working doctors. “Their crime”, he states blandly, “was that they were ‘stinking scientific authorities’ who enjoyed a modest reputation on a provincial scale.” His friend Luo, who shares his adventures in the countryside, is the son of someone altogether more dangerous – Mao’s personal dentist who actually had the nerve to tell his friends about his exalted patient. For this, the narrator says, “Here was an eminent dentist stating publicly that the Great Helmsman of the Revolution had been fitted with new teeth, just like that. It was beyond belief, an unpardonable, insane crime, worse than revealing a secret of national security.” Luo and the nameless narrator are packed off to the damp, remote mountain known as the Phoenix of the Sky, whose vistas will be recognizable to anyone familiar with the stylized landscape painting of pre-Revolutionary China. Their re-education is entrusted to a group of illiterate former opium farmers, whose wisdom is guaranteed by their peasant status. No books, except for scientific works and those by Mao and his cronies, are allowed in their village, nor any ideas that do not come from the ruling Communists, nor any Western music. This is the major concept presented in the novel that the government is trying to get rid of, going away from, eradicate and terminate the other cultures that have been mixed into their very own. For this reason, the government decided to “re-educate” the intellectuals. The irony of it all is that the one who is educating them are the ignorant in the peasantry. Obviously, the government is against the Western ideologies and culture. However, according to Bhabha, no one can really “essentialize” a nation once it is being mixed. Moreover, cultural identities cannot be ascribed to pre-given, irreducible, scripted, ahistorical cultural traits that define the conventions of ethnicity. Nor can “colonizer” and “colonized” be viewed as separate entities that define themselves independently. Instead, he suggests that the negotiation of cultural identity involves the continual interface and exchange of cultural performances that in turn produce a mutual and mutable recognition (or representation) of cultural difference because it is a complex, on-going negotiation that seeks to authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation. Thus, their national identity and their education, ideologies and knowledge are and will always be hybrid. With this, it is predictable that later or at the end of this novel, the government’s plan and purpose might not be fulfilled for it seems to be impossible.
Later, the two young men are given backbreaking and exhausting work in a coalmine. Meanwhile, one of their fellow laborers is the son of a well-known poet, and in his hut, he has hidden a suitcase filled with Western classics (the covers of Balzac, Dumas and Romain Rolland, and with knowledge of the world beyond their mountain comes hope for the future) because all these are forbidden and are not allowed to be read. After much nagging, bullying and barter, they manage to get their hands on one of these books, Balzac’s “Ursule Mirouët.” The effect is revolutionary in the true sense of the word – even in their home city, the only Western literature in the bookshops had been the complete works of the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha. “Picture,” the narrator says, “a boy of 19, still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, Communism, ideology and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me.” As a means of restricting people from being educated with the Western Ideologies, the government has forbidden people from reading Western books and things to erase completely the West cultures. Indeed, what I have predicted from the start (that the plan or purpose of the government might not be fulfilled) are true because obviously, the unnamed narrator and his friend, Lou, have found and even read these Western classics by Balzac, Dumas and Romain Rolland. After reading, they seem to be saying that “why are these forbidden when in the first place, this is good, educating, and enlightening us with love, rights and many other things?” I believe that as they see and read the books, ambivalence started to creep into their minds if they would accept the truths they learned or not. This also is a picture of the liminal space where the two major characters are caught in the middle – they are now in the middle of the competing and conflicting Chinese and Western cultures.
Then, the two young men share their new-found riches with a local beauty, the daughter of an itinerant tailor. Luo will carry the books in his stinking hood to the nearby village to enlighten the little seamstress and thereby woo her. Like the narrator, she remains nameless and is referred to only as the “Little Seamstress”. She and Luo fall in love, and although the narrator acts as their mediator, he too lusts after the girl. The three young people’s discovery of sensual and romantic love – a subject studiously ignored by Communist propaganda – is intensified and justified by Balzac and by the suitcase’s other forbidden authors. So is their understanding of real, as opposed to ideologically correct, personal choice. The narrator’s own favorite book, for example, is Romain Rolland’s “Jean-Christophe.” “Without him,” he explains, “I would never have understood the splendor of taking free and independent action as an individual.” This part of the story is where we can see the interstice in the context of Bhabha’s theories. He defines interstice as the overlap and displacement of domains of difference. I can say that they are in the interstice because they not only accumulate the western culture in them but also applied it in their lives with the former life they have. They do not, of course, fully leave behind their Chinese culture. They still live it up yet mixed with the new truths and knowledge they gained from their reading with the seamstress. This is a clear picture that the Chinese and Western cultures are overlapping, competing and conflicting within the characters and dispositions of the two boys and the little seamstress. According to Bhabha, the Third World countries tend to imitate the Western Cultures – the theory on mimicry. This is true to this novel. After the narrator, Lou and the little seamstress have learned something from their reading of the Western books, they imitate. They imitate love relationships and even lovemaking, which these things have been forbidden in their culture and yet present in the other culture. They still have with them their original culture yet with the new culture learned. Nevertheless what dominates or what is mostly manifested in them is the strong and dominant culture, the West. This is proven in the activities they do and the things they talk about.
In the end, Luo and the narrator discover the true potency of imaginative literature and why it is hated and feared by those who wish to control others, for the Little Seamstress, transformed by her contact with Balzac, comes to understand her own sexual power and leaves the Phoenix of the Sky for the city. “Had we ourselves,” the narrator asks, “failed to grasp the essence of the novels we had read to her?” Thus, the seamstress who started ignorant now becomes more intelligent than the two boys who supposed to be educated. Because the two boys are restricted and limited from the truth and in learning Western culture and literature, what happens to them is really bad (evil) because they are left by the woman they both love. It really is not good being ignorant and all that. For the side of the little seamstress, she has gained a lot more knowledge and ideology that makes her see her rights, freedom and self-consciousness, which is very much impossible if she did not embrace and be influenced by the Western culture and literature. For this, her life turns better compared to the two boys.
Therefore, the novel brilliantly reflects Chinese upbringing and the more recent understanding of Western culture and literature. As a product of China’s re-education program from 1971-1974, the author knows first-hand the evils of repression. However, if he had written only from that viewpoint, “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” would not have been the richly complex fable that it is. The boys have learned bitter lessons by the end of this very small gem, lessons that they could have only learned through the loss of something very precious. Does their new knowledge, which led directly to that loss, leave them better off? Nevertheless, the plot really turns on Western books, not music. Though all books are forbidden, the boys manage to unearth some Western classics translated into Chinese, and fall in love with a landscape of reading they had not known existed. They also fall in love with the tailor's exquisite daughter, whom Luo seduces by reading Balzac to her. Dai Sijie, in his novel, shows himself out of touch with his country, rendering it through an excessively precious literary optic. Hopelessly out of place in the mountain’s peasant culture, both young men find clever ways to bend the rules made against Western influences. In one particularly funny moment at the beginning of the book, the protagonist entertains the locals with a violin piece by the forbidden Mozart, because Luo convinces the audience the piece is entitled Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao. When not doing hard labor, the two also entertain the people of the village with storytelling. One of their most ardent listeners is the little seamstress in the town, a lovely young countrywoman. The two teenagers come to learn that another intellectual young man, Four-Eyes, has a suitcase filled with forbidden books. They manage to borrow Four-Eyes’ copy of Balzac’s Ursule Mirouet, and find an enchanting new tale to use to attempt to woo the little seamstress. When Four-Eyes will not lend them any more books, they resolve to steal the suitcase. It seems that the author wanted to show how much impact culture could have on an isolated mountain village, and especially for the seamstress. It was a revelation of freedom, of self-consciousness. The little seamstress had seen more in Balzac learned that men could flirt with women, that it is natural. This is what she had never learned during her days of being instructed that life could be filled with many nice things. Obviously, the author is against this repression and stopping people from learning others’ culture and literature, especially the Western. For him, this lack of freedom and individualism is the essence of his generation. As to how a young woman could suddenly be changed through foreign literature – the part of the story most criticized by Chinese authorities and the main reason the story was not released in China – he has an apolitical answer, “The influence of literature is universal. The story was not only an ode to the literature we had read, but also simply to show that in a difficult situation the youth had a yearning to learn, to see new things and nice things.”
In this paper I have presented first, that this novel is more like a fable and no matter how “fable” it is, it gives entertainment and pleasure to the readers and audience as manifested in the numerous awards and marvelous remarks received worldwide. Then, to give a complete picture and to scrutinize both sides, its theme is hope, not only on the positive side but also on the negative side. Finally and most importantly, using Homi K. Bhabha’s theories of post-colonialism, I have seen that to restrict and keep ourselves from the Western cultures and literature are but an evil for it will just make us more and more illiterate and ignorant. More especially, I have proven that we can define ourselves, know our freedom, rights and achieve self-consciousness not only by our culture and literature but also by learning, understanding, accumulating and being influenced by the Western culture and literature because we are but a hybrid. Therefore, we know our identity by knowing others’ culture and literature.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
National Possession: Of Keeping and of Letting Go
Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without your language? What about the fact that your children may not be able to speak your language when you are no longer alive? Our language is considered as our national possession. For this reason, no one would ever allow throw it away but keep it. Nevertheless, if given a situation that the only way to progress and develop were to let it go, most likely, ambivalence would start to creep into every ones’ minds. What then could be the most certainly better choice for this? Would you still keep the national possession or just leave it behind?
I have read an article entitled “Perspectives on the Social and Cultural Impact of English as an International Language” by David McLachlan Jeffrey. The article scrutinizes a variety of opinions and beliefs within the debate on the social and cultural impact of English as an international language (EIL) together with the personal opinions of Jeffrey as the writer. The social and cultural impact of EIL really is a controversy that generates a large number of arguments and debates, especially with regard to whether it has been advantageous or disadvantageous to the colonized countries, and whether this continues to be the case at present with the advent of globalization. Because it is not probable to do full justice to a broad subject in the short space of the paper, the approach is only an attempt to extract from the varied perspectives of theorists, and to limit the focus primarily to the two formerly non-English speaking countries – Nigeria and the Philippines.
The paper can be divided into five major sections. The first section is on the relationship of language, society and culture and the social and cultural impact of EIL. The second section is on the Center-Periphery Debate and the impact of the tendency of EIL to socially and to culturally marginalize. The third section is on the impact of EIL in Globalization. The fourth section concerns on the ownership of English by the non-native speakers of English especially Nigeria and Philippines. Finally, it talks about English Language Teaching (ELT) profession.
The paper begins by examining the relationships between language, society and culture, which is used as a backdrop upon which to extend the debate by including the views of other theorists across the ideological divide concerning the social and cultural impact of EIL. In the first part, Holmes says, “Sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. They are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts, and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning.” It is also stated that the reason for sociolinguists not to consistently agree on each other’s views is that this field is a subjective discipline. Moreover, Wardaugh asserts, “Since no cultural requirement are tied to the learning of English, you can learn it and use it without having to subscribe to another set of values….” On the contrary, Phillipson states, “What is at stake when English spreads is not merely the substitution or displacement of one language by another but the imposition of new ‘mental structures’ through English.” Then, these are followed by the definitions of language, society and culture. Language is what the members of a particular society speak. Society is any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes. Culture is those tools, practices, assumptions, and behavioral patterns that members of a group use to communicate with one another and to demarcate themselves from other groups. It is mainly about social identity, and communication, and, as Podur notes, is an important part of that select identity. Therefore, language, society and culture are very much interrelated and linked to each other. They are inseparable, so to speak. What then is the social and cultural impact of EIL? Basically, what the article says in this part is that it is repressive and that it imposes ‘mental structures’ (Western Ideologies). It can substitute not only people’s language but also their culture because, as Phillipson points out, “English learning and culture are inseparable, and the imposition of Western ways of thinking (‘modernization’ and ‘nation building’) are ‘a logical process of ELT’, in the same way that economic inequality, sustained by EIL through ELT, was a logical process of colonization, in order to keep the poor nations economically poor, mentally subdued, and hence easily exploitable.”
In the second section, because EIL is oppressive, it makes a core-periphery that those in the center refer to the native-English speakers and the periphery refers to the non-native-English speakers. Thus, Kachru conceptualizes three concentric circles of global English use: an inner-circle (the native-English speaking countries), an outer-circle (countries that speak English as an additional language) and an expanding-circle (countries that need English for international communication). He concludes that the relationship reflects and unbalanced and harmful state of power and influence on the societies and cultures to which English spreads. As a result, EIL culturally and socially marginalizes “the others”. Abbot states, “The widely perceived need to promote technological development through teaching an international language such as English overshadows an arguably more basic need to transmit indigenous cultures.” Freire, then believes in ‘cultural invasion’ as he says, “…the invaders penetrate the control context of another group and, ignoring the potential of the latter,…impose their own view of the world upon those they invade and inhibit the creativity of the invaded by curbing their expression.” Here, therefore, various aspects of EIL are discussed, such as its center-periphery dimensions, its propensity to marginalize other languages and cultures.
The third part concerns with the impact of globalization (including advances in communications technology). It is defined in this section that Globalization affords certain underdeveloped countries the opportunity to skip certain traditional stages of economic growth, and catch up rapidly with developed countries, especially those underdeveloped countries that now speak English as a second language. Well, although the word globalization suggests a comprehensive and self-evident process, it is an incomplete term. It does not indicate precisely what is being globalized – the assumption is that it means the emergence of a single worldwide economy, into which all economies must integrate themselves. However, globalization does not considerately halt at some ill-defined frontier between economics, society and culture. Indeed, it has its own set of cultural attendants, which exercise a profound influence on the life of peoples everywhere. By definition, globalization makes all other cultures local. Nevertheless, to billions of people all over the world, their culture is not local. It is central to their lives and who they are. Globalization eclipses, or at least subordinates all previous ways of answering need and of dealing with the vicissitudes of human life. All other ways of life are diminished and marginalized at a stroke.
Fourth, the ownership of English by non-native speakers is considered an important turning point in the evolution of EIL, and examples of where this happened in Nigeria and the Philippines are used to illustrate this. English is currently regarded as the world’s principal international language. As a result, there are now more exchanges between non-native speakers of English than between non-native speakers and native speakers. Thus, it could be fair to say that English no longer belongs to any particular group of people, and that they are no longer mere consumers of the Western-Anglo-Saxon tradition. Kachru, despite his predominant focus on the unbalanced center-periphery relationship, admitted that ‘for the first time a natural language has attained the status of an international (universal) language’. He also saw English as being very adaptable and thus capable of sustaining a large assortment of functions. Hence, it seems that this phenomenon of EIL, the adoption and ownership of English by formally non-English speaking societies, is a major switch in the role of EIL from its former repressive role, to one that offers possibilities for EIL being used in a liberating sense. In Nigeria and in the Philippines, although, this was repressive to them before but now, English becomes an instrument of social, cultural and economic emancipation to some extent. English, therefore, in these countries seems to have a tendency to no longer be viewed as something imposed from the outside, but as something belonging to, and becoming an intrinsic part of the national culture.
Finally, the main conclusions reached in the paper are drawn together and highlighted, together with their implications for the English language teaching (ELT) profession. It concluded that professionals should also endeavor to persuade their students (1) to communicate matters that are important to their lives; (2) how to confidently and effectively communicate their concerns, cultural viewpoints and personal interests by taking ownership of English; (3) using it as a meaningful interchange with people of other countries; and (4) to relate what it means to be a member of their specific societies and cultures in a positive way to others in the world community.
As a reaction, I would like to begin with a belief, or let us say a fact, that technology has now created the possibility and even the likelihood of a global culture. The Internet, fax machines, satellites, and cable TV are sweeping away cultural boundaries. Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions and dreams of ordinary citizens, wherever they live. This spread of values, norms, and culture tends to promote Western ideals of capitalism. Will local cultures inevitably fall victim to this global “consumer” culture? Will English eradicate all other languages? Will consumer values overpower peoples’ sense of community and social solidarity? Alternatively, on the contrary, will a common culture lead the way to greater shared values and political unity?
The world is getting smaller and smaller in the sense that people from different sides of the world would know, interact, communicate and argue with each other without meeting in person, and that is with the advancement of technology. Technology has bombarded us with information so vast. With just one click of the mouse, everything you need is right there and then, in front of you. What else could you ask for? But wait, the language of science, technology and this “globalization” is no other than English. In fact, it is considered as the International Language.
Now, as an International Language, is it advantageous or disadvantageous to other countries? In the negative side, it is disadvantageous because it represses and suppresses not only the language but also the cultures and traditions of other countries. How come? It is because language, society and culture are interrelated and interconnected with each other. It is so difficult to separate one from the other. Once English is learned, the western social life, culture and tradition are also learned because “language and culture circumscribe with each other”. What then? Of course, the language of the ones who learn English would gradually die and eventually, their culture, tradition and “homogeneous” social life would eventually be left behind. The first possession to be rejected, therefore, is the language and then it would be followed by the culture and tradition. Eventually, nothing of the National Possession is left for the ones who speak English, which formerly do not. This really is pathetic because what would you give to your children? To the next generations? What could they possess originally from their own nation? What then could be their identity? National identity? Cultural identity? How then can they be defined when they have lost their national and cultural identity? Losing our language, culture and tradition, is also losing our real identity. This, I believe is the main reason of the disadvantage of English as an International Language. In addition, English does not only repress other people’s language and culture but also even sets a standard (or imposes their ‘mental structures’, their western ideologies, their western hegemony) that what is theirs is correct, standard, and quality Thus, placing themselves in the center or core of “the circle”. They have made a center-periphery that they belong to the inner core or to the center for they are the pattern to follow. Those who are non-native speakers are then belonging to the periphery or to the outer core because they are just imitators of the center. Then, the ones who need English or who don’t have English yet belong to the outermost part of the circle. See how much they manipulated people’s minds? As a result, here in the Philippines, we always believe that what is English or American is “cool” and what is local or ours is “cheap”. We do not buy things if we see “Made in the Philippines” because if we do, we will be mocked and rebuked by our friends. Therefore, we would buy those that are “Made in U.S.A.” or “Made in London”. Who will become rich then? Of course, the western people! Another thing, those who speak English well or at least can communicate in English is considered to be educated, well-tutored, intelligent, bright and even rich. This, therefore, sets a social hierarchy that those who can speak English are better than the ones who can only speak Sebuano or Tagalog or Ilocano. This definitely divides the people socially and the basis for this separation is not really ours, it is something imposed from the western people and that is their very own language, English. Because of this, many Filipinos endeavor to learn to speak and write English and those who already know, try hard to sound like, look like and act like really American in nature. If this is the case, what happens now to our language for it will no longer be used so that they will not be considered cheap? Eventually, our very own Philippine Languages would die. Language dies when no one is using it anymore. Now, who would prefer to use our dialect or our Sebuano Language? Gradually, our languages her in the Philippines are all dying. In fact, some have died already because the native-speakers take no pride for their language. They would be ashamed to speak their mother-tongue. What follows after learning the English language? The Western social way of living, culture and tradition. I cannot deny the fact that if one speaks English; he/she would feel like really American. He/she would even try his/her best to sound like American English and that he would act and dress like one. Today, who would see Filipino Youth wearing barong tagalong, Kamesa de Tsino, Maria Clara Suit, bahag, sarong or any native wardrobe? I bet you could hardly point one. Almost all youth in our country are wearing as the Americans do. In addition, who still practices harana and mano po? Again, you could hardly point one because almost all youth are doing what the Americans do like going home late in the evening, kissing in front of the public, holding hands, and just going in and out of the house without telling their parents. My point here is that gradually, our Philippine languages, cultures, traditions and social lives are diminishing and dying; and before we knew it, we have totally lost them. What then is left to us? to our next generations? What then could be our Filipino or National Identity when we have lost it already? This is the negative side of the social and cultural impact of English as an International Language. Therefore, to keep our national possession is very much logical, emotional, patriotic and heroic.
Again, let me stress that the language of science, technology and “globalization” is English. Thus, only those who can communicate and interact using English are only those whose countries will develop, progress and flourish. Let us say we have with us all the national possession of the Philippines with the languages, cultures and traditions. With all these possessions in our hands, do you think we will ever prosper or progress amidst all the technologies and advances with the English language? I bet not! Now, will you let go of your national possession for our national development and progress? Will you let our languages, cultures and traditions die all in the name of prosperity, global competition, economic growth and advancements in technologies? What are we going to benefit from keeping our national possession and remain poor, undeveloped, third world and in scarcity? Come on, let us face the fact, the truth, the reality and let us all be practical. All of us want to prosper, progress and become economically stable. Moreover, what is the way? What to do? It may be heart-breaking but we really have to sacrifice something and that would be our national possession. For me, I am ready to let go of my language, culture and tradition. We can do nothing but let go of it. We have to go with the tide of science and technology and the advent of globalization. We have to because the language of science and technology is English. How can we become globally competitive if we do not speak English? How can we develop without the advancement and use of technologies with English. Even not for the sake of development, in the first place, the fact that we all have our cultures and languages with us indicates that we are divided and separated for we can never be unified with all our varied beliefs. How can we understand each other and have peace when we cannot communicate because we do not understand the other Philippine Language because there are so many? I mean, what is the point of keeping something that divides us. The kernel rationale why there is war is that we have varied and different beliefs, traditions, cultures, languages, gods, opinions, theories, characters, etc. How can we ever be unified and attain peace if in the first place, we are not one in our stand. If we insist in combing two cultures, even more, it would result into anxieties, doubts, confusions and divisions. So why not let go of what we have now and embrace only one language, culture and tradition. With one language, one culture, one tradition and one belief, we all will become one to achieve peace. In addition to peace that we can gain, we can also make our country globally competitive, technologically advance, nationally developed and economically stable. Hence, our society, culture, economy and tradition would all be unified and become globally competitive with the use of English. In relevance to, it is disingenuous to assume that economy, society and culture operate in separate spheres. If one among these would flourish, the others would come in and follow. Indeed, the way in which geographical entities are now designated shows the increasing porosity of these notions. An advanced economy, an industrialized nation, a mature economy are set against a developing country, an emerging market, a liberalizing society. The terms are almost interchangeable. This suggests that, once exposed to the globalizing imperative, no aspect of social life, customary practice, traditional behavior will remain the same.
I am not saying that to keep what we have is not that good. In fact, it is moral, emotional, logical and patriotic; but nowadays, we have to face the reality and be practical that we all are struggling for development because we have suffered poverty long enough. We already know the way and that is to embrace, adopt, adapt and adept the English Language. However, as we are doing it, something is left behind, neglected, forsaken and ditched – our National Possession. This is agonizing. Eventually, our languages, cultures and traditions will all die yet nevertheless, in return, Philippines becomes globally competitive, technologically advanced and industrialized nation! Really, something has to die so that something will sprout, grow and flourish (just like resurrection). Therefore, should and must we keep it or let go of it? Will you keep the national possession and remain miserable? Or, will you let go of our languages, cultures and traditions to make Philippines a developed, prosperous, progressive and most of all, globally competitive?
I have read an article entitled “Perspectives on the Social and Cultural Impact of English as an International Language” by David McLachlan Jeffrey. The article scrutinizes a variety of opinions and beliefs within the debate on the social and cultural impact of English as an international language (EIL) together with the personal opinions of Jeffrey as the writer. The social and cultural impact of EIL really is a controversy that generates a large number of arguments and debates, especially with regard to whether it has been advantageous or disadvantageous to the colonized countries, and whether this continues to be the case at present with the advent of globalization. Because it is not probable to do full justice to a broad subject in the short space of the paper, the approach is only an attempt to extract from the varied perspectives of theorists, and to limit the focus primarily to the two formerly non-English speaking countries – Nigeria and the Philippines.
The paper can be divided into five major sections. The first section is on the relationship of language, society and culture and the social and cultural impact of EIL. The second section is on the Center-Periphery Debate and the impact of the tendency of EIL to socially and to culturally marginalize. The third section is on the impact of EIL in Globalization. The fourth section concerns on the ownership of English by the non-native speakers of English especially Nigeria and Philippines. Finally, it talks about English Language Teaching (ELT) profession.
The paper begins by examining the relationships between language, society and culture, which is used as a backdrop upon which to extend the debate by including the views of other theorists across the ideological divide concerning the social and cultural impact of EIL. In the first part, Holmes says, “Sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. They are interested in explaining why we speak differently in different social contexts, and they are concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning.” It is also stated that the reason for sociolinguists not to consistently agree on each other’s views is that this field is a subjective discipline. Moreover, Wardaugh asserts, “Since no cultural requirement are tied to the learning of English, you can learn it and use it without having to subscribe to another set of values….” On the contrary, Phillipson states, “What is at stake when English spreads is not merely the substitution or displacement of one language by another but the imposition of new ‘mental structures’ through English.” Then, these are followed by the definitions of language, society and culture. Language is what the members of a particular society speak. Society is any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes. Culture is those tools, practices, assumptions, and behavioral patterns that members of a group use to communicate with one another and to demarcate themselves from other groups. It is mainly about social identity, and communication, and, as Podur notes, is an important part of that select identity. Therefore, language, society and culture are very much interrelated and linked to each other. They are inseparable, so to speak. What then is the social and cultural impact of EIL? Basically, what the article says in this part is that it is repressive and that it imposes ‘mental structures’ (Western Ideologies). It can substitute not only people’s language but also their culture because, as Phillipson points out, “English learning and culture are inseparable, and the imposition of Western ways of thinking (‘modernization’ and ‘nation building’) are ‘a logical process of ELT’, in the same way that economic inequality, sustained by EIL through ELT, was a logical process of colonization, in order to keep the poor nations economically poor, mentally subdued, and hence easily exploitable.”
In the second section, because EIL is oppressive, it makes a core-periphery that those in the center refer to the native-English speakers and the periphery refers to the non-native-English speakers. Thus, Kachru conceptualizes three concentric circles of global English use: an inner-circle (the native-English speaking countries), an outer-circle (countries that speak English as an additional language) and an expanding-circle (countries that need English for international communication). He concludes that the relationship reflects and unbalanced and harmful state of power and influence on the societies and cultures to which English spreads. As a result, EIL culturally and socially marginalizes “the others”. Abbot states, “The widely perceived need to promote technological development through teaching an international language such as English overshadows an arguably more basic need to transmit indigenous cultures.” Freire, then believes in ‘cultural invasion’ as he says, “…the invaders penetrate the control context of another group and, ignoring the potential of the latter,…impose their own view of the world upon those they invade and inhibit the creativity of the invaded by curbing their expression.” Here, therefore, various aspects of EIL are discussed, such as its center-periphery dimensions, its propensity to marginalize other languages and cultures.
The third part concerns with the impact of globalization (including advances in communications technology). It is defined in this section that Globalization affords certain underdeveloped countries the opportunity to skip certain traditional stages of economic growth, and catch up rapidly with developed countries, especially those underdeveloped countries that now speak English as a second language. Well, although the word globalization suggests a comprehensive and self-evident process, it is an incomplete term. It does not indicate precisely what is being globalized – the assumption is that it means the emergence of a single worldwide economy, into which all economies must integrate themselves. However, globalization does not considerately halt at some ill-defined frontier between economics, society and culture. Indeed, it has its own set of cultural attendants, which exercise a profound influence on the life of peoples everywhere. By definition, globalization makes all other cultures local. Nevertheless, to billions of people all over the world, their culture is not local. It is central to their lives and who they are. Globalization eclipses, or at least subordinates all previous ways of answering need and of dealing with the vicissitudes of human life. All other ways of life are diminished and marginalized at a stroke.
Fourth, the ownership of English by non-native speakers is considered an important turning point in the evolution of EIL, and examples of where this happened in Nigeria and the Philippines are used to illustrate this. English is currently regarded as the world’s principal international language. As a result, there are now more exchanges between non-native speakers of English than between non-native speakers and native speakers. Thus, it could be fair to say that English no longer belongs to any particular group of people, and that they are no longer mere consumers of the Western-Anglo-Saxon tradition. Kachru, despite his predominant focus on the unbalanced center-periphery relationship, admitted that ‘for the first time a natural language has attained the status of an international (universal) language’. He also saw English as being very adaptable and thus capable of sustaining a large assortment of functions. Hence, it seems that this phenomenon of EIL, the adoption and ownership of English by formally non-English speaking societies, is a major switch in the role of EIL from its former repressive role, to one that offers possibilities for EIL being used in a liberating sense. In Nigeria and in the Philippines, although, this was repressive to them before but now, English becomes an instrument of social, cultural and economic emancipation to some extent. English, therefore, in these countries seems to have a tendency to no longer be viewed as something imposed from the outside, but as something belonging to, and becoming an intrinsic part of the national culture.
Finally, the main conclusions reached in the paper are drawn together and highlighted, together with their implications for the English language teaching (ELT) profession. It concluded that professionals should also endeavor to persuade their students (1) to communicate matters that are important to their lives; (2) how to confidently and effectively communicate their concerns, cultural viewpoints and personal interests by taking ownership of English; (3) using it as a meaningful interchange with people of other countries; and (4) to relate what it means to be a member of their specific societies and cultures in a positive way to others in the world community.
As a reaction, I would like to begin with a belief, or let us say a fact, that technology has now created the possibility and even the likelihood of a global culture. The Internet, fax machines, satellites, and cable TV are sweeping away cultural boundaries. Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions and dreams of ordinary citizens, wherever they live. This spread of values, norms, and culture tends to promote Western ideals of capitalism. Will local cultures inevitably fall victim to this global “consumer” culture? Will English eradicate all other languages? Will consumer values overpower peoples’ sense of community and social solidarity? Alternatively, on the contrary, will a common culture lead the way to greater shared values and political unity?
The world is getting smaller and smaller in the sense that people from different sides of the world would know, interact, communicate and argue with each other without meeting in person, and that is with the advancement of technology. Technology has bombarded us with information so vast. With just one click of the mouse, everything you need is right there and then, in front of you. What else could you ask for? But wait, the language of science, technology and this “globalization” is no other than English. In fact, it is considered as the International Language.
Now, as an International Language, is it advantageous or disadvantageous to other countries? In the negative side, it is disadvantageous because it represses and suppresses not only the language but also the cultures and traditions of other countries. How come? It is because language, society and culture are interrelated and interconnected with each other. It is so difficult to separate one from the other. Once English is learned, the western social life, culture and tradition are also learned because “language and culture circumscribe with each other”. What then? Of course, the language of the ones who learn English would gradually die and eventually, their culture, tradition and “homogeneous” social life would eventually be left behind. The first possession to be rejected, therefore, is the language and then it would be followed by the culture and tradition. Eventually, nothing of the National Possession is left for the ones who speak English, which formerly do not. This really is pathetic because what would you give to your children? To the next generations? What could they possess originally from their own nation? What then could be their identity? National identity? Cultural identity? How then can they be defined when they have lost their national and cultural identity? Losing our language, culture and tradition, is also losing our real identity. This, I believe is the main reason of the disadvantage of English as an International Language. In addition, English does not only repress other people’s language and culture but also even sets a standard (or imposes their ‘mental structures’, their western ideologies, their western hegemony) that what is theirs is correct, standard, and quality Thus, placing themselves in the center or core of “the circle”. They have made a center-periphery that they belong to the inner core or to the center for they are the pattern to follow. Those who are non-native speakers are then belonging to the periphery or to the outer core because they are just imitators of the center. Then, the ones who need English or who don’t have English yet belong to the outermost part of the circle. See how much they manipulated people’s minds? As a result, here in the Philippines, we always believe that what is English or American is “cool” and what is local or ours is “cheap”. We do not buy things if we see “Made in the Philippines” because if we do, we will be mocked and rebuked by our friends. Therefore, we would buy those that are “Made in U.S.A.” or “Made in London”. Who will become rich then? Of course, the western people! Another thing, those who speak English well or at least can communicate in English is considered to be educated, well-tutored, intelligent, bright and even rich. This, therefore, sets a social hierarchy that those who can speak English are better than the ones who can only speak Sebuano or Tagalog or Ilocano. This definitely divides the people socially and the basis for this separation is not really ours, it is something imposed from the western people and that is their very own language, English. Because of this, many Filipinos endeavor to learn to speak and write English and those who already know, try hard to sound like, look like and act like really American in nature. If this is the case, what happens now to our language for it will no longer be used so that they will not be considered cheap? Eventually, our very own Philippine Languages would die. Language dies when no one is using it anymore. Now, who would prefer to use our dialect or our Sebuano Language? Gradually, our languages her in the Philippines are all dying. In fact, some have died already because the native-speakers take no pride for their language. They would be ashamed to speak their mother-tongue. What follows after learning the English language? The Western social way of living, culture and tradition. I cannot deny the fact that if one speaks English; he/she would feel like really American. He/she would even try his/her best to sound like American English and that he would act and dress like one. Today, who would see Filipino Youth wearing barong tagalong, Kamesa de Tsino, Maria Clara Suit, bahag, sarong or any native wardrobe? I bet you could hardly point one. Almost all youth in our country are wearing as the Americans do. In addition, who still practices harana and mano po? Again, you could hardly point one because almost all youth are doing what the Americans do like going home late in the evening, kissing in front of the public, holding hands, and just going in and out of the house without telling their parents. My point here is that gradually, our Philippine languages, cultures, traditions and social lives are diminishing and dying; and before we knew it, we have totally lost them. What then is left to us? to our next generations? What then could be our Filipino or National Identity when we have lost it already? This is the negative side of the social and cultural impact of English as an International Language. Therefore, to keep our national possession is very much logical, emotional, patriotic and heroic.
Again, let me stress that the language of science, technology and “globalization” is English. Thus, only those who can communicate and interact using English are only those whose countries will develop, progress and flourish. Let us say we have with us all the national possession of the Philippines with the languages, cultures and traditions. With all these possessions in our hands, do you think we will ever prosper or progress amidst all the technologies and advances with the English language? I bet not! Now, will you let go of your national possession for our national development and progress? Will you let our languages, cultures and traditions die all in the name of prosperity, global competition, economic growth and advancements in technologies? What are we going to benefit from keeping our national possession and remain poor, undeveloped, third world and in scarcity? Come on, let us face the fact, the truth, the reality and let us all be practical. All of us want to prosper, progress and become economically stable. Moreover, what is the way? What to do? It may be heart-breaking but we really have to sacrifice something and that would be our national possession. For me, I am ready to let go of my language, culture and tradition. We can do nothing but let go of it. We have to go with the tide of science and technology and the advent of globalization. We have to because the language of science and technology is English. How can we become globally competitive if we do not speak English? How can we develop without the advancement and use of technologies with English. Even not for the sake of development, in the first place, the fact that we all have our cultures and languages with us indicates that we are divided and separated for we can never be unified with all our varied beliefs. How can we understand each other and have peace when we cannot communicate because we do not understand the other Philippine Language because there are so many? I mean, what is the point of keeping something that divides us. The kernel rationale why there is war is that we have varied and different beliefs, traditions, cultures, languages, gods, opinions, theories, characters, etc. How can we ever be unified and attain peace if in the first place, we are not one in our stand. If we insist in combing two cultures, even more, it would result into anxieties, doubts, confusions and divisions. So why not let go of what we have now and embrace only one language, culture and tradition. With one language, one culture, one tradition and one belief, we all will become one to achieve peace. In addition to peace that we can gain, we can also make our country globally competitive, technologically advance, nationally developed and economically stable. Hence, our society, culture, economy and tradition would all be unified and become globally competitive with the use of English. In relevance to, it is disingenuous to assume that economy, society and culture operate in separate spheres. If one among these would flourish, the others would come in and follow. Indeed, the way in which geographical entities are now designated shows the increasing porosity of these notions. An advanced economy, an industrialized nation, a mature economy are set against a developing country, an emerging market, a liberalizing society. The terms are almost interchangeable. This suggests that, once exposed to the globalizing imperative, no aspect of social life, customary practice, traditional behavior will remain the same.
I am not saying that to keep what we have is not that good. In fact, it is moral, emotional, logical and patriotic; but nowadays, we have to face the reality and be practical that we all are struggling for development because we have suffered poverty long enough. We already know the way and that is to embrace, adopt, adapt and adept the English Language. However, as we are doing it, something is left behind, neglected, forsaken and ditched – our National Possession. This is agonizing. Eventually, our languages, cultures and traditions will all die yet nevertheless, in return, Philippines becomes globally competitive, technologically advanced and industrialized nation! Really, something has to die so that something will sprout, grow and flourish (just like resurrection). Therefore, should and must we keep it or let go of it? Will you keep the national possession and remain miserable? Or, will you let go of our languages, cultures and traditions to make Philippines a developed, prosperous, progressive and most of all, globally competitive?
Extracting from the Unconscious
Who am I? What has happened to me? It is when these two questions begin to prod us into self-assessments and appraisements that we might claim we have a real measure of value. After considering and taking a pensive mood on these two questions, we might probably ask ourselves, “What is my identity as a Filipino? Do I have an identity, in the first place?” The issue on Filipino identity remains controversial and still uncertain because many have insisted that we really have no true and real identity after being colonized for centuries by various countries. It is then difficult to identify what is pure when something is already hybrid. However, cultural identities cannot be ascribed to pre-given, irreducible, scripted, ahistorical cultural traits that define the conventions of ethnicity. According to Homi K. Bhabha, a leading figure in post-colonialism, the negotiation of cultural identity involves the continual interface and exchange of cultural performances that in turn produce a mutual and mutable recognition (or representation) of cultural difference. It is a complex, on-going negotiation that seeks to authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation. Thus, Filipinoness or Filipinohood is hybrid. Sounds depressing, I know. However, in this essay, I would seem to go away from those two opposing theories. Here, I will extract characteristics from the characters in the three selected short stories that can be used as a proof of Filipinoness or Filipinohood (not as a hybrid). These three short stories are “The Laughter of My Father” by Carlos Bulosan, “They Died…Because of a Song” by Enrique G. Centenera, and “The Prisoners” by Bienvenido N. Santos.
The Laughter of My Father is a story that on a wedding feast, a father chided his son in worry for being shy around the girls, and stated that maybe it was this particular son that he did not “touch” at childbirth. This revived one of his old boast that he touched his five sons at each of their childbirths, wherein he was able to pass his anting-anting, which made the women fall in love with them. At this point, the main character, dazed by wine, mustered up the courage to the other side of the river, where the bride said she left something. Afterwards, their return to the feast caused a commotion because the bride, accompanied by the main character, already wore an ordinary dress, where the bride explained that she changed clothes because she had wet her wedding garments after slipping on the footbridge as they made their way back from her house, and had it not been for the main character, she would’ve fallen into the river. Later, the dance and festivities were put to a halt as the main character’s father, laughing and crying with joy, and drunk with too much wine, teased the people who were energetically proclaiming that the bride has fallen in love with his son. The wedding was ruined, and the marriage was put off, the three guests (the main character, his father, and his cousin Nonoy) made their quick escape. Days later, the bride and her family went to the village of the main character’s father and powerfully imposed on the father that his son must be married to the girl. His proud father, who – after stalling the proposed marriage – proudly confided in his son that he had indeed touched him at childbirth then, immediately, sent the main character to America. A very distinct Filipino identity in this story is the belief on some kind of anting-anting that to touch one’s son is to pass on a charisma for women to chase after. This is one of the superstitious beliefs of Filipinos, especially from the barrios or from the provinces. Another thing here is the “happy-go-lucky” and “funny” character of the father. Filipinos are always in high spirits even in the midst of chaos or trouble. Now, because the father seems to believe he was not able to touch his son at birth, he drunk himself for that problem. This is very rampant among Filipino men to drink when there are problems that are difficult to solve. In addition, it is very obvious here in the Philippines that whenever there are celebrations, the one who is invited to come would invite another group or groups of people to come with him or her to that celebration. This one is presented even at the start of the story. Finally, for this story, Filipinos are very sensitive on reputation and dignity. This is proven when the family of the bride forced the boy to marry her because the original groom had left her, thinking that she has lost her reputation as a timid woman because she is “in-love” with other man. The groom is sensitive on this part and so is the bride that is why they want him to marry her to, in a way, pay and compensate on the lost of status and dignity. Therefore, in this story, Filipinoness is defined as something in the beliefs and the actions of Filipinos. It has been shown that Filipinos believes in superstitions, finds grace amidst chaos, (men) are drinkers when it comes to thorns and thistles in life, “company goer” and very sensitive when it comes to dignity.
They Died Because of a Song is a tribute to a band of guerillas who were hiding in a portion of the forest when their Sergeant, Millar, unexpectedly, sang a melodic love song aloud with his guitar. As he quieted down and regained his senses, he reminisced about the life and wife he left behind. Mascardo, the captain of the band, went over to his side and gave him an insulting and accusing words and slap on the cheek, being so exasperated that he had given away their hiding spot to Japanese soldiers who were raiding close tot their area. Captain Mascardo whipped out his revolver and as he was about to kill Millar, enemy gunfire suddenly exploded all around them. The rebels dropped to the ground and returned fire, while Captain Mascardo cursed a lot when he discovered that his revolver was empty. Sergeant Millar gave his handgun to Mascardo and courageously recommended the Captain and the rest of the men to escape, while he would stay and hold off the enemy. Mascardo’s hatred for Millar immediately disappeared; he asked for forgiveness from this courageous man, and he said that they would not retreat and that if they were to die, they would die together. Hence, they did die together. Obviously, what is shown here is that Filipinos tend to be “homesick” or “lovesick” causing them to be emotional. This was the very reason why Millar unexpectedly sang in the middle of the forest. Today, we can see and hear stories from OFWs who frequently call their families because they do miss and love them. Most importantly, the sense of oneness or unity (pagkaka-isa and pakikisama) is depicted here as the band died together. Filipinos really have one accord and the most popular example of this is “bayanihan”. Another example is the EDSA Revolution where all Filipino people were unified for one purpose (even if they would die) to oust Marcos from his position or throne. In this story, it is to live and to die together as one. Thus, Filipinos have a sense of “togetherness” and “oneness” even until death. Therefore, in this story, Filipnoness is defined as something of the character. It has been presented that Filipinos, more often than not, become homesick and lovesick whenever he/she is away from his/her family or beloved and do have something unique and distinct characters – oneness, unity and togetherness (pagkaka-isa and pakikisama) even until death just to defend ones’ country and fight back until the last drop of blood – compared to other countries.
The Prisoner is a story of a respected man who temporarily stayed in a college campus in Kansas because of a snowstorm, who was temporarily detained in the United States because of the war. It was Christmas Eve. As he lay down comfortably on his bed, he remembers his family in the Philippines and he missed them a lot. The next Christmas morning, he met and chatted with the German prisoners of war that were lodged in the same building. He took an interest to one prisoner, who spent quite a long time breaking the ice at the fountain to save the trapped fishes inside. Some of the Germans remarked that he, too, was a prisoner, for he couldn’t go back to his home in the Philippines due to the war. The other German, meanwhile, had placed the stiff fish on a tumbler and muttered to himself that the fish would still live, and that there was still hope. Later in the evening, the main character packed his bags and prepared to leave when he learned that the railway station was now open and the snowstorm was over. As he departed, he waved goodbye at the dark window of the German prisoner’s dormitory, for he thought that they might be looking out through the windows. This story proves that Filipinos are hopeful. The major character in the story, even if he is in America, still hopes to come back to the Philippines. In line with this, Filipinos tend to miss ones family so they would struggle if they cannot come back immediately or be depressed as what the character experienced. In addition, we can see here that Filipinos would believe that there really is no place like home and this is proven when he reminisced the happenings that he had in his motherland. Finally, what is intriguing here is defining Filipinos as “prisoners”. The ones who defined this are the Germans. In this case, I would like to use the term “foreign” because foreigners see us or define us differently. When it comes to their definition, I believe, it is not credible because, in the first place, they only know a bit of us. The ones who have the right to define our identity is no other than us because we are Filipinos. We have all the right to define our national and cultural identity, our Filipinoness or FIlipinohood. We should not believe everything they say to us. The thing that I can immediately associate to this is our history. Our history in the Philippines is not observed and written from the viewpoint or perspective of a Filipino but of the Western Authors. It may be good but it really is something different when it comes from the worldview of a Filipino because we do think differently from them. For these reasons, I think, in some ways, we are caged because we are still neocolonized by the Western culture, language, belief and language. Perhaps, this is an interesting definition that we are “prisoners” and because we are prisoners, we have the difficulty of defining who we are. We have to get out of the cell first and then try to examine who we are. Until then, we could define our identity as Filipinos. Filipinohood, therefore, in this story, is defined as something of character, thinking and to the extent of identity. This part exposes that, again, Filipinos are homesick and lovesick whenever away (as proven in the reminiscing part) and that we are somehow “prisoners” (and because we are such, we suffer and struggle even until now to be free and to identify oneself).
I am therefore that we, as Filipinos, do have identity and it is up to us to dig and define it. We are just unconscious about these that is why we seem to find none. However, if we, with all effort, time and energy, scrutinize and extract, we really can find not only one, not only two but also numerous just like what I just did and found out.
The Laughter of My Father is a story that on a wedding feast, a father chided his son in worry for being shy around the girls, and stated that maybe it was this particular son that he did not “touch” at childbirth. This revived one of his old boast that he touched his five sons at each of their childbirths, wherein he was able to pass his anting-anting, which made the women fall in love with them. At this point, the main character, dazed by wine, mustered up the courage to the other side of the river, where the bride said she left something. Afterwards, their return to the feast caused a commotion because the bride, accompanied by the main character, already wore an ordinary dress, where the bride explained that she changed clothes because she had wet her wedding garments after slipping on the footbridge as they made their way back from her house, and had it not been for the main character, she would’ve fallen into the river. Later, the dance and festivities were put to a halt as the main character’s father, laughing and crying with joy, and drunk with too much wine, teased the people who were energetically proclaiming that the bride has fallen in love with his son. The wedding was ruined, and the marriage was put off, the three guests (the main character, his father, and his cousin Nonoy) made their quick escape. Days later, the bride and her family went to the village of the main character’s father and powerfully imposed on the father that his son must be married to the girl. His proud father, who – after stalling the proposed marriage – proudly confided in his son that he had indeed touched him at childbirth then, immediately, sent the main character to America. A very distinct Filipino identity in this story is the belief on some kind of anting-anting that to touch one’s son is to pass on a charisma for women to chase after. This is one of the superstitious beliefs of Filipinos, especially from the barrios or from the provinces. Another thing here is the “happy-go-lucky” and “funny” character of the father. Filipinos are always in high spirits even in the midst of chaos or trouble. Now, because the father seems to believe he was not able to touch his son at birth, he drunk himself for that problem. This is very rampant among Filipino men to drink when there are problems that are difficult to solve. In addition, it is very obvious here in the Philippines that whenever there are celebrations, the one who is invited to come would invite another group or groups of people to come with him or her to that celebration. This one is presented even at the start of the story. Finally, for this story, Filipinos are very sensitive on reputation and dignity. This is proven when the family of the bride forced the boy to marry her because the original groom had left her, thinking that she has lost her reputation as a timid woman because she is “in-love” with other man. The groom is sensitive on this part and so is the bride that is why they want him to marry her to, in a way, pay and compensate on the lost of status and dignity. Therefore, in this story, Filipinoness is defined as something in the beliefs and the actions of Filipinos. It has been shown that Filipinos believes in superstitions, finds grace amidst chaos, (men) are drinkers when it comes to thorns and thistles in life, “company goer” and very sensitive when it comes to dignity.
They Died Because of a Song is a tribute to a band of guerillas who were hiding in a portion of the forest when their Sergeant, Millar, unexpectedly, sang a melodic love song aloud with his guitar. As he quieted down and regained his senses, he reminisced about the life and wife he left behind. Mascardo, the captain of the band, went over to his side and gave him an insulting and accusing words and slap on the cheek, being so exasperated that he had given away their hiding spot to Japanese soldiers who were raiding close tot their area. Captain Mascardo whipped out his revolver and as he was about to kill Millar, enemy gunfire suddenly exploded all around them. The rebels dropped to the ground and returned fire, while Captain Mascardo cursed a lot when he discovered that his revolver was empty. Sergeant Millar gave his handgun to Mascardo and courageously recommended the Captain and the rest of the men to escape, while he would stay and hold off the enemy. Mascardo’s hatred for Millar immediately disappeared; he asked for forgiveness from this courageous man, and he said that they would not retreat and that if they were to die, they would die together. Hence, they did die together. Obviously, what is shown here is that Filipinos tend to be “homesick” or “lovesick” causing them to be emotional. This was the very reason why Millar unexpectedly sang in the middle of the forest. Today, we can see and hear stories from OFWs who frequently call their families because they do miss and love them. Most importantly, the sense of oneness or unity (pagkaka-isa and pakikisama) is depicted here as the band died together. Filipinos really have one accord and the most popular example of this is “bayanihan”. Another example is the EDSA Revolution where all Filipino people were unified for one purpose (even if they would die) to oust Marcos from his position or throne. In this story, it is to live and to die together as one. Thus, Filipinos have a sense of “togetherness” and “oneness” even until death. Therefore, in this story, Filipnoness is defined as something of the character. It has been presented that Filipinos, more often than not, become homesick and lovesick whenever he/she is away from his/her family or beloved and do have something unique and distinct characters – oneness, unity and togetherness (pagkaka-isa and pakikisama) even until death just to defend ones’ country and fight back until the last drop of blood – compared to other countries.
The Prisoner is a story of a respected man who temporarily stayed in a college campus in Kansas because of a snowstorm, who was temporarily detained in the United States because of the war. It was Christmas Eve. As he lay down comfortably on his bed, he remembers his family in the Philippines and he missed them a lot. The next Christmas morning, he met and chatted with the German prisoners of war that were lodged in the same building. He took an interest to one prisoner, who spent quite a long time breaking the ice at the fountain to save the trapped fishes inside. Some of the Germans remarked that he, too, was a prisoner, for he couldn’t go back to his home in the Philippines due to the war. The other German, meanwhile, had placed the stiff fish on a tumbler and muttered to himself that the fish would still live, and that there was still hope. Later in the evening, the main character packed his bags and prepared to leave when he learned that the railway station was now open and the snowstorm was over. As he departed, he waved goodbye at the dark window of the German prisoner’s dormitory, for he thought that they might be looking out through the windows. This story proves that Filipinos are hopeful. The major character in the story, even if he is in America, still hopes to come back to the Philippines. In line with this, Filipinos tend to miss ones family so they would struggle if they cannot come back immediately or be depressed as what the character experienced. In addition, we can see here that Filipinos would believe that there really is no place like home and this is proven when he reminisced the happenings that he had in his motherland. Finally, what is intriguing here is defining Filipinos as “prisoners”. The ones who defined this are the Germans. In this case, I would like to use the term “foreign” because foreigners see us or define us differently. When it comes to their definition, I believe, it is not credible because, in the first place, they only know a bit of us. The ones who have the right to define our identity is no other than us because we are Filipinos. We have all the right to define our national and cultural identity, our Filipinoness or FIlipinohood. We should not believe everything they say to us. The thing that I can immediately associate to this is our history. Our history in the Philippines is not observed and written from the viewpoint or perspective of a Filipino but of the Western Authors. It may be good but it really is something different when it comes from the worldview of a Filipino because we do think differently from them. For these reasons, I think, in some ways, we are caged because we are still neocolonized by the Western culture, language, belief and language. Perhaps, this is an interesting definition that we are “prisoners” and because we are prisoners, we have the difficulty of defining who we are. We have to get out of the cell first and then try to examine who we are. Until then, we could define our identity as Filipinos. Filipinohood, therefore, in this story, is defined as something of character, thinking and to the extent of identity. This part exposes that, again, Filipinos are homesick and lovesick whenever away (as proven in the reminiscing part) and that we are somehow “prisoners” (and because we are such, we suffer and struggle even until now to be free and to identify oneself).
I am therefore that we, as Filipinos, do have identity and it is up to us to dig and define it. We are just unconscious about these that is why we seem to find none. However, if we, with all effort, time and energy, scrutinize and extract, we really can find not only one, not only two but also numerous just like what I just did and found out.
Interacting with The Living Fossil
Folklore is a general term for the verbal, spiritual, and material aspects of any culture that are transmitted orally, by observation, or by imitation. People sharing a culture may have in common an occupation, language, ethnicity, age, or geographical location. This body of traditional material is preserved and passed on from generation to generation, with constant variations shaped by memory, immediate need or purpose, and degree of individual talent. The word folklore was coined in 1846 by the English antiquary William John Thoms to replace the term popular antiquities. Folklore materials may be roughly classified into five general areas: ideas and beliefs, traditions, narratives, folk sayings, and the folk arts. Folk beliefs include ideas about the whole range of human concerns, from the reasons and cures for diseases to speculation concerning life after death. This category therefore includes folkloristic beliefs (superstitions), magic, divination, witchcraft, and apparitions such as ghosts and fantastic mythological creatures. The second classification (that of traditions) includes material dealing with festival customs, games, and dances; cookery and costume might also be included, by extension. The third category, narratives, includes the ballad and the various forms of folktales and folk music, all of which may be based in part on real characters or historical events. The category of folk sayings includes proverbs and nursery rhymes, verbal charms, and riddles. Folk arts, the fifth and only nonverbal category, covers any form of art, generally created anonymously among a particular people, shaped by and expressing the character of their community life.
Culture, in anthropology, is defined as the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals. A people’s culture includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems. Culture is the most important concept in anthropology (the study of all aspects of human life, past and present). Anthropologists commonly use the term culture to refer to a society or group in which many or all people live and think in the same ways. Likewise, any group of people who share a common culture—and in particular, common rules of behavior and a basic form of social organization—constitutes a society. Thus, the terms culture and society are somewhat interchangeable. However, while many animals live in societies, such as herds of elk or packs of wild dogs, only humans have culture.
These two words, folklore and culture, were just mere knowledge of mine that I could use anytime and anywhere in sentences if I wanted to. It’s not that I don’t know the distinctions and the differences between the two, I did know but I didn’t have a deeper and better understanding of these words until I’d been to Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
THE RATIONALE
Our professor (Prof. Nancy Fe Puno, Ph.D.) in English 75 (Folklore) made it compulsory, as one of the requirements to finish the course, that her students should and must join the field trip to Malaybalay, Bukidnon to witness these non-acculturated tribes, dancing and do things to manifest their tradition, culture and beliefs, “The KAAMULAN FESTIVAL”. At first, I didn’t have the intention and excitement to see those ethnic presentations and natives doing things like that. Honestly, I was not interested to see any of culture tradition, and ethnic dances (whatsoever). I thought all of my classmates would also feel the same, however, they were very much excited to go. I’m not sure if their excitement had something to do with that culture thing. Some of them asked money from their parents long before the trip and some asked more than what was asked (this is confidential). Either ways, it’s their choices and reasons, I had mine too. My point was, I was shocked seeing they’re very much thrilled, energetic and all that. Still, I was not carried away by their being in “high-spirits”. Moreover, I didn’t have any plans telling my mother that we would be a having a field trip (I didn’t have plans to join the trip, obviously). Four days before the trip, I asked our teacher if it would be okay that some of the class were not going (actually, I was referring to my self) and I also told her if it would be compulsory. Then she said, “it’s in the syllabus, hence, it is!” In addition, she required us to write a paper about the field trip and include the interview with the natives. After saying that, I was then extrinsically motivated to go (I want neither to fail nor to get a low grade).
THE ASSEMBLY AREA, DEPARTURE and TRANSPORTATION
March 4, 2005, 5:02 am, I woke up in haste thinking I might be late for the departure. I was aware that the “buss would be in the assembly area on time and would leave on time (6:00 am)” as what Prof. Aguado warned us. Thus, I ate, took a bath and wore clothes all in a speed up and rush. I was ready to leave at 5:45 am, with my bags on and then, immediately drove a jeepny heading to school. At 6:01 am, I was able to make it, I reached and got myself into the buss. Honestly, I expected a good and a relaxing buss. We rode an old, rusty and a sort-of-junk one, however. Good thing I brought with me my gears to, in a way, make me a little bit at ease until we would reach Bukidnon. At 6:14, Prof. Aguado decided to depart and leave those who were’nt able to make it on time. Predictably, some were left and, in response, decided to ride another buss. I was thinking that the buss we rode would take us all the way through Bukidnon; it wasn’t the case. As we reached Cagayan de Oro City, we were made to transfer to a better, spacious, and, somehow, relaxing and comfortable one compared to the first.
MALAYBALAY, BUKIDNON: A SPECTACULAR LOCALE
Most certainly, at 11:43, we finally arrived at Malaybalay, Bukidnon. As I stepped down from the buss, what came into my mind was “this place is cold, I’ve got to prepare myself”. I said this because my friends told me Bukidnon is really such a technically and literally cool place, a mini Baguio. However, it was so hot that I perspired and sweated a lot. I was like fresh from the bathroom and yet smelled like days without bathing, you know what I mean.
BUKIDNON STATE COLLEGE: THE AB ENGLISH PROGRAM and THE ACCOMODATION
The buss got in and parked at the campus of BSC (Bukidnon State College). It was bigger than I thought – perhaps I underestimated the place. If I’m not mistaken, it has two gymnasiums (or something like that). There were also copious of students, staffs, faculty members and people. It was like a university. I personally roam around (I was so curious about it) the college and found out that there are elementary, high school and college departments. Because I attempted to go every angle and every corner, I was able to arrive at the AB English Department. I stayed there for a while and read their prospectus. Naturally, the prospectus is a bit different from that of MSU-IIT’s because there are some courses that they have while we don’t and there are courses that we take up that they don’t. The interesting about their AB English program is the inclusion of Creative Writing (or Journalism) and Shakespearean Literature. I do love those courses and hope they would be included in the English department of MSU-IIT.
At first, we were accommodated at the second floor of a certain building. Again, it was another uneasy circumstance because we were fused with the noisy and mysterious Nursing students in a small room. I don’t know them and I don’t have trust in them – they might steal something from me. There were many unknown students coming in and out, we actually don’t had privacy. I was so anxious thinking I would not, should not and could not sleep with that kind of situation. When I placed my bags inside the room and was able to find a good place for my classmates and me, I could not afford to leave from there and had my lunch (even if I were hungry). I stayed there until my classmates invited me to eat lunch. I anxiously and nervously left. Before we had our lunch, we looked for a Comfort Room or a Bathroom so that when we urinate, defecate and bathe, there would then be no hard time locating the area. We did found the Comfort Rooms but there were no bathrooms (of course, it’s a school). Having found the CRs, was not the problem but the water. Now we had more problems: the accommodation and the water. Bothered and restless, we retuned to our rooms. Nevertheless, before we climbed the stairs, Prof. Aguado gave us good news that solved a part of our problem – all the students taking up folklore will be accommodated in a separate and exclusive room. The room was better and bigger, then, I feel like okay because I know my classmates and so far, no one is a thief. However, one problem remained – water. We just left that problem there and now, tried to find a place to eat and tried to explore the city. Sooner, the problem concerning the lack or no water in the place, where we were accommodated, was finally solved when Prof. Nelia Balgoa opened her home where we could take a bath (so refreshing and cold!).
THE FOOD and SALES
We crossed the road and there we found an avenue of fast foods. We got into the nearest one from the school and started wondering about the prices of the delicacies and dishes. The lowest price was 35 pesos per serve where in Iligan City fast foods, it would only cost 15 pesos. The Buko Juice (Coconut Juice), where it’s only 5 to 10 pesos here, is 30 pesos. Everything was expensive. As a student, I really could say it is. I was thinking that the foods in Malaybalay would be cheaper than Iligan’s because it is a place of natural resources. The vegetables and meats would expectedly cheap. I just ordered the cheapest one and a cup of rice. While eating, I was thinking if I could survive because I only brought less money, I didn’t expect that their foods would be sold for that expensive – to me it was. I was also thinking why in the world they would do that. Is it because it’s a special holiday or what? As we leave the food chain, my classmate looked at the signboard and it says it’s a Restaurant! After that, we realized that we have to find a place that could be apt for our budget. The right place was the Food Festival at the Kaamulan Ground.
THE CITY, KAAMULAN GROUND and ATMOSPHERE
After we had our lunch, we went to the Gaisano to buy something. The place is really a city because it has restaurants, pawnshops, plaza, shopping stores, drug stores, traffic, noises here and there, crowd, foreigners, lights and a lot more. To be familiar with the city, we took a hike from the BSC to Gaisano that is 15-20 minutes away. The store is not as big as the Iligan’s but it’s good enough to meet our basic needs. Meanwhile, we heard “Kaamulan Ground” frequently from many people and it made us curious of what could that be. Thus, we asked the people what it was and where it was. They gave us directions and still, we took a hike.
Finally, we arrived at the “Kaamulan Ground”. At first, we were thinking to go this way and to that way until we can roam all over the place. However, as we go through and through, more and more roads were split into two, leading us to different directions and ways to various stalls and stores. We then said to each other that we really couldn’t tour the whole of Kaamulan Ground. It was so huge, vast and wide with lots and lots of stalls and stores selling various objects, stuffs, things, equipment, instruments and the like. They sold: accessories and jewel from earrings to anklets; wardrobe from cup to shoes; gift items from big to small ones, from expensive to cheap, from more to less meaningful; household things from Living Room Set to Kitchenware, from chairs to knives, from curtains to pillows; food from fruits to vegetables, raw to baked or cooked, foreign to native, delicious to bitter; and most specially, the native products from the skin of animals to bones, from head to foot parts; expensive to cheap, very native to less native, and from accessories to decorations. They also offered horse riding for 20 pesos per ride (10-15 minutes). Because I was inexperienced, I dared to ride and the feeling was so in pedestal that I feel like an owner of a vast territory – I didn’t want to go down from the horse anymore.
We spend much of our time at the Kaamulan Ground, discovering new things that we often see and old things that we often forgot, not knowing these are pleasurable to the eyes. It’s true that it was hot in the morning and in the afternoon. Nevertheless, as the day passed on, night came in and it started to freeze us. What my friends told me were all-true. It really was so cold that a jacket wasn’t enough to warm you. My lips started to dry up, cracked, and so with my skin. I needed to apply lotion from my body to my legs and oil to my hair that I might be a little bit be warmed. During the night, I was shaking because it’s cold and even more during the dawn, it was even more and more cold that we didn’t have any plans to get off from our blankets and wash our faces.
THE KAAMULAN FESTIVAL 2005: A BRAVURA ENDEAVOR
This is annually held at Malabalay, Bukidnon during the first week of March and this started a long time ago. The highlight of this festival is the competition of the dances and presentations among the non-acculturated tribes of nearby Bukidnon. For this reason, some people from Luzon, Visayas, even foreigners like Americans and Chinese, and more students from Mindanao (especially from MSU-IIT) would come and witness this momentous event from the pride of Mindanao. During the Kaamulan 2005, there were nine invited tribes to compete and show their traditions, beliefs and culture through their dances, songs, yells, costumes, props, design, colors and drama. To view and comment on the spectacular festival, there were also many journalists and field reporters from local to national broadcasting networks, magazines and newspapers covered the whole event.
THE PRACTICE
In March 4 at the afternoon, I saw the tribes in their rehearsals and practices. Even if it were practices and rehearsals, you could still see their seriousness and facial expressions. They were so dedicated and disciplined that even under the sun, they continued to dance, smile, sing and yell for hours. In the evening, I saw them practicing with their costumes and props again for hours. As we went to bed, later in the night, we heard chronic sounds of drums, songs and yells on the streets. Later we realized it was the natives doing their rehearsals even if it was so cold. In the early morning of March 5 (perhaps three to four am), we again heard them going their parade and practice more and more. This element of being so serious and dedicated manifested through their prolonged period of practices, triggered my mind (that it would be a good topic) to ask this as one of my questions during my interview with the natives.
THE NATIVES and TRIBES
When it comes to natives, what I had in my mind was “a people who are almost naked, dark, curly hair, ugly faces, frown faces, smell bad, dark teeth, horrible gestures and shocking expressions”. Hence, in March 5 at 6:25 am, while I was walking to the assembly place of the tribes, I was hoping I could get along with them in spite of who they are. Partly, I was scared because of my schema concerning them and partly, I was so excited to see real and alive natives from various tribes. Now, my prerogatives had been changed, I was developed into becoming interested with the natives concerning the matter of interviewing and knowing what they have in their minds (if they are very different from us or just a bit). When I arrived at the said place, I had a hard time looking for the natives so I approaches one of the “directors of the tribes” to point the real natives. As she pointed at them, I said “really?” because they look just like us. It’s just that we wear better cloths than they do and that we look like often washed than them. Nevertheless, they look just like us on a native costume with props. I think the cloths and accessories make us different from them, but over-all, they are as humans as we are.
Generally, the most common colors among them are Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Orange and White but they don’t have Green because for them, it isn’t a color because it’s or it represents the nature. Their accessories are different from each other with regard to their beliefs and uses on them. Some wear less and some wear earrings that pass through the faces. Their costumes do look ancient and colorful. Obviously, the women have more accessories and more colorful than men. Their props depend on the dance or ritual they are portraying – some would use household tools, farming tools, fishing tools and some would use weapons for war or defense. In their dances, you can’t see a man holding or dancing so close to the woman. They maintain their modesty and “reserveness” as what Prof. Fernandez said. Some of the dances are like drama or plays that some would show how to catch a fish, kill a python, do farming, harvesting, fighting, traveling, heal and cure the sick ones and even mourning and rejoicing. These dances just reflect, express and manifest what they do, believe, how they solve problems and what they think of something. It really is an interesting topic for research and thesis.
THE HIGAONON TRIBE WITH ITS NATIVES: AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Among the nine tribes, I chose the Higaonon (Southern Libuna) as the subject of my interview. Before approaching them, I was aware that prior to interview, you have to do something. Because I was not so sure of what to do, I waited the Radio Reporter to finish interviewing one of the natives so that I could come to him and asked him what he did that he could interview. Right after the interview, I came to him and he said, I had to approach the “directress” of the tribe. Therefore, I did and the woman helped me approach and interview one of the elder and old native (for I assume the older ones know most).
This tribe’s instruments are Bantula (bamboo made into water pipe, weapon and shield used when they travel from one place to another), Dabakan (cow’s skin as the drums), and Agong and Kulintang (as other musical instruments).
This interview had two sections with its corresponding and major respondents: Isidora Calleo, 68 (representing the women in their tribe) and Sigundo Dansuli, 35 (representing the men in their tribe). The first section was the information I gathered from Isidora Calleo and the second one was the data from Sigundo Dansuli.
I first interviewed Isidora Calleo who look so old and yet still energetic to dance under the scorching heat of the sun barefooted. The first thing I did was to ask the colors they have. She said to me maliga (red), puti (white), orange, yellow, and black. I asked her the significance of each color but she failed to answer it. I proceeded with the question on her outfit, costume and accessories. She said labitos (necklaces), pandong (headdress), aritis (earrings), bukala (bracelet), panyo (handkerchief), saya and linadsoy (dress or wardrobe). Then, I asked why do they wear those accessories and what are their significances to their lives. She answered “dayan-dayan” or “pang-pangarte” (for beautification or to beautify their selves). I followed the question on their dances. She was able to perform to me the steps like inaksyon (dancing forward and clapping hands), linuhod (dancing back and forth), inugsak (hopping half), iniko (dancing forward and to the sides), singkulolok (dancing while the feet move forward and a back), and inagong or binanog (a dance for courtship and wedding; this dance uses a handkerchief ). She added, after dancing that these are done during rituals and ceremonies like politics, wedding and harvest. I then asked why do they have perform and dance very seriously and disciplined. It’s not because of money (money was not even mentioned) but because of their tradition to do it and it’s their obligation to continue dance, however, only with dinatuhan or tuluman (purposes and right reasons). There must and should be a reason why they dance. Then I followed up if there are no reasons or if there are reasons but they don’t perform. The answer is “agawan o paninglan magdalo” ([you] will be punished [by a supreme high that sooner, you’ll get] sick or get a bad luck). I asked her to continue telling me their beliefs but she already forgot them. Finally, I asked about the esoteric and exoteric factor in their tribe. “What do you think of your tribe that other tribes think of it as you think?”, I asked. She replied, “Mayad ka ho mga dumano” (being hospitable to the guests or neighbors or being accommodating). She also added that in their tribe, they have to be good to their tatubalay (neighbors) and there should be no backbiting. “What do you think of other tribes that you think other tribes think the same way?”, I continued. She said that they don’t have the right to perceive and judge other tribes according to what they think to prevent from conflicts or gaps. She added that their tribe does not look for fight and ever in the history, they do not fight or look for trouble. They should remain at peace to maintain their tribe not having any mortal enemies. Then, I finally and formally ended the interview with her so that I would still have time with my other respondent. However, before that, I showed her my great gratitude and thanked her a lot for she did help me in my paper. We then took pictures with her and her company and so with their band. Before I left her, she then smiled at me and I smiled back (as a respect).
Prior to my interview with Sigundo Dansuli, I first develop rapport – I said if it’s okay for me to interview him and then I made friends with him. I open my question with very basic ones. First, I asked on the colors of their costumes and their significances. This time, I was able to get information. There are red (signify the position on the society that you are not low but high), white (the peace in their tribe), black (that no matter how peaceful they are, there are still bad things happening just for a while, pains, sufferings and all negative connotations), and yellow (the abundance and riches of their tribe and land). I proceeded with their accessories. They have atubaw (headdress: the arrow must be pointing front so that your position will not be lowered more; if one turns it back, he lowered down more himself), sakuro (a water reservoir made of bamboo) and salay (a prop that symbolizes their way of living or their job). After which, he went back to the position of their tribe in the society saying, they are considered low or the “IPs” (indigenous people). I then, a sort of, gave him a lecture that (according to what I learned from History 3) they are no longer considered IPs but one of the TRI-PEOPLE of Mindanao (Lumads, Maranao, and Christians). I added that we are all equal. In a way, his desperateness or condition was lifted up. He then thanked me for giving that information to him. Then, I continued asking him on their social rank in the tribe. He said that a datu is the one who has the highest position and it is not by the choice of the people but by blood, royal blood. The datu is the one who governs the tribe, gives rules and regulations, the one who holds ceremonies and rituals, and finally, the one who settles problems and conflicts within the tribe. Then I asked what the punishments are and how a datu does settle conflicts. He said that before, the punishments include execution of death but now, the datu no longer uses death as punishment but settles the problem very well, instead. He would find way in order that the victim would forgive the one who does the crime and that the two should and must be reconciled. Because I missed my favorite question on the dance, I inserted why they are so disciplined and serious in dancing and performing. He said that it is their obligation and for their ritual, tradition, tribe and culture, they have and must do it (again, no mention of the money). Next, I asked about their celebrations. He only gave me one and that is New Year. They have to wake up early to welcome the new year so that the bad things (problems and pains) that happened to them the previous year would no longer come back nor return but the new year would bring them joy and peace.
Another interesting about this tribe is the panuyo (an early marriage settled, approved and planed only by the parents of the groom and bride). Sigundo Dansuli was a victim of this. He was still 18 and his wife was 13 when their parents married them both. During their coupled life, they knew that they didn’t like and love each other, thus they didn’t have a child. Good thing a new rule was approved that panuyo will no longer be exercised, thus the two divorced. Divorce is acceptable to their tribe. He then re-married to the one he really loved, and now he’s a father of three children. He pointed then his first and second wife to me.
Then, I proceeded with stories on ghosts and he gave me the kakak (can only be heard but not seen) and manghak-uking (a bird that its face looks like a cat, it bites). They considered these creatures as monsters or ghosts because of their horrific and horror voices.
Then, I asked him about their job and work. Most of them are farmers. They plant crops like gabi, camote, bingggala (camoteng kahoy) and vegetables. They work not only to get money but also to have food. He said that the people before were just fine in eating the binggala but their children do not like it; they look for rice.
Finally, I asked him about their dos and don’ts in their tribes and so with their belief concerning life after death. These are the following:
1. Do not do commit crime or rub during the night without a light or lamp, otherwise, you will become an ant or bee or a pig after you die.
2. Do not sit without a seat; don’t “fake-sit” like sitting on the air because it will bring you bad luck.
3. Do not have a chair without a table or table without a chair for it will bring bad luck.
4. Do not eat within a cooking pot for you will be lost in the woods.
5. Do not eat near or at the door because you will become a hindrance or an obstacle to the people. As a result, they will always hurt you.
6. Do not eat turning your back on the cooking pot. It means that when you backbite, you think the person does not hear or know but actually, he does, so be careful.
7. Do not walk through the kitchen while eating because you will get stumble at the forest.
8. Do not eat on the cover of the cooking put because as a result, you will become a madman and you will always get angry with frowning face.
Then, I used a three-generation test on the data on Dos and Don’ts and life-after-death belief. The first generation is Sigundo Dansuli, 35. For him, he partly believed in these things and when he was younger, the people strongly believed in these. The second generation is Lordan, 25 and Kirino, 21. For them, they know these things but don’t believe in them. The third generation is Timothy Dan, 15 and Ronald, 16. For them, they don’t have any idea on these. Moreover, after I asked them, they even laughed about these beliefs, they looked at each other and saying how could a man when after death becomes an ant or a bee or a pig, then they laughed. Feeling satisfied, I thanked first Sigundo Dansuli (I also showed a great gratitude to him) then Lordan and Kirino, and finally, Timothy and Ronald. I told them that they are a great help this paper.
THE CONCLUSION
My trip to and stay in Malaybalay, Bukidnon had helped me in some various ways. Through the interview, I learned that people with varied environment, setting, timeframe and atmosphere would differ in many aspects. There are things that you believe while they don’t, there are things that they believe, and you don’t. Because of these differences in race, culture, tradition, language, and beliefs, there are many people in chaos and in war for they do not know how to settle and handle these things. All we have to do is respect and understand one another to keep us at peace. After the trip, I go beyond its objectives and goals. I know have a deeper meaning and understanding of culture and tradition affecting the people and through it, people create something, and that is their beliefs. Because of these beliefs and lore, they continue to live and survive. I also understand the role of folklore in the tribes, especially to the Higaonon. Folklore serves as their social restrictions, education, and political constitutions. Thus, through the field trip and interview, I was able to get into the thoughts of men, pick up their beliefs and these have become integrated to the field of folklore, folks with common lore. I will never forget such an experience that helped me comprehend the folklore and humanity of human kind within a tribe; and no matter how old and new a generation is, according a philosopher, “folklore continues to be created and recreated… a dead fossil that refuses to die.” I thank Prof. Puno for such a course that paves the way to interact and be acquainted with that living fossil!
Culture, in anthropology, is defined as the patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals. A people’s culture includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems. Culture is the most important concept in anthropology (the study of all aspects of human life, past and present). Anthropologists commonly use the term culture to refer to a society or group in which many or all people live and think in the same ways. Likewise, any group of people who share a common culture—and in particular, common rules of behavior and a basic form of social organization—constitutes a society. Thus, the terms culture and society are somewhat interchangeable. However, while many animals live in societies, such as herds of elk or packs of wild dogs, only humans have culture.
These two words, folklore and culture, were just mere knowledge of mine that I could use anytime and anywhere in sentences if I wanted to. It’s not that I don’t know the distinctions and the differences between the two, I did know but I didn’t have a deeper and better understanding of these words until I’d been to Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
THE RATIONALE
Our professor (Prof. Nancy Fe Puno, Ph.D.) in English 75 (Folklore) made it compulsory, as one of the requirements to finish the course, that her students should and must join the field trip to Malaybalay, Bukidnon to witness these non-acculturated tribes, dancing and do things to manifest their tradition, culture and beliefs, “The KAAMULAN FESTIVAL”. At first, I didn’t have the intention and excitement to see those ethnic presentations and natives doing things like that. Honestly, I was not interested to see any of culture tradition, and ethnic dances (whatsoever). I thought all of my classmates would also feel the same, however, they were very much excited to go. I’m not sure if their excitement had something to do with that culture thing. Some of them asked money from their parents long before the trip and some asked more than what was asked (this is confidential). Either ways, it’s their choices and reasons, I had mine too. My point was, I was shocked seeing they’re very much thrilled, energetic and all that. Still, I was not carried away by their being in “high-spirits”. Moreover, I didn’t have any plans telling my mother that we would be a having a field trip (I didn’t have plans to join the trip, obviously). Four days before the trip, I asked our teacher if it would be okay that some of the class were not going (actually, I was referring to my self) and I also told her if it would be compulsory. Then she said, “it’s in the syllabus, hence, it is!” In addition, she required us to write a paper about the field trip and include the interview with the natives. After saying that, I was then extrinsically motivated to go (I want neither to fail nor to get a low grade).
THE ASSEMBLY AREA, DEPARTURE and TRANSPORTATION
March 4, 2005, 5:02 am, I woke up in haste thinking I might be late for the departure. I was aware that the “buss would be in the assembly area on time and would leave on time (6:00 am)” as what Prof. Aguado warned us. Thus, I ate, took a bath and wore clothes all in a speed up and rush. I was ready to leave at 5:45 am, with my bags on and then, immediately drove a jeepny heading to school. At 6:01 am, I was able to make it, I reached and got myself into the buss. Honestly, I expected a good and a relaxing buss. We rode an old, rusty and a sort-of-junk one, however. Good thing I brought with me my gears to, in a way, make me a little bit at ease until we would reach Bukidnon. At 6:14, Prof. Aguado decided to depart and leave those who were’nt able to make it on time. Predictably, some were left and, in response, decided to ride another buss. I was thinking that the buss we rode would take us all the way through Bukidnon; it wasn’t the case. As we reached Cagayan de Oro City, we were made to transfer to a better, spacious, and, somehow, relaxing and comfortable one compared to the first.
MALAYBALAY, BUKIDNON: A SPECTACULAR LOCALE
Most certainly, at 11:43, we finally arrived at Malaybalay, Bukidnon. As I stepped down from the buss, what came into my mind was “this place is cold, I’ve got to prepare myself”. I said this because my friends told me Bukidnon is really such a technically and literally cool place, a mini Baguio. However, it was so hot that I perspired and sweated a lot. I was like fresh from the bathroom and yet smelled like days without bathing, you know what I mean.
BUKIDNON STATE COLLEGE: THE AB ENGLISH PROGRAM and THE ACCOMODATION
The buss got in and parked at the campus of BSC (Bukidnon State College). It was bigger than I thought – perhaps I underestimated the place. If I’m not mistaken, it has two gymnasiums (or something like that). There were also copious of students, staffs, faculty members and people. It was like a university. I personally roam around (I was so curious about it) the college and found out that there are elementary, high school and college departments. Because I attempted to go every angle and every corner, I was able to arrive at the AB English Department. I stayed there for a while and read their prospectus. Naturally, the prospectus is a bit different from that of MSU-IIT’s because there are some courses that they have while we don’t and there are courses that we take up that they don’t. The interesting about their AB English program is the inclusion of Creative Writing (or Journalism) and Shakespearean Literature. I do love those courses and hope they would be included in the English department of MSU-IIT.
At first, we were accommodated at the second floor of a certain building. Again, it was another uneasy circumstance because we were fused with the noisy and mysterious Nursing students in a small room. I don’t know them and I don’t have trust in them – they might steal something from me. There were many unknown students coming in and out, we actually don’t had privacy. I was so anxious thinking I would not, should not and could not sleep with that kind of situation. When I placed my bags inside the room and was able to find a good place for my classmates and me, I could not afford to leave from there and had my lunch (even if I were hungry). I stayed there until my classmates invited me to eat lunch. I anxiously and nervously left. Before we had our lunch, we looked for a Comfort Room or a Bathroom so that when we urinate, defecate and bathe, there would then be no hard time locating the area. We did found the Comfort Rooms but there were no bathrooms (of course, it’s a school). Having found the CRs, was not the problem but the water. Now we had more problems: the accommodation and the water. Bothered and restless, we retuned to our rooms. Nevertheless, before we climbed the stairs, Prof. Aguado gave us good news that solved a part of our problem – all the students taking up folklore will be accommodated in a separate and exclusive room. The room was better and bigger, then, I feel like okay because I know my classmates and so far, no one is a thief. However, one problem remained – water. We just left that problem there and now, tried to find a place to eat and tried to explore the city. Sooner, the problem concerning the lack or no water in the place, where we were accommodated, was finally solved when Prof. Nelia Balgoa opened her home where we could take a bath (so refreshing and cold!).
THE FOOD and SALES
We crossed the road and there we found an avenue of fast foods. We got into the nearest one from the school and started wondering about the prices of the delicacies and dishes. The lowest price was 35 pesos per serve where in Iligan City fast foods, it would only cost 15 pesos. The Buko Juice (Coconut Juice), where it’s only 5 to 10 pesos here, is 30 pesos. Everything was expensive. As a student, I really could say it is. I was thinking that the foods in Malaybalay would be cheaper than Iligan’s because it is a place of natural resources. The vegetables and meats would expectedly cheap. I just ordered the cheapest one and a cup of rice. While eating, I was thinking if I could survive because I only brought less money, I didn’t expect that their foods would be sold for that expensive – to me it was. I was also thinking why in the world they would do that. Is it because it’s a special holiday or what? As we leave the food chain, my classmate looked at the signboard and it says it’s a Restaurant! After that, we realized that we have to find a place that could be apt for our budget. The right place was the Food Festival at the Kaamulan Ground.
THE CITY, KAAMULAN GROUND and ATMOSPHERE
After we had our lunch, we went to the Gaisano to buy something. The place is really a city because it has restaurants, pawnshops, plaza, shopping stores, drug stores, traffic, noises here and there, crowd, foreigners, lights and a lot more. To be familiar with the city, we took a hike from the BSC to Gaisano that is 15-20 minutes away. The store is not as big as the Iligan’s but it’s good enough to meet our basic needs. Meanwhile, we heard “Kaamulan Ground” frequently from many people and it made us curious of what could that be. Thus, we asked the people what it was and where it was. They gave us directions and still, we took a hike.
Finally, we arrived at the “Kaamulan Ground”. At first, we were thinking to go this way and to that way until we can roam all over the place. However, as we go through and through, more and more roads were split into two, leading us to different directions and ways to various stalls and stores. We then said to each other that we really couldn’t tour the whole of Kaamulan Ground. It was so huge, vast and wide with lots and lots of stalls and stores selling various objects, stuffs, things, equipment, instruments and the like. They sold: accessories and jewel from earrings to anklets; wardrobe from cup to shoes; gift items from big to small ones, from expensive to cheap, from more to less meaningful; household things from Living Room Set to Kitchenware, from chairs to knives, from curtains to pillows; food from fruits to vegetables, raw to baked or cooked, foreign to native, delicious to bitter; and most specially, the native products from the skin of animals to bones, from head to foot parts; expensive to cheap, very native to less native, and from accessories to decorations. They also offered horse riding for 20 pesos per ride (10-15 minutes). Because I was inexperienced, I dared to ride and the feeling was so in pedestal that I feel like an owner of a vast territory – I didn’t want to go down from the horse anymore.
We spend much of our time at the Kaamulan Ground, discovering new things that we often see and old things that we often forgot, not knowing these are pleasurable to the eyes. It’s true that it was hot in the morning and in the afternoon. Nevertheless, as the day passed on, night came in and it started to freeze us. What my friends told me were all-true. It really was so cold that a jacket wasn’t enough to warm you. My lips started to dry up, cracked, and so with my skin. I needed to apply lotion from my body to my legs and oil to my hair that I might be a little bit be warmed. During the night, I was shaking because it’s cold and even more during the dawn, it was even more and more cold that we didn’t have any plans to get off from our blankets and wash our faces.
THE KAAMULAN FESTIVAL 2005: A BRAVURA ENDEAVOR
This is annually held at Malabalay, Bukidnon during the first week of March and this started a long time ago. The highlight of this festival is the competition of the dances and presentations among the non-acculturated tribes of nearby Bukidnon. For this reason, some people from Luzon, Visayas, even foreigners like Americans and Chinese, and more students from Mindanao (especially from MSU-IIT) would come and witness this momentous event from the pride of Mindanao. During the Kaamulan 2005, there were nine invited tribes to compete and show their traditions, beliefs and culture through their dances, songs, yells, costumes, props, design, colors and drama. To view and comment on the spectacular festival, there were also many journalists and field reporters from local to national broadcasting networks, magazines and newspapers covered the whole event.
THE PRACTICE
In March 4 at the afternoon, I saw the tribes in their rehearsals and practices. Even if it were practices and rehearsals, you could still see their seriousness and facial expressions. They were so dedicated and disciplined that even under the sun, they continued to dance, smile, sing and yell for hours. In the evening, I saw them practicing with their costumes and props again for hours. As we went to bed, later in the night, we heard chronic sounds of drums, songs and yells on the streets. Later we realized it was the natives doing their rehearsals even if it was so cold. In the early morning of March 5 (perhaps three to four am), we again heard them going their parade and practice more and more. This element of being so serious and dedicated manifested through their prolonged period of practices, triggered my mind (that it would be a good topic) to ask this as one of my questions during my interview with the natives.
THE NATIVES and TRIBES
When it comes to natives, what I had in my mind was “a people who are almost naked, dark, curly hair, ugly faces, frown faces, smell bad, dark teeth, horrible gestures and shocking expressions”. Hence, in March 5 at 6:25 am, while I was walking to the assembly place of the tribes, I was hoping I could get along with them in spite of who they are. Partly, I was scared because of my schema concerning them and partly, I was so excited to see real and alive natives from various tribes. Now, my prerogatives had been changed, I was developed into becoming interested with the natives concerning the matter of interviewing and knowing what they have in their minds (if they are very different from us or just a bit). When I arrived at the said place, I had a hard time looking for the natives so I approaches one of the “directors of the tribes” to point the real natives. As she pointed at them, I said “really?” because they look just like us. It’s just that we wear better cloths than they do and that we look like often washed than them. Nevertheless, they look just like us on a native costume with props. I think the cloths and accessories make us different from them, but over-all, they are as humans as we are.
Generally, the most common colors among them are Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Orange and White but they don’t have Green because for them, it isn’t a color because it’s or it represents the nature. Their accessories are different from each other with regard to their beliefs and uses on them. Some wear less and some wear earrings that pass through the faces. Their costumes do look ancient and colorful. Obviously, the women have more accessories and more colorful than men. Their props depend on the dance or ritual they are portraying – some would use household tools, farming tools, fishing tools and some would use weapons for war or defense. In their dances, you can’t see a man holding or dancing so close to the woman. They maintain their modesty and “reserveness” as what Prof. Fernandez said. Some of the dances are like drama or plays that some would show how to catch a fish, kill a python, do farming, harvesting, fighting, traveling, heal and cure the sick ones and even mourning and rejoicing. These dances just reflect, express and manifest what they do, believe, how they solve problems and what they think of something. It really is an interesting topic for research and thesis.
THE HIGAONON TRIBE WITH ITS NATIVES: AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Among the nine tribes, I chose the Higaonon (Southern Libuna) as the subject of my interview. Before approaching them, I was aware that prior to interview, you have to do something. Because I was not so sure of what to do, I waited the Radio Reporter to finish interviewing one of the natives so that I could come to him and asked him what he did that he could interview. Right after the interview, I came to him and he said, I had to approach the “directress” of the tribe. Therefore, I did and the woman helped me approach and interview one of the elder and old native (for I assume the older ones know most).
This tribe’s instruments are Bantula (bamboo made into water pipe, weapon and shield used when they travel from one place to another), Dabakan (cow’s skin as the drums), and Agong and Kulintang (as other musical instruments).
This interview had two sections with its corresponding and major respondents: Isidora Calleo, 68 (representing the women in their tribe) and Sigundo Dansuli, 35 (representing the men in their tribe). The first section was the information I gathered from Isidora Calleo and the second one was the data from Sigundo Dansuli.
I first interviewed Isidora Calleo who look so old and yet still energetic to dance under the scorching heat of the sun barefooted. The first thing I did was to ask the colors they have. She said to me maliga (red), puti (white), orange, yellow, and black. I asked her the significance of each color but she failed to answer it. I proceeded with the question on her outfit, costume and accessories. She said labitos (necklaces), pandong (headdress), aritis (earrings), bukala (bracelet), panyo (handkerchief), saya and linadsoy (dress or wardrobe). Then, I asked why do they wear those accessories and what are their significances to their lives. She answered “dayan-dayan” or “pang-pangarte” (for beautification or to beautify their selves). I followed the question on their dances. She was able to perform to me the steps like inaksyon (dancing forward and clapping hands), linuhod (dancing back and forth), inugsak (hopping half), iniko (dancing forward and to the sides), singkulolok (dancing while the feet move forward and a back), and inagong or binanog (a dance for courtship and wedding; this dance uses a handkerchief ). She added, after dancing that these are done during rituals and ceremonies like politics, wedding and harvest. I then asked why do they have perform and dance very seriously and disciplined. It’s not because of money (money was not even mentioned) but because of their tradition to do it and it’s their obligation to continue dance, however, only with dinatuhan or tuluman (purposes and right reasons). There must and should be a reason why they dance. Then I followed up if there are no reasons or if there are reasons but they don’t perform. The answer is “agawan o paninglan magdalo” ([you] will be punished [by a supreme high that sooner, you’ll get] sick or get a bad luck). I asked her to continue telling me their beliefs but she already forgot them. Finally, I asked about the esoteric and exoteric factor in their tribe. “What do you think of your tribe that other tribes think of it as you think?”, I asked. She replied, “Mayad ka ho mga dumano” (being hospitable to the guests or neighbors or being accommodating). She also added that in their tribe, they have to be good to their tatubalay (neighbors) and there should be no backbiting. “What do you think of other tribes that you think other tribes think the same way?”, I continued. She said that they don’t have the right to perceive and judge other tribes according to what they think to prevent from conflicts or gaps. She added that their tribe does not look for fight and ever in the history, they do not fight or look for trouble. They should remain at peace to maintain their tribe not having any mortal enemies. Then, I finally and formally ended the interview with her so that I would still have time with my other respondent. However, before that, I showed her my great gratitude and thanked her a lot for she did help me in my paper. We then took pictures with her and her company and so with their band. Before I left her, she then smiled at me and I smiled back (as a respect).
Prior to my interview with Sigundo Dansuli, I first develop rapport – I said if it’s okay for me to interview him and then I made friends with him. I open my question with very basic ones. First, I asked on the colors of their costumes and their significances. This time, I was able to get information. There are red (signify the position on the society that you are not low but high), white (the peace in their tribe), black (that no matter how peaceful they are, there are still bad things happening just for a while, pains, sufferings and all negative connotations), and yellow (the abundance and riches of their tribe and land). I proceeded with their accessories. They have atubaw (headdress: the arrow must be pointing front so that your position will not be lowered more; if one turns it back, he lowered down more himself), sakuro (a water reservoir made of bamboo) and salay (a prop that symbolizes their way of living or their job). After which, he went back to the position of their tribe in the society saying, they are considered low or the “IPs” (indigenous people). I then, a sort of, gave him a lecture that (according to what I learned from History 3) they are no longer considered IPs but one of the TRI-PEOPLE of Mindanao (Lumads, Maranao, and Christians). I added that we are all equal. In a way, his desperateness or condition was lifted up. He then thanked me for giving that information to him. Then, I continued asking him on their social rank in the tribe. He said that a datu is the one who has the highest position and it is not by the choice of the people but by blood, royal blood. The datu is the one who governs the tribe, gives rules and regulations, the one who holds ceremonies and rituals, and finally, the one who settles problems and conflicts within the tribe. Then I asked what the punishments are and how a datu does settle conflicts. He said that before, the punishments include execution of death but now, the datu no longer uses death as punishment but settles the problem very well, instead. He would find way in order that the victim would forgive the one who does the crime and that the two should and must be reconciled. Because I missed my favorite question on the dance, I inserted why they are so disciplined and serious in dancing and performing. He said that it is their obligation and for their ritual, tradition, tribe and culture, they have and must do it (again, no mention of the money). Next, I asked about their celebrations. He only gave me one and that is New Year. They have to wake up early to welcome the new year so that the bad things (problems and pains) that happened to them the previous year would no longer come back nor return but the new year would bring them joy and peace.
Another interesting about this tribe is the panuyo (an early marriage settled, approved and planed only by the parents of the groom and bride). Sigundo Dansuli was a victim of this. He was still 18 and his wife was 13 when their parents married them both. During their coupled life, they knew that they didn’t like and love each other, thus they didn’t have a child. Good thing a new rule was approved that panuyo will no longer be exercised, thus the two divorced. Divorce is acceptable to their tribe. He then re-married to the one he really loved, and now he’s a father of three children. He pointed then his first and second wife to me.
Then, I proceeded with stories on ghosts and he gave me the kakak (can only be heard but not seen) and manghak-uking (a bird that its face looks like a cat, it bites). They considered these creatures as monsters or ghosts because of their horrific and horror voices.
Then, I asked him about their job and work. Most of them are farmers. They plant crops like gabi, camote, bingggala (camoteng kahoy) and vegetables. They work not only to get money but also to have food. He said that the people before were just fine in eating the binggala but their children do not like it; they look for rice.
Finally, I asked him about their dos and don’ts in their tribes and so with their belief concerning life after death. These are the following:
1. Do not do commit crime or rub during the night without a light or lamp, otherwise, you will become an ant or bee or a pig after you die.
2. Do not sit without a seat; don’t “fake-sit” like sitting on the air because it will bring you bad luck.
3. Do not have a chair without a table or table without a chair for it will bring bad luck.
4. Do not eat within a cooking pot for you will be lost in the woods.
5. Do not eat near or at the door because you will become a hindrance or an obstacle to the people. As a result, they will always hurt you.
6. Do not eat turning your back on the cooking pot. It means that when you backbite, you think the person does not hear or know but actually, he does, so be careful.
7. Do not walk through the kitchen while eating because you will get stumble at the forest.
8. Do not eat on the cover of the cooking put because as a result, you will become a madman and you will always get angry with frowning face.
Then, I used a three-generation test on the data on Dos and Don’ts and life-after-death belief. The first generation is Sigundo Dansuli, 35. For him, he partly believed in these things and when he was younger, the people strongly believed in these. The second generation is Lordan, 25 and Kirino, 21. For them, they know these things but don’t believe in them. The third generation is Timothy Dan, 15 and Ronald, 16. For them, they don’t have any idea on these. Moreover, after I asked them, they even laughed about these beliefs, they looked at each other and saying how could a man when after death becomes an ant or a bee or a pig, then they laughed. Feeling satisfied, I thanked first Sigundo Dansuli (I also showed a great gratitude to him) then Lordan and Kirino, and finally, Timothy and Ronald. I told them that they are a great help this paper.
THE CONCLUSION
My trip to and stay in Malaybalay, Bukidnon had helped me in some various ways. Through the interview, I learned that people with varied environment, setting, timeframe and atmosphere would differ in many aspects. There are things that you believe while they don’t, there are things that they believe, and you don’t. Because of these differences in race, culture, tradition, language, and beliefs, there are many people in chaos and in war for they do not know how to settle and handle these things. All we have to do is respect and understand one another to keep us at peace. After the trip, I go beyond its objectives and goals. I know have a deeper meaning and understanding of culture and tradition affecting the people and through it, people create something, and that is their beliefs. Because of these beliefs and lore, they continue to live and survive. I also understand the role of folklore in the tribes, especially to the Higaonon. Folklore serves as their social restrictions, education, and political constitutions. Thus, through the field trip and interview, I was able to get into the thoughts of men, pick up their beliefs and these have become integrated to the field of folklore, folks with common lore. I will never forget such an experience that helped me comprehend the folklore and humanity of human kind within a tribe; and no matter how old and new a generation is, according a philosopher, “folklore continues to be created and recreated… a dead fossil that refuses to die.” I thank Prof. Puno for such a course that paves the way to interact and be acquainted with that living fossil!
Freedom that Costs Lost of Independence
“The Portrait of a Lady” concerns a young American woman, Isabel Archer, who comes to England after her father dies. Archer is ardent, vibrant, hungry for experience, and committed to her personal freedom. She forms a friendship with an older woman, Madame Merle, who introduces her to Gilbert Osmond, the man Archer marries. Archer believes Osmond to be a man of impeccable taste with whom she can share an intense but liberated life. Instead, he turns out to be a cynical dilettante and very conventional. Eventually Archer learns that Osmond and Merle have been lovers and have plotted her marriage to get hold of her fortune.
Generally, the novel manifests Henry James’ principles and theories on novel written on his “The Art of Fiction” so that it can give a vivid picture on how one can achieve freedom through losing independence. Specifically, it demonstrates the life of Isabel Archer who, because being neglected in childhood years, longs and yearns for freedom and independence. However, the more she tries to reach it, the more she falls into a miserable and unhappy life. It explores the conflict between the individual and society by examining the life of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who must choose between her independent spirit or her freedom and the demands of social convention (the society). It also depicts the life of an innocent expatriate American among sophisticated Americans and so with their representations as innocent and decadence respectively.
To analyze and prove these statements, I used the thematic analysis (in a way of trying to bring forth the theme of the novel) and characterization (in a way of studying and analyzing the motivation and actions of the characters). Along with this analysis are some of the literary criticism approaches like feminism, psychoanalytic criticism, and basically, Henry James’ “The Art of Fiction” and psychological realism. By using the Feminism, I consider only some of its methodologies: (1) revalue women’s experiences; (2) examine power relations; (3) the role of women in the text; (4) the character and reputation of women in the story; and (5) the attitude of men toward women. By using the psychoanalytic criticism, I only pay attention to the unconscious motive of the character, as one of its methodologies. Then, Henry James as a great psychological realist believes that a text must be realistic, recognizable to the readers. In his “The Art of Fiction”, to have a realistic novel, an author must select, evaluate and use the “stuff of life” (the facts or pictures of reality). He also asserts that a work of art is organic (it has life of its own that grows according to its own principles and themes). Finally, this analysis includes his dominant and important ideas revealed through the downfall of Isabel Archer.
This novel explores the conflict between the individual and society by examining the life of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who must choose between her independent spirit or her freedom and the demands of social convention (the society). After confessing and longing to be an independent woman, autonomous and responsible only to herself, Isabel falls in love with and marries the evil Gilbert Osmond, who wants her only for her money and who treats her as an object (almost as part of his art collection). Isabel must then decide whether to honor her marriage vows and preserve social decency or to leave her miserable and unhappy marriage and escape to a happier, more independent life, possibly with her American suitor (Caspar Goodwood). In the end, after the death of her cousin Ralph, the staunchest backer and supporter of her independence, Isabel chooses to return to Osmond and maintain her marriage. She is motivated partly by a sense of social responsibility, partly by a sense of pride, and partly by the love of her stepdaughter, Pansy, the daughter of Osmond and his controlling lover Madame Merle.
As the title of the novel indicates, Isabel is the primary character of the book. Thus, the most important focus of the novel is on presenting, explaining, and developing her character (manifesting James’ work of art as organic). Henry James is one of America's great psychological realists, and he uses all his “creative powers” to make sure that Isabel's conflict is a natural product of the realistic mind, and not merely an abstract philosophical consideration. In short, Isabel's spirit of independence is largely a result of her childhood, when she was generally neglected by her father and was allowed to read any book in her grandmother's library. In this way, she managed her own haphazard education and allowed her mind to develop without discipline and order (a manifestation of James’ “stuff of life”). Her natural intelligence has always guaranteed that she is at least as smart and lively as anyone around her. In Albany, New York, she has the reputation of being a remarkable and impressive intellect. After she travels to England with her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, it becomes clear that Isabel has a woefully or unhappy formless and shapeless imagination, as well as a romantic aspect and element that suit her position as an optimistic, innocent American. Moreover, for Henry James, throughout the novel, America is a place of individualism and naïveté, while Europe is a place of sophistication, convention, and decadence. Isabel often considers her life as though it were a “novel”. She also has the tendency to think about herself obsessively and has a vast faith in her own moral strength (a manifestation of psychological realism). In fact, recognizing that she has never faced hardships, Isabel actually wishes that she might be made to suffer so that she could prove her ability to overcome sufferings without betraying her principles. When she moves to England, her cousin Ralph is so supportive and concern with her spirit of independence that he convinces his dying father to leave half his possession to Isabel. This is intended to prevent her from ever having to marry for money (because he is against Lord Warburton, a prominent wealthy man) but ironically, it attracts the treachery and deceitfulness of the novel's villains (Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond). They conspire to convince Isabel to marry Osmond in order to gain access to her wealth. Her marriage to Osmond effectively suppressed Isabel's independent spirit when her husband treats her as an object and tries to force her to share his opinions and abandon her own.
This is the thematic background of Portrait of a Lady, and James skillfully intertwines the novel's psychological and thematic elements. Isabel's downfall with Osmond, for instance, enables the book's most sharp and keen exploration of the conflict between her desire to conform to social convention and her fiercely independent mind. It is also perfectly explained by the elements of Isabel's character: (1) her haphazard upbringing has led her to long for stability and safety, even if they mean a loss of independence; and (2) her active imagination enables her to create an illusory picture of Osmond, which she believes in more than the real thing, at least until she is married to him. Once she marries Osmond, Isabel's pride in her moral strength makes it impossible for her to consider leaving him because she once longed for hardship, and now that she has found it, it would be hypocritical for her to surrender to it by violating social custom and abandoning her husband.
In the same way that Henry James unites his psychological and thematic subjects, he also intertwines the novel's settings with its themes. Set almost entirely among a group of American expatriates living in Europe in the 1860s and 1870s, the book relies on a kind of moral geography, in which (1) America represents innocence, individualism, and capability; (2) Europe represents decadence, sophistication, and social convention; and (3) England represents the best mix of the two. Isabel moves from America to England to continental Europe. At each stage, she comes to mirror her surroundings, gradually losing a bit of independence with each move. Eventually she lives in Rome, the historic heart of continental Europe, and it is here that she endures her greatest hardship with Gilbert Osmond. In this novel, Henry James explores the difficulty negotiating between individual liberty and the constraints of social conventions. He locates these opposing forces in America and Europe respectively. However, the equation isn’t as simple as that (America equals liberty while Europe equals social constraint). James divides Europe in his moral universe. England constitutes the middle ground between the ungrounded freedom of America and the extreme restraint of Italy. It is no mere chance that James chooses a woman as the protagonist of a novel with such a moral landscape since women are so much the “storehouse” of the social values of a culture, functioning both to enforce social norms and to reproduce them.
In the narratives, Henry James uses many of his most characteristic techniques in Portrait of a Lady. In addition to his polished, elegant prose and his dignified, slow pacing, he utilizes a favorite technique of skipping over some of the novel's main events in telling the story. Instead of narrating moments such as Isabel's wedding with Osmond, he skips over them, relating that they have happened only after the fact, in peripheral or sideline conversations. This literary technique is known as ellipses. In the novel, he most often uses his elliptical technique in scenes when Isabel chooses to value social custom over her independence: (1) her acceptance of Gilbert's proposal, (2) their wedding, and (3) her decision to return to Rome after shortly leaving for Ralph's funeral at the end of the novel. He uses this method to create the sense that, in these moments, Isabel is no longer accessible to the reader. In a sense, by choosing to be with Gilbert Osmond, Isabel is lost.
Going back to the characterization, Isabel Archer is one more of the many innocent Americans with whom writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries found themselves preoccupied. Her innocence is the primary element of her sense of her freedom. In other words, Henry James seems to be saying that Isabel only thinks she is free and capable of living her life freely. In America, she can nurture these fantasies. She has spent a childhood being neglected by her father, neglect that is embedded in terms of freedom. She has been free to read anything in the library and she has done so, but she has been unable to balance freedom and the discipline necessary to get through the formal education. Sent to school as a young girl, she decided quickly that it was not the place for her and she was allowed to stop going. In her adult life in America, she seems to have no place to go besides marriage to the ever-stiff Caspar Goodwood. She sits alone in the little-used library of her grandmother’s almost abandoned house. Both of her sisters have married quite conventionally despite their free childhood. There’s no reason to think Isabel wouldn’t have done the same if not for her aunt’s timely rescue. In the American scene then, Henry James demonstrates that unrestrained freedom will lead the protagonist nowhere: (1) she will be isolated and bored; (2) she will not progress in her studies because she will have no direction; and (3) she will be wasted on a marriage to a man so inarticulate who cannot express feelings in any terms other than proprietary ones. In England, Isabel is indulged by the kindly Mr. Touchett, his kindly son Ralph and their kindly neighbor Lord Warburton to express all the ideas she can gather and collect. In England, she sees two kinds of women. One kind is represented by the sisters of Lord Warburton who are so restrained and so tamed that they seem almost insubstantial. Despite her own beliefs that the free life is the best life for a woman, Isabel is attracted to these women and finds their life a lovely one. For their part, the Misses Molyneux finds Isabel perfectly charming and seems to find in her a kindred spirit. The second kind of woman represented in England for Isabel Archer is Mrs. Touchett, an American ex-patriot who lives in Florence, Italy, and visits her husband for a month out of each year in England and who has not been accepted by the English aristocracy as her husband and son has. While she lives according to the strictest observance to established social proprieties, she has made up so many of her own social proprieties that she doesn’t fit into English society. Aside from Henrietta Stackpole, Mrs. Touchett is the most independent female character in the novel and she is so depicted that the reader is not encouraged to see her as a possible model for Isabel Archer to imitate and to be followed. When Isabel gets the chance to make England her home, she rejects it, imagining her life as the wife of the eminent Lord Warburton to be life in a gilded cage. Even Mr. Touchett doesn’t think Isabel should marry Lord Warburton.
In Isabel Archer’s downfall (his marriage with Gilbert Osmond, resulting into miserable life), Henry James reveals several of the dominant ideas present throughout his fiction. First, it is quite clear that the English country house estate is the best of all possible worlds for the author. In leaving Gardencourt for a tour of Europe, Isabel was stepping out of the world which perfectly balanced rational conventionality and indulgence of liberty. She was moving into a world of such severe social constraint that good sense and good fellow feeling were regarded as provincial sentimentalities. Second, it seems impossible for Henry James to imagine a good marriage (1) that of the Touchetts is functional, but it makes Mr. Touchett unhappy and Mrs. Touchett an unconventional; (2) that of the Countess Gemini is dry with self-indulgence and trapped “meanness”; and (3) that of Madame Merle who is also dreadfully unhappy (while marriage seems to be the only respectable occupation for a woman, it is one which certainly ends her career as a semi-free agent). The best example of this notion is what happens to Henrietta Stackpole, the most courageous of the “Jamesian” version of feminism in the novel. While her prospects for happiness with Bob Bantling are brighter than any other character’s in the novel, her plans to marry strike Isabel Archer as a sad capitulation, a giving up on the part of her adventuresome friend. The third and most important element of James’ ideas which is revealed in Isabel’s downfall is that social constraint always wins out over the impulse to freedom, that freedom is only an idea which, as soon as put into practice, fails utterly. The best possible world for the balance between individual liberty and social constraint is the English country house life where liberal politicians like Lord Warburton retain their country estate while theorizing the need for its dissolution and where ex-Americans like Mr. Touchett can become connoisseurs of English country houses and English teas.
Therefore, throughout the novel, James’s principles and theories like “the stuff of life”, “work of art as organic” and his “psychological realism” have been obviously and noticeably present. He uses real, logical, believable and recognizable experiences to give vivid pictures of life and reality. In addition, he shows the characters, actions and emotions to the readers to create a greater illusion of reality rather than telling about them. These methods are used to convey the process of achieving freedom through losing one’s independence. Then, eventually and ultimately, results into a miserable and unhappy life.
Generally, the novel manifests Henry James’ principles and theories on novel written on his “The Art of Fiction” so that it can give a vivid picture on how one can achieve freedom through losing independence. Specifically, it demonstrates the life of Isabel Archer who, because being neglected in childhood years, longs and yearns for freedom and independence. However, the more she tries to reach it, the more she falls into a miserable and unhappy life. It explores the conflict between the individual and society by examining the life of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who must choose between her independent spirit or her freedom and the demands of social convention (the society). It also depicts the life of an innocent expatriate American among sophisticated Americans and so with their representations as innocent and decadence respectively.
To analyze and prove these statements, I used the thematic analysis (in a way of trying to bring forth the theme of the novel) and characterization (in a way of studying and analyzing the motivation and actions of the characters). Along with this analysis are some of the literary criticism approaches like feminism, psychoanalytic criticism, and basically, Henry James’ “The Art of Fiction” and psychological realism. By using the Feminism, I consider only some of its methodologies: (1) revalue women’s experiences; (2) examine power relations; (3) the role of women in the text; (4) the character and reputation of women in the story; and (5) the attitude of men toward women. By using the psychoanalytic criticism, I only pay attention to the unconscious motive of the character, as one of its methodologies. Then, Henry James as a great psychological realist believes that a text must be realistic, recognizable to the readers. In his “The Art of Fiction”, to have a realistic novel, an author must select, evaluate and use the “stuff of life” (the facts or pictures of reality). He also asserts that a work of art is organic (it has life of its own that grows according to its own principles and themes). Finally, this analysis includes his dominant and important ideas revealed through the downfall of Isabel Archer.
This novel explores the conflict between the individual and society by examining the life of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who must choose between her independent spirit or her freedom and the demands of social convention (the society). After confessing and longing to be an independent woman, autonomous and responsible only to herself, Isabel falls in love with and marries the evil Gilbert Osmond, who wants her only for her money and who treats her as an object (almost as part of his art collection). Isabel must then decide whether to honor her marriage vows and preserve social decency or to leave her miserable and unhappy marriage and escape to a happier, more independent life, possibly with her American suitor (Caspar Goodwood). In the end, after the death of her cousin Ralph, the staunchest backer and supporter of her independence, Isabel chooses to return to Osmond and maintain her marriage. She is motivated partly by a sense of social responsibility, partly by a sense of pride, and partly by the love of her stepdaughter, Pansy, the daughter of Osmond and his controlling lover Madame Merle.
As the title of the novel indicates, Isabel is the primary character of the book. Thus, the most important focus of the novel is on presenting, explaining, and developing her character (manifesting James’ work of art as organic). Henry James is one of America's great psychological realists, and he uses all his “creative powers” to make sure that Isabel's conflict is a natural product of the realistic mind, and not merely an abstract philosophical consideration. In short, Isabel's spirit of independence is largely a result of her childhood, when she was generally neglected by her father and was allowed to read any book in her grandmother's library. In this way, she managed her own haphazard education and allowed her mind to develop without discipline and order (a manifestation of James’ “stuff of life”). Her natural intelligence has always guaranteed that she is at least as smart and lively as anyone around her. In Albany, New York, she has the reputation of being a remarkable and impressive intellect. After she travels to England with her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, it becomes clear that Isabel has a woefully or unhappy formless and shapeless imagination, as well as a romantic aspect and element that suit her position as an optimistic, innocent American. Moreover, for Henry James, throughout the novel, America is a place of individualism and naïveté, while Europe is a place of sophistication, convention, and decadence. Isabel often considers her life as though it were a “novel”. She also has the tendency to think about herself obsessively and has a vast faith in her own moral strength (a manifestation of psychological realism). In fact, recognizing that she has never faced hardships, Isabel actually wishes that she might be made to suffer so that she could prove her ability to overcome sufferings without betraying her principles. When she moves to England, her cousin Ralph is so supportive and concern with her spirit of independence that he convinces his dying father to leave half his possession to Isabel. This is intended to prevent her from ever having to marry for money (because he is against Lord Warburton, a prominent wealthy man) but ironically, it attracts the treachery and deceitfulness of the novel's villains (Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond). They conspire to convince Isabel to marry Osmond in order to gain access to her wealth. Her marriage to Osmond effectively suppressed Isabel's independent spirit when her husband treats her as an object and tries to force her to share his opinions and abandon her own.
This is the thematic background of Portrait of a Lady, and James skillfully intertwines the novel's psychological and thematic elements. Isabel's downfall with Osmond, for instance, enables the book's most sharp and keen exploration of the conflict between her desire to conform to social convention and her fiercely independent mind. It is also perfectly explained by the elements of Isabel's character: (1) her haphazard upbringing has led her to long for stability and safety, even if they mean a loss of independence; and (2) her active imagination enables her to create an illusory picture of Osmond, which she believes in more than the real thing, at least until she is married to him. Once she marries Osmond, Isabel's pride in her moral strength makes it impossible for her to consider leaving him because she once longed for hardship, and now that she has found it, it would be hypocritical for her to surrender to it by violating social custom and abandoning her husband.
In the same way that Henry James unites his psychological and thematic subjects, he also intertwines the novel's settings with its themes. Set almost entirely among a group of American expatriates living in Europe in the 1860s and 1870s, the book relies on a kind of moral geography, in which (1) America represents innocence, individualism, and capability; (2) Europe represents decadence, sophistication, and social convention; and (3) England represents the best mix of the two. Isabel moves from America to England to continental Europe. At each stage, she comes to mirror her surroundings, gradually losing a bit of independence with each move. Eventually she lives in Rome, the historic heart of continental Europe, and it is here that she endures her greatest hardship with Gilbert Osmond. In this novel, Henry James explores the difficulty negotiating between individual liberty and the constraints of social conventions. He locates these opposing forces in America and Europe respectively. However, the equation isn’t as simple as that (America equals liberty while Europe equals social constraint). James divides Europe in his moral universe. England constitutes the middle ground between the ungrounded freedom of America and the extreme restraint of Italy. It is no mere chance that James chooses a woman as the protagonist of a novel with such a moral landscape since women are so much the “storehouse” of the social values of a culture, functioning both to enforce social norms and to reproduce them.
In the narratives, Henry James uses many of his most characteristic techniques in Portrait of a Lady. In addition to his polished, elegant prose and his dignified, slow pacing, he utilizes a favorite technique of skipping over some of the novel's main events in telling the story. Instead of narrating moments such as Isabel's wedding with Osmond, he skips over them, relating that they have happened only after the fact, in peripheral or sideline conversations. This literary technique is known as ellipses. In the novel, he most often uses his elliptical technique in scenes when Isabel chooses to value social custom over her independence: (1) her acceptance of Gilbert's proposal, (2) their wedding, and (3) her decision to return to Rome after shortly leaving for Ralph's funeral at the end of the novel. He uses this method to create the sense that, in these moments, Isabel is no longer accessible to the reader. In a sense, by choosing to be with Gilbert Osmond, Isabel is lost.
Going back to the characterization, Isabel Archer is one more of the many innocent Americans with whom writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries found themselves preoccupied. Her innocence is the primary element of her sense of her freedom. In other words, Henry James seems to be saying that Isabel only thinks she is free and capable of living her life freely. In America, she can nurture these fantasies. She has spent a childhood being neglected by her father, neglect that is embedded in terms of freedom. She has been free to read anything in the library and she has done so, but she has been unable to balance freedom and the discipline necessary to get through the formal education. Sent to school as a young girl, she decided quickly that it was not the place for her and she was allowed to stop going. In her adult life in America, she seems to have no place to go besides marriage to the ever-stiff Caspar Goodwood. She sits alone in the little-used library of her grandmother’s almost abandoned house. Both of her sisters have married quite conventionally despite their free childhood. There’s no reason to think Isabel wouldn’t have done the same if not for her aunt’s timely rescue. In the American scene then, Henry James demonstrates that unrestrained freedom will lead the protagonist nowhere: (1) she will be isolated and bored; (2) she will not progress in her studies because she will have no direction; and (3) she will be wasted on a marriage to a man so inarticulate who cannot express feelings in any terms other than proprietary ones. In England, Isabel is indulged by the kindly Mr. Touchett, his kindly son Ralph and their kindly neighbor Lord Warburton to express all the ideas she can gather and collect. In England, she sees two kinds of women. One kind is represented by the sisters of Lord Warburton who are so restrained and so tamed that they seem almost insubstantial. Despite her own beliefs that the free life is the best life for a woman, Isabel is attracted to these women and finds their life a lovely one. For their part, the Misses Molyneux finds Isabel perfectly charming and seems to find in her a kindred spirit. The second kind of woman represented in England for Isabel Archer is Mrs. Touchett, an American ex-patriot who lives in Florence, Italy, and visits her husband for a month out of each year in England and who has not been accepted by the English aristocracy as her husband and son has. While she lives according to the strictest observance to established social proprieties, she has made up so many of her own social proprieties that she doesn’t fit into English society. Aside from Henrietta Stackpole, Mrs. Touchett is the most independent female character in the novel and she is so depicted that the reader is not encouraged to see her as a possible model for Isabel Archer to imitate and to be followed. When Isabel gets the chance to make England her home, she rejects it, imagining her life as the wife of the eminent Lord Warburton to be life in a gilded cage. Even Mr. Touchett doesn’t think Isabel should marry Lord Warburton.
In Isabel Archer’s downfall (his marriage with Gilbert Osmond, resulting into miserable life), Henry James reveals several of the dominant ideas present throughout his fiction. First, it is quite clear that the English country house estate is the best of all possible worlds for the author. In leaving Gardencourt for a tour of Europe, Isabel was stepping out of the world which perfectly balanced rational conventionality and indulgence of liberty. She was moving into a world of such severe social constraint that good sense and good fellow feeling were regarded as provincial sentimentalities. Second, it seems impossible for Henry James to imagine a good marriage (1) that of the Touchetts is functional, but it makes Mr. Touchett unhappy and Mrs. Touchett an unconventional; (2) that of the Countess Gemini is dry with self-indulgence and trapped “meanness”; and (3) that of Madame Merle who is also dreadfully unhappy (while marriage seems to be the only respectable occupation for a woman, it is one which certainly ends her career as a semi-free agent). The best example of this notion is what happens to Henrietta Stackpole, the most courageous of the “Jamesian” version of feminism in the novel. While her prospects for happiness with Bob Bantling are brighter than any other character’s in the novel, her plans to marry strike Isabel Archer as a sad capitulation, a giving up on the part of her adventuresome friend. The third and most important element of James’ ideas which is revealed in Isabel’s downfall is that social constraint always wins out over the impulse to freedom, that freedom is only an idea which, as soon as put into practice, fails utterly. The best possible world for the balance between individual liberty and social constraint is the English country house life where liberal politicians like Lord Warburton retain their country estate while theorizing the need for its dissolution and where ex-Americans like Mr. Touchett can become connoisseurs of English country houses and English teas.
Therefore, throughout the novel, James’s principles and theories like “the stuff of life”, “work of art as organic” and his “psychological realism” have been obviously and noticeably present. He uses real, logical, believable and recognizable experiences to give vivid pictures of life and reality. In addition, he shows the characters, actions and emotions to the readers to create a greater illusion of reality rather than telling about them. These methods are used to convey the process of achieving freedom through losing one’s independence. Then, eventually and ultimately, results into a miserable and unhappy life.
Visiting Seblish: A Congruence Approach to Sebuano-English Code-Switching
INTRODUCTION
Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to alternation between one or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common. Sometimes the switch lasts only for a few sentences, or even for a single phrase. The switch is commonly made according to the subject of discourse, but may be for a variety of other reasons such as the mood of the speaker. It often occurs in bilingual communities or families. It also occurs within a particular language. It within a sentence tends to occur more often at points where the syntaxes of the two languages align.
Switching of code refers to alternating between one or more languages or dialects. It also occurs within a particular language. We use different forms of expression depending on the person we are speaking to and where we are speaking to that person. There are different degrees of formality and informality. Would you say that the idea of code-switching exists in your first language? If so, would you consider yourself to be a “code switcher”?
Of course, I live in a multilingual country so I do code-switch frequently. According to Lorente (2000), the Philippines is a highly multilingual country. McFarland (1994) indicates that there are 110 mutually unintelligible codes or languages known to exist in this country. Filipino is one of these languages. For Gonzales (1985), this language is understood and spoken by a vast majority of Filipinos. Aside from these 110 languages, English is used for medium of instruction and in the major domains of the Philippines. This is according to our professor in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL theory), Prof. Paula K. Alinsangan. Therefore, at least half of the population of the Filipinos can speak and understand first, a native language (not Tagalog or Filipino), then, Filipino (which is Tagalog-based), and, English (Lorente 2000).
Furthermore, Lorente (2000) states that such a multilingual setting, it is not surprising to find that Filipinos code-switch. The variations are numerous that Filipino could potentially code-switch between two, maybe more, of the 110 Philippine languages (it could be between their native language and Tagalog; between their native language and English). The main interest of this paper is not the code switching between Tagalog and English (TAGLISH) but of Sebuano and English (SEBLISH). If Tagalog has the most number of speakers in the country, Sebuano has the most numbers of native speakers. This is according to our professor in Introduction to Philippine Linguistics, Dr. Luvizminda Dela Cruz.
OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PAPER
For Bautista (1980, 1991), Taglish is definitely not a new phenomenon in the Philippines as far as speakers and researchers are concerned. In like manner, Seblish is also not a new phenomenon as far as speakers are concerned. However, when it comes to studies and research, there are only less compared to Taglish. Thus, this paper is to fill in the research gap.
This paper is a replica of the study from Ateneo de Manila University by Beatriz P. Lorente entitled “Revisiting Taglish Na Naman: A Congruence Approach to Tagalog-English Code-Switching.” As such, this study uses the “congruence approach” posited by Sebba (1998) as the framework for classifying and attempting to explain Seblish code-switching strategies.
Thus, the objectives of this study are first to place Seblish into the mainstream of code-switching or at least people would acknowledge that Seblish does exist and is being used by a major population here in the Philippines. Second, it aims to answer these following questions:
1. Is there congruence between the structures of Tagalog and English?
2. Which structures of Tagalog and English are congruent?
3. Why do bilinguals code switch when they do?
4. What are being code-switched?
5. To what extent is the code-switching?
6. How competent are the speakers in Sebuano and English?
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The sentences to be used for the study are limited only to the data I have collected from the Gatabon-Polito Wedding Ceremony on August 13, 2005. The sentences to be considered are only the code-switching within a sentence. Then, to know why speakers code switch, my study is based on the congruence approach and is limited to its only three out of four elements, namely: Harmonization, Neutralization, and Compromise. Blocking, as the fourth element is not included here. Basically, it is to study the structure in terms of what are being code switched (nouns, adjectives and conjunctions), and to what extent is the code switching (word, phrase or clause level). This study also will prove that, like the Taglish speakers, Seblish speakers are proficient and competent on both Sebuano and English languages.
DATA GATHERING AND PROCEDURE
This data was gathered last August 13, 2005 in the afternoon during the Gatabon-Polito Nuptials. This was just a simple wedding where it was held in the home of the bride, invited guest were only 250 plus, and, most specially, almost all of the people speak the vernacular language, Sebuano.
I have recorded the message of the minister of the wedding, the testimonies of the elders, parents of the couple, and so with the groom’s and bride’s speeches. The minister is 47 years old, the elder’s age ranges from 76 to 80, the father of the groom is 71, and the father of the bride is 47 and the mother is 49. All of them have graduated from college, two of them are businessmen, and one of them is an engineer. All of them can be said to use the Seblish characteristic of middle class Iligan.
I have not transcribed 100% of all their speeches but have chosen only those parts where they code switch within sentences for this study. At the last page of this paper is where you can find the data I have collected and transcribed.
THE CONGRUENCE APPROACH TO SEBLISH
Sebba (1998) recognizes “congruence” is a basis for code switching and posits that it is “… not just a function of the syntax of the languages involved. The locus of congruence is the mind of the speaker, but community norms determine by and large, the behavior of individual speakers. Bilinguals “create” congruent categories by finding common ground between the languages concerned.”
Sebba believes that congruence did not only depend on the structure of language and that it is “… relative to the language pairs, speech communities and speakers involved.” To explain why bilinguals switch code when they do, the congruence approach identifies “… four possibilities with regard to switching between two categories… these [are] harmonization, neutralization, compromise and blocking.” For this study, however, I will only use the first three. According to the understanding of Lorente to the postulation of congruence approach, she says, “… code switching may be the process by which congruent categories are negotiated by two languages and what emerges from such convergence (or non-convergence, as the case may be) is a new mixed language that has rules and quite possibly, quirks of its own.”
I do believe that congruence approach is as effective to be used in my analysis on the Seblish sentences as it has been used by Lorente in her analysis of the Taglish sentences. This approach and framework seem to be promising to generate answers to the stated questions. Seblish is typologize and analyzed according to the three alternative outcomes:
Harmonization
Harmonization, Lorente defines, as the term used to refer to the state where full congruence is established between categories in the two languages. Sebba (1998) says, “(g)rammatical categories may be construed as congruent if they: have similar syntactic function, including possibly the same subcategorization frame… and… similar semantic properties…” Thus, for Lorente, the categories that may potentially be harmonized by code-switching speakers are not just the phrase structure or the so-called X-bar categories but many other categories of the grammar as well, including gender, plurality, animacy, tense, and aspect. I would also like to say that some parts of the sentences could also harmonize like the phrases and clauses.
In the data I have collected, this harmonization is obviously observed and is seen at work in code-switches between certain open set items (most obvious are nouns, adjectives and conjunctions) in Sebuano and English. Like what Lorente did to her study, I also have a convention that is similar to hers, all English elements are in regular type, all Sebuano elements in italics, and the structure under consideration is in bold face. The first sentence is the Seblish sentence data and the second sentence is a translation into pure English or pure Sebuano.
There are code-switches between nouns:
(1) … mura’g naa ‘ta ba atubangan sa Universal nga Wedding.
… mura’g naa ‘ta ba atubangan sa Universal nga Kasal.
(2) Matud pa niya sa iyang message namo….
Matud pa niya sa iyang mensahe namo….
(3) …madala ra pud niya sa Church ang iyang bana.
…madala ra pud niya sa Iglesia ang iyang bana.
(4) … og nagpasalamat ko sa mga prayers….
… og nagpasalamat ko sa mga pag-ampo….
(5) …basaha ninyo ang Matthew….
…basaha ninyo ang Mateo….
There are code-switches between adjectives:
(6) …atubangan sa Universal nga Wedding.
…atubangan sa Unibersal nga Wedding.
(7) Si brother Joey….
Si igsoong Joey….
(8) …pure gayud nga Hudiyo.
…putli gayud nga Hudiyo.
Predictably, there are code-switches between X-bar categories such as noun phrases made up of Adj + Noun:
(9) Dunay mga pipila diri ka mga Young People….
Dunay mga pipila diri ka mga Batan-ong Katawhan….
(10) sa mga full-timers….
to the full-timers….
There are code-switches between conjunctions:
(11) So, gusto ko….
Busa, gusto ko….
(12) So, mao ‘to ang akong….
Busa, mao ‘to ang akong….
There are also code-switches in the direct object of the verb:
(13) I hope… ato kining isipon…
I hope… we will think of this…
(14) Atong hangyuon ang mga Young People sa pagkanta….
Let us ask the Young People to sing….
There are also code-switches in the subject:
(15) …basaha ninyo ang Matthew…
…basaha ninyo ang Mateo….
(16) Likayan ninyo ang boy-and-girl relationship….
Likayan ninyo ang pagpanguyab [or laki-og-baye nga relasyon]….
The examples above show that one reason why Seblish speakers code switch is to Harmonize. It is to converge both to the rules in Sebuano and English languages. In this case, Seblish is congruent with the two languages and the structures that are congruent are the noun phrases, phrases and clauses within the sentence. Henceforth, the extension of the elements being code switched neither are not only up to word nor phrasal but also clausal level. The switches, therefore, happens between lexical categories within larger phrasal and clausal structures. From the data I have presented, I have observed that this element is called harmonization because it is fully congruent and converging to both of the languages. This means that when you translate the word or phrase or clause (a code-switch), you would still have a grammatically and semantically correct sentence. You may translate it to either of the languages, you would still get the same meaning correctly as the first one. I believe, that is the harmony in code-switching – neither of the two languages is affected or is distorted because all words within the sentence (although code-switched) still attain and achieve harmony, convergence, conformation and full agreement.
Neutralization
According to Sebba (1998), in neutralization, switching is permitted “… by creating a slot for a congruent category, where the alternative syntactic construction[s] would involve noncongruent categories. Thus, neutralization also includes nativization strategies which involve the introduction of a morpheme that serves to nativize a word.”
There are a good number of examples of this from the data, most of which use Sebuano verbal prefixes to inflect English verbs:
(1) …ministro nga mo-solemnize….
(2) Labaw na gayud kung na-fellowship na….
(3) … dili kamo mag-entertain…
(4) …gusto ko mo-intervene….
(5) … na-postpone….
(6) … ang akong i-share sa inyo….
(7) … gusto lang nako nga maka-raise….
In these set of examples, it is clear that the second reason why speakers code switch is Neutralization. In this case, I can only have, obviously, the extension of code switching in word level. However, this is no longer congruent to both the Sebuano and English languages. In this case, the product of neutralization is forming new words. These lexicon, nonetheless, are the reason of its noncongruency to the two languages. If we were to follow the congruence approach, according to Lorente, it would appear that these inflected verbs belong to neither Sebuano nor English, but would simply be indicative of the degree to which these two languages are harmonizing such that what emerges is a hybrid form, a combination of Sebuano and English. So to speak, the rising of these Seblish lexicons indicates that these belong to neither Sebuano nor English.
Compromise
“Compromise strategies… allow switching to take place in spite of the resulting structure lacking grammatically from the viewpoint of monolingual speakers of one of the two languages concerned” (Sebba 1998). At first, I thought I have no examples for this, but I soon realized that there are some.
When you already have a Sebuano marker for plurality ‘mga’, the noun that follows it should no longer have the inflection ‘s’ as an English marker for plurality. For example, *mga suitors is wrong for it should be mga suitor. It is because there will be a redundancy of markers, you have a Sebuano plus an English marker and both are for plurality. Obviously, because of redundancy, it is grammatically wrong to both Sebuano and English languages. Here are some examples of this:
(1) *sa mga elders
(2) *sa mga full-timers
(3) *sa mga prayers
Another relevant example of this is the redundant use of the marker for the tenses. I do not have examples from my data but frequently, I hear people saying ‘na-held’ when it should be ‘na-hold’ because ‘na’ can be a verb marker referring to past activity. Thus, it is wrong to use the past tense of the English word ‘held’ because ‘na’ already gives the marker for past. You cannot have two same markers when you only mean one for a particular element or substance in the sentence.
Another grammatically wrong sentence that I see in my data is the awkwardness of its result. When one is to code-switch, he/she must make sure that the product or the sentence is correct. For this example, I find it wrong because, I believe, it is awkward:
*Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ dunay dako kaayo nga tinguha nga mag-minyo!
The mistake there is that there seems to be missing or lacking of something so that it would sound better. I refer to the missing word between ‘Christ’ and ‘dunay’. There must be a ‘kay’ in between those two words to mark a clear and correct predication. For the word ‘dunay’, I believe in this sentence, there should be an ‘a’ added before it to form ‘adunay’ which means ‘there is’ because when it is only ‘dunay’ it only means ‘there’. In addition, I believe that the beginning of the sentence has to have a Sebuano determiner to have a Sebuano predicate. It would have been better to have ‘Ang atong’ and then to be followed by ‘great God’. These alternatives could make the sentence sounds better. This is my transformation of it:
Ang atong great God and Savior, Jesus Christ kay adunay dako kaayo nga tinguha nga mag-minyo!
Obviously, in this case, compromise is really not congruent to either of the two languages. The presence of compromise in my data seems to say that the speakers that I have studied are not that competent and proficient enough in either Sebuano or English language. However, I still believe that they are competent and proficient speakers of both the Sebuano and English language because almost all the people I have observed when they code-switch still produces sentences with redundant markers, like the ‘mga suitors’. Even from my teachers, classmates and friends, they still say ‘mga chairs’. Anyway, code-switching as define earlier by Sebba, is a new mixed language that has its own rules and quite possibly, quirks of its own. The examples above prove this statement. Hence, like the Taglish, Seblish speakers also belong to the specific social class as highly competent in both Sebuano and English and can be considered as maximally fluent bilinguals. If others will say that they are not competent because of the presence of compromise, I would say that there are only a few of them and in fact, those errors are accepted by the speakers of Seblish. These newly formed words, therefore belong neither to Sebuano nor to English but to Seblish.
CONCLUSION
In this paper I have proven things. First, that Seblish does exist and is being used by Sebuano speakers in the present. Second, there is congruency in the Seblish code-switching when it comes to Harmonization, a partial congruence in Neutralization and a total noncongruent in compromise. Third, the elements or substances in the sentences that are being code-switched are nouns, adjectives, noun phrases, conjunctions, phrases and clauses. Fourth, it is to the extent of word, phrasal and clausal level that categories are code-switched. Finally, Seblish, like the Taglish, are competent and proficient enough in both the Sebuano and English languages although there may be few loopholes.
I am therefore that Seblish, like Taglish, is an emerging new hybrid language with that is neither of Sebuano nor of English. It has its own specific and particular rules, principles, grammar, quirks, oddities and eccentrics. This makes it unique. The hope is that educators become aware of such analyses so that they do not dismiss out-of-hand Sebuano-English code switching as an instance of random, irregular mixing of languages that result from imperfect control of either language. Code switching is bilingual performance on display and merits continuing study.
Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to alternation between one or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common. Sometimes the switch lasts only for a few sentences, or even for a single phrase. The switch is commonly made according to the subject of discourse, but may be for a variety of other reasons such as the mood of the speaker. It often occurs in bilingual communities or families. It also occurs within a particular language. It within a sentence tends to occur more often at points where the syntaxes of the two languages align.
Switching of code refers to alternating between one or more languages or dialects. It also occurs within a particular language. We use different forms of expression depending on the person we are speaking to and where we are speaking to that person. There are different degrees of formality and informality. Would you say that the idea of code-switching exists in your first language? If so, would you consider yourself to be a “code switcher”?
Of course, I live in a multilingual country so I do code-switch frequently. According to Lorente (2000), the Philippines is a highly multilingual country. McFarland (1994) indicates that there are 110 mutually unintelligible codes or languages known to exist in this country. Filipino is one of these languages. For Gonzales (1985), this language is understood and spoken by a vast majority of Filipinos. Aside from these 110 languages, English is used for medium of instruction and in the major domains of the Philippines. This is according to our professor in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL theory), Prof. Paula K. Alinsangan. Therefore, at least half of the population of the Filipinos can speak and understand first, a native language (not Tagalog or Filipino), then, Filipino (which is Tagalog-based), and, English (Lorente 2000).
Furthermore, Lorente (2000) states that such a multilingual setting, it is not surprising to find that Filipinos code-switch. The variations are numerous that Filipino could potentially code-switch between two, maybe more, of the 110 Philippine languages (it could be between their native language and Tagalog; between their native language and English). The main interest of this paper is not the code switching between Tagalog and English (TAGLISH) but of Sebuano and English (SEBLISH). If Tagalog has the most number of speakers in the country, Sebuano has the most numbers of native speakers. This is according to our professor in Introduction to Philippine Linguistics, Dr. Luvizminda Dela Cruz.
OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PAPER
For Bautista (1980, 1991), Taglish is definitely not a new phenomenon in the Philippines as far as speakers and researchers are concerned. In like manner, Seblish is also not a new phenomenon as far as speakers are concerned. However, when it comes to studies and research, there are only less compared to Taglish. Thus, this paper is to fill in the research gap.
This paper is a replica of the study from Ateneo de Manila University by Beatriz P. Lorente entitled “Revisiting Taglish Na Naman: A Congruence Approach to Tagalog-English Code-Switching.” As such, this study uses the “congruence approach” posited by Sebba (1998) as the framework for classifying and attempting to explain Seblish code-switching strategies.
Thus, the objectives of this study are first to place Seblish into the mainstream of code-switching or at least people would acknowledge that Seblish does exist and is being used by a major population here in the Philippines. Second, it aims to answer these following questions:
1. Is there congruence between the structures of Tagalog and English?
2. Which structures of Tagalog and English are congruent?
3. Why do bilinguals code switch when they do?
4. What are being code-switched?
5. To what extent is the code-switching?
6. How competent are the speakers in Sebuano and English?
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The sentences to be used for the study are limited only to the data I have collected from the Gatabon-Polito Wedding Ceremony on August 13, 2005. The sentences to be considered are only the code-switching within a sentence. Then, to know why speakers code switch, my study is based on the congruence approach and is limited to its only three out of four elements, namely: Harmonization, Neutralization, and Compromise. Blocking, as the fourth element is not included here. Basically, it is to study the structure in terms of what are being code switched (nouns, adjectives and conjunctions), and to what extent is the code switching (word, phrase or clause level). This study also will prove that, like the Taglish speakers, Seblish speakers are proficient and competent on both Sebuano and English languages.
DATA GATHERING AND PROCEDURE
This data was gathered last August 13, 2005 in the afternoon during the Gatabon-Polito Nuptials. This was just a simple wedding where it was held in the home of the bride, invited guest were only 250 plus, and, most specially, almost all of the people speak the vernacular language, Sebuano.
I have recorded the message of the minister of the wedding, the testimonies of the elders, parents of the couple, and so with the groom’s and bride’s speeches. The minister is 47 years old, the elder’s age ranges from 76 to 80, the father of the groom is 71, and the father of the bride is 47 and the mother is 49. All of them have graduated from college, two of them are businessmen, and one of them is an engineer. All of them can be said to use the Seblish characteristic of middle class Iligan.
I have not transcribed 100% of all their speeches but have chosen only those parts where they code switch within sentences for this study. At the last page of this paper is where you can find the data I have collected and transcribed.
THE CONGRUENCE APPROACH TO SEBLISH
Sebba (1998) recognizes “congruence” is a basis for code switching and posits that it is “… not just a function of the syntax of the languages involved. The locus of congruence is the mind of the speaker, but community norms determine by and large, the behavior of individual speakers. Bilinguals “create” congruent categories by finding common ground between the languages concerned.”
Sebba believes that congruence did not only depend on the structure of language and that it is “… relative to the language pairs, speech communities and speakers involved.” To explain why bilinguals switch code when they do, the congruence approach identifies “… four possibilities with regard to switching between two categories… these [are] harmonization, neutralization, compromise and blocking.” For this study, however, I will only use the first three. According to the understanding of Lorente to the postulation of congruence approach, she says, “… code switching may be the process by which congruent categories are negotiated by two languages and what emerges from such convergence (or non-convergence, as the case may be) is a new mixed language that has rules and quite possibly, quirks of its own.”
I do believe that congruence approach is as effective to be used in my analysis on the Seblish sentences as it has been used by Lorente in her analysis of the Taglish sentences. This approach and framework seem to be promising to generate answers to the stated questions. Seblish is typologize and analyzed according to the three alternative outcomes:
Harmonization
Harmonization, Lorente defines, as the term used to refer to the state where full congruence is established between categories in the two languages. Sebba (1998) says, “(g)rammatical categories may be construed as congruent if they: have similar syntactic function, including possibly the same subcategorization frame… and… similar semantic properties…” Thus, for Lorente, the categories that may potentially be harmonized by code-switching speakers are not just the phrase structure or the so-called X-bar categories but many other categories of the grammar as well, including gender, plurality, animacy, tense, and aspect. I would also like to say that some parts of the sentences could also harmonize like the phrases and clauses.
In the data I have collected, this harmonization is obviously observed and is seen at work in code-switches between certain open set items (most obvious are nouns, adjectives and conjunctions) in Sebuano and English. Like what Lorente did to her study, I also have a convention that is similar to hers, all English elements are in regular type, all Sebuano elements in italics, and the structure under consideration is in bold face. The first sentence is the Seblish sentence data and the second sentence is a translation into pure English or pure Sebuano.
There are code-switches between nouns:
(1) … mura’g naa ‘ta ba atubangan sa Universal nga Wedding.
… mura’g naa ‘ta ba atubangan sa Universal nga Kasal.
(2) Matud pa niya sa iyang message namo….
Matud pa niya sa iyang mensahe namo….
(3) …madala ra pud niya sa Church ang iyang bana.
…madala ra pud niya sa Iglesia ang iyang bana.
(4) … og nagpasalamat ko sa mga prayers….
… og nagpasalamat ko sa mga pag-ampo….
(5) …basaha ninyo ang Matthew….
…basaha ninyo ang Mateo….
There are code-switches between adjectives:
(6) …atubangan sa Universal nga Wedding.
…atubangan sa Unibersal nga Wedding.
(7) Si brother Joey….
Si igsoong Joey….
(8) …pure gayud nga Hudiyo.
…putli gayud nga Hudiyo.
Predictably, there are code-switches between X-bar categories such as noun phrases made up of Adj + Noun:
(9) Dunay mga pipila diri ka mga Young People….
Dunay mga pipila diri ka mga Batan-ong Katawhan….
(10) sa mga full-timers….
to the full-timers….
There are code-switches between conjunctions:
(11) So, gusto ko….
Busa, gusto ko….
(12) So, mao ‘to ang akong….
Busa, mao ‘to ang akong….
There are also code-switches in the direct object of the verb:
(13) I hope… ato kining isipon…
I hope… we will think of this…
(14) Atong hangyuon ang mga Young People sa pagkanta….
Let us ask the Young People to sing….
There are also code-switches in the subject:
(15) …basaha ninyo ang Matthew…
…basaha ninyo ang Mateo….
(16) Likayan ninyo ang boy-and-girl relationship….
Likayan ninyo ang pagpanguyab [or laki-og-baye nga relasyon]….
The examples above show that one reason why Seblish speakers code switch is to Harmonize. It is to converge both to the rules in Sebuano and English languages. In this case, Seblish is congruent with the two languages and the structures that are congruent are the noun phrases, phrases and clauses within the sentence. Henceforth, the extension of the elements being code switched neither are not only up to word nor phrasal but also clausal level. The switches, therefore, happens between lexical categories within larger phrasal and clausal structures. From the data I have presented, I have observed that this element is called harmonization because it is fully congruent and converging to both of the languages. This means that when you translate the word or phrase or clause (a code-switch), you would still have a grammatically and semantically correct sentence. You may translate it to either of the languages, you would still get the same meaning correctly as the first one. I believe, that is the harmony in code-switching – neither of the two languages is affected or is distorted because all words within the sentence (although code-switched) still attain and achieve harmony, convergence, conformation and full agreement.
Neutralization
According to Sebba (1998), in neutralization, switching is permitted “… by creating a slot for a congruent category, where the alternative syntactic construction[s] would involve noncongruent categories. Thus, neutralization also includes nativization strategies which involve the introduction of a morpheme that serves to nativize a word.”
There are a good number of examples of this from the data, most of which use Sebuano verbal prefixes to inflect English verbs:
(1) …ministro nga mo-solemnize….
(2) Labaw na gayud kung na-fellowship na….
(3) … dili kamo mag-entertain…
(4) …gusto ko mo-intervene….
(5) … na-postpone….
(6) … ang akong i-share sa inyo….
(7) … gusto lang nako nga maka-raise….
In these set of examples, it is clear that the second reason why speakers code switch is Neutralization. In this case, I can only have, obviously, the extension of code switching in word level. However, this is no longer congruent to both the Sebuano and English languages. In this case, the product of neutralization is forming new words. These lexicon, nonetheless, are the reason of its noncongruency to the two languages. If we were to follow the congruence approach, according to Lorente, it would appear that these inflected verbs belong to neither Sebuano nor English, but would simply be indicative of the degree to which these two languages are harmonizing such that what emerges is a hybrid form, a combination of Sebuano and English. So to speak, the rising of these Seblish lexicons indicates that these belong to neither Sebuano nor English.
Compromise
“Compromise strategies… allow switching to take place in spite of the resulting structure lacking grammatically from the viewpoint of monolingual speakers of one of the two languages concerned” (Sebba 1998). At first, I thought I have no examples for this, but I soon realized that there are some.
When you already have a Sebuano marker for plurality ‘mga’, the noun that follows it should no longer have the inflection ‘s’ as an English marker for plurality. For example, *mga suitors is wrong for it should be mga suitor. It is because there will be a redundancy of markers, you have a Sebuano plus an English marker and both are for plurality. Obviously, because of redundancy, it is grammatically wrong to both Sebuano and English languages. Here are some examples of this:
(1) *sa mga elders
(2) *sa mga full-timers
(3) *sa mga prayers
Another relevant example of this is the redundant use of the marker for the tenses. I do not have examples from my data but frequently, I hear people saying ‘na-held’ when it should be ‘na-hold’ because ‘na’ can be a verb marker referring to past activity. Thus, it is wrong to use the past tense of the English word ‘held’ because ‘na’ already gives the marker for past. You cannot have two same markers when you only mean one for a particular element or substance in the sentence.
Another grammatically wrong sentence that I see in my data is the awkwardness of its result. When one is to code-switch, he/she must make sure that the product or the sentence is correct. For this example, I find it wrong because, I believe, it is awkward:
*Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ dunay dako kaayo nga tinguha nga mag-minyo!
The mistake there is that there seems to be missing or lacking of something so that it would sound better. I refer to the missing word between ‘Christ’ and ‘dunay’. There must be a ‘kay’ in between those two words to mark a clear and correct predication. For the word ‘dunay’, I believe in this sentence, there should be an ‘a’ added before it to form ‘adunay’ which means ‘there is’ because when it is only ‘dunay’ it only means ‘there’. In addition, I believe that the beginning of the sentence has to have a Sebuano determiner to have a Sebuano predicate. It would have been better to have ‘Ang atong’ and then to be followed by ‘great God’. These alternatives could make the sentence sounds better. This is my transformation of it:
Ang atong great God and Savior, Jesus Christ kay adunay dako kaayo nga tinguha nga mag-minyo!
Obviously, in this case, compromise is really not congruent to either of the two languages. The presence of compromise in my data seems to say that the speakers that I have studied are not that competent and proficient enough in either Sebuano or English language. However, I still believe that they are competent and proficient speakers of both the Sebuano and English language because almost all the people I have observed when they code-switch still produces sentences with redundant markers, like the ‘mga suitors’. Even from my teachers, classmates and friends, they still say ‘mga chairs’. Anyway, code-switching as define earlier by Sebba, is a new mixed language that has its own rules and quite possibly, quirks of its own. The examples above prove this statement. Hence, like the Taglish, Seblish speakers also belong to the specific social class as highly competent in both Sebuano and English and can be considered as maximally fluent bilinguals. If others will say that they are not competent because of the presence of compromise, I would say that there are only a few of them and in fact, those errors are accepted by the speakers of Seblish. These newly formed words, therefore belong neither to Sebuano nor to English but to Seblish.
CONCLUSION
In this paper I have proven things. First, that Seblish does exist and is being used by Sebuano speakers in the present. Second, there is congruency in the Seblish code-switching when it comes to Harmonization, a partial congruence in Neutralization and a total noncongruent in compromise. Third, the elements or substances in the sentences that are being code-switched are nouns, adjectives, noun phrases, conjunctions, phrases and clauses. Fourth, it is to the extent of word, phrasal and clausal level that categories are code-switched. Finally, Seblish, like the Taglish, are competent and proficient enough in both the Sebuano and English languages although there may be few loopholes.
I am therefore that Seblish, like Taglish, is an emerging new hybrid language with that is neither of Sebuano nor of English. It has its own specific and particular rules, principles, grammar, quirks, oddities and eccentrics. This makes it unique. The hope is that educators become aware of such analyses so that they do not dismiss out-of-hand Sebuano-English code switching as an instance of random, irregular mixing of languages that result from imperfect control of either language. Code switching is bilingual performance on display and merits continuing study.
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