Something happened that caused me to re-evaluate my thinking when it came to language.  A number of years ago we had a visitor from the States who came to see us here in the Philippines.  He and I got talking about various topics as we sat out on the patio sipping mango shakes.  He told me that the US had changed a lot since I lived there, and he was talking a lot about how there were so many illegal aliens, or even legal aliens that came from Mexico and other Hispanic countries.  I agreed with him that there had been a lot of immigration in the USA.  Then he said something that stopped me in my tracks.

You know, all those illegal aliens come here to live, and they don’t even learn how to speak English.  That just isn’t right!

Oops!  I was the same.  I had been living in the Philippines for a number of years and had basically made no effort to learn the language.  I knew a little bit of the local language, from hearing my wife speak it over the years.  I decided, though, that I needed to get busy and do it.

Over the years, I took lessons twice, but they didn’t work out.  In both instances, I studied for a couple of months.  In the first case, the teacher got involved in other projects and could no longer offer the lessons, so I did not have any classes anymore.  The second time, again, it did not work out with the teacher after about 2 months.

Me and My language teacher, Bebe

After that, it took several years before I found a teacher.  Her name is Bebe.  She is an excellent language teacher, and that is her full time job.  She mostly teaches missionaries in the area, I was actually her first non-missionary student.  I have been studying with Bebe for a year and a half now, and in another 6 months or so, I should be finished with my formal language learning.  Of course, you never finish completely.  Throughout my life I expect that I will be picking up new pieces of the language, but that is OK, and keeps things interesting.

I am studying a language called “Bisaya” or “Cebuano” (two names for basically the same thing).  The official languages of the Philippines are Pilipino (based on Tagalog) and English.  In the area where I live, though, Bisaya is the most widely used language, so that is what I chose to learn.  Pilipino is mostly spoken up north on the Island of Luzon, and I don’t go up there much, so I chose not to study that language.  I really enjoy being able to speak with the locals where I live, so I know that I chose the right language for my situation.

I consider that I am already able to speak Bisaya.  Yes, I am still studying, but I can go out in public and readily understand and converse with people on the streets.  The other day I was at my dentist’s office and she asked me how much of the language I can understand.  I responded to her that I could understand about 80% of what I heard, but I can speak only about 50%.  I think it is natural to be able to understand more than you can speak.  But, the more practice you put in, the more you can speak too.

Learning the local language has made dramatic improvements in my life.  It makes you part of society, a person who can participate in the culture, rather than just on onlooker.  If you live in a foreign country, I strongly encourage you to learn the language too.  You won’t regret it!

As far as I can recall, I don’t think I’ve missed a single day of riding the jeepney somewhere since I started last week.  I’ve had mostly good adventures on the jeep, but the one bad one that I wrote about a couple days ago.  Today, I need to go to Union Bank for some business that I need to take care of there… so I’ll take the Jeepney again.

Riding on a Jeepney

Actually, riding the jeepney has really made me re-evaluate a number of things about my life in the Philippines.  It sounds silly, but I’m serious on that.  Normally, if I am driving, I hate the jeepneys.  They are constantly blocking traffic and such.  Now, riding in the jeepney, though, I can see it from their side.  I still may not like it if I am driving… but I think I’ll cut them a bit more slack in the future.  There have been some other things as well that have come from riding the jeep, which I think will make me re-address some of the things about my life here, and, I believe, make me a better person.  All from such a simple thing as riding on the jeepney!  Ha ha… funny, but true.

I have to say that I have enjoyed the experience overall, and I have made a firm commitment to myself that I will be riding jeepneys on a regular basis in the future too.  When I first started, I didn’t think I would be doing that, but I have felt that riding the jeepney has been a good cultural learning experience, and I’ve enjoyed it too, so why not continue?  My only complaint is that it can get hot in the jeepney, so I will have to adjust to that still.

Yesterday, on my way home from an errand, I had a fun experience.  After having rode the jeepney to take care of some of my errands, I had already gotten off and was walking the rest of the way home.  Two young boys, probably like 8 years old started waving to me, yelling “hi, Joe” and such.  I spoke back to them in Bisaya.  I passed by them and kept on the way home, and in a few more minutes they had chased me down and wanted to talk to me.  I stopped and talked.  Here is how the conversation went:

New Friends

Boys:  Sir, can you speak Tagalog?

Me:  Dili, Bisaya o Ingles lang ko. (no, just Bisaya or English)

Boys:  Ah, OK.  Wow, you can speak Bisaya?

Me:  Oo, sigurado.  (yes, for sure)

Boys:  Sir, naa kay bola? (sir, do you have a ball?)

Me:  Wala koy bola, sorry. (I don’t have a ball, sorry.)

Boys:  Ah, sige.  (Oh, OK)

more small talk… then after a few minutes:

Boys:  Naa ka bay kwarta? (Do you have money?)

Ha ha.. I never give money to beggars, but these boys were not begging, they were just curious and friendly, so…

Me:  Oo, naa koy kwarta. Kong hatagon ta ka ang kwarta, pagbahin mo. (Yes, I have money.  If I give you money, you share.)

So, I gave them P20 (almost 50 cents US) and they told me they would buy some crackers for a snack.  We said goodbye, and I headed home.  I am sure they will be watching for me to pass again… there might be more money, after all!  Anyway, looks like I have two new friends in the neighborhood.

So, as you can see, it’s been fun traveling the Filipino way.  I’m going to keep it up!

Next, my friend, Randy Countryman visited the Philippines in September, along with his wife, Rechie.  Randy lives in Washington State, although quite far from the area where I lived when I was there.  I have known Randy for a number of years, originally when he was a regular commenter here on LiP, then we met in person about 3 years ago when Randy visited Davao and we got together.  Both Randy and Kevin also own land on Samal Island, so it is possible that we will all be “neighbors” someday.

When I met Kevin for the first time, a little over 2 years ago, I had already been studying Bisaya for a year or so, and could have a bit of a conversation, although not very well.  But, we went to Samal with Kevin and Jaycee (Kevin’s wife), and I was able to converse with some people over there in Bisaya, while Kevin and Jaycee were with us.  Kevin was kind of amazed, I think, and it didn’t take long before he asked me about how he could learn the language.  I put him in touch with my language teacher, Bebe Metillo, and Bebe has been giving Kevin lessons via Skype for about 2 years now, or perhaps even a bit longer.

Fruit Area at the Bankerohan Market

With Randy, as I recall, he became interested in learning Bisaya after reading some articles I had written about learning the language.  He asked me about it via e-mail, I believe, and I put him in touch with Bebe as well.  Like Kevin, Randy has been studying the language for a couple of years now.

Kevin

When Kevin was here in June, he stopped and visited my house one day, and I asked him if he would like to go to the Bankerohan Market and get some practice with his Bisaya speaking.  He readily agreed, so we caught a tricycle to the market, only about 5 minutes from where I was living at the time.  When we went to the Market, we visited the Isdahan first (the Fish Market) as I wanted to buy some fish for Feyma to cook for dinner.  I enjoyed a lot watching and listening to Kevin try out his Bisaya for the first time in this kind of setting.  One thing I could tell was that Kevin was very self conscience about speaking Bisaya, he was embarrassed that he might make a mistake in the language, and was quite shy to speak to people.  I knew how this felt, because I was like that in the past myself.  A day came when I just decided that I didn’t care if I pronounced something wrong, or used the wrong word, I was going to use the language skills that I had learned.  I felt like the only way to improve my skills was to use it.  Making mistakes was only part of the process of learning!  Because of this, I really kept encouraging Kevin to not worry about making mistakes, and just to force himself to use the language as much as possible!

Randy & Bebe

A few months later when Randy came to visit, he and Rechie invited Feyma and I out for lunch.  During lunch, Randy told me that he and Bebe would be going to Bankerohan for a lesson in the market later that afternoon.  I really wanted to go along, and asked both Randy and Bebe if they would mind if I tagged along for the visit, and they both agreed!  So, the three of us also jumped in a tricycle and went to the market.  With Randy and Bebe, we started in the Fruit area, and made our way to the Vegetable area, then to the Fish area.  We later visited other parts of the market as well, and had a snack of Putomaya and Hot Chocolate too.  It was a fun day.  Randy was less shy about using the language, but mostly, I think, because our teacher was with us, and was constantly prodding him to say “this and that” to the vendors.

One thing I noticed on the visit was that both Randy and Kevin really had a hard time with pronouncing the words properly.  When I heard this, I realized something that I had already known all along – living here where I hear and use the language every day is a huge advantage to me.  These guys lived in a place where they rarely (if ever) were able to hear the language in daily use.

As we spent time at the market, though, in each case, I could also see that both Kevin and Randy made huge strides in proper pronunciation, and also in the comfort in speaking the language!  At first, when I heard their pronunciation problems, I started wondering if it really was worth it for somebody to learn the language at such a distance using Skype.  However, when I saw the speed with with they progressed during the day, I realized that it was really a good thing to use Skype for learning, with an occasional visit to the Philippines that would give them “live practice” on the streets, where you can really learn, and improve your language skills.

So, as I said, over the past months I have had two opportunities to see my fellow students (long distance students in this case) come here and use the skills they had learned.  I really felt good in witnessing it, and had a lot of fun with each of them!  Another thing I enjoyed was being able to help them a bit with the language, since I was a bit more advanced in learning it than they were.  It really felt good to see both of my friends being able to come here and get a little more enjoyment out of their visit because of their ability to speak the language!

Thanks for including me, Kevin and Randy!  I bet by next time that each of you visit, we will be able to converse like locals!

Over the past 3 weeks, I have been having examinations as part of my Bisaya Class.  For new readers who don’t know, Bisaya (or Cebuano) is the main language used in the Central and Southern parts of the Philippines. As the name implies, Cebuano originated in Cebu, but much of the Visayas and Mindanao speak this language, or a variation of it.  For the past 3 years I have been taking Cebuano classes and learning to speak the language.

The textbook that I am using includes 60 lessons in all.  My teacher is Bebe Metillo, and she has been a real inspiration to me, and is really a great teacher.  A number of regular readers of this Live in the Philippines Web Magazine are also studying with Bebe, upon my recommendation to them.  Bebe and I have now completed lessons 1 through 50.  Lesson 50 is an Exam that covers the lessons between 41 and 50, and we just completed that exam over the past 3 weeks.  The first two weeks, I had to translate sentences from English to Cebuano and from Cebuano to English.  This week, I had to read a short story in Ceubano, translate the story into English, and then answer a series of questions about the story.  The questions asked about the story were in Cebuano, and I had to answer in Cebuano as well.

Bob with his Cebuano Teacher, Bebe Metillo

I found the story kind of fun.  It was interesting, and also just fun to read a full story like that in Cebuano.  For my article on LiP today, I decided to tell about my current lessons, and then to write out the short story (in both Cebuano and English) for you to read, if you wish.  Also, included with the article there is a podcast where you can listen to me reading the story.  All of this will follow.  The way that I am going to compose this article will be different than I have ever done on LiP in the past.  This article will span 3 pages, and you will need to click next page at the bottom of each page to get the full article.  Page 1 (this page) I will talk a bit about my language learning experience.  Page 2 will consist of the short story that was part of my test (in Cebuano).  Page 3 will be my English translation of the short story, and the podcast will be available at the bottom of each page.  I am sorry this will be a long post, I hope it doesn’t bore you.

Oh no! Test Time!

So, now, I have just 10 more lessons to go in my Cebuano Class with Bebe.  I started out fast with the language learning.  Lessons 1 through 30 were complete in a year or so.  Usually, I completed a full lesson every week, sometimes it took 2 weeks.  Starting on Lesson 30, though, things started getting complicated, and took much longer.  Much of the new material in lessons 31-40 was stuff that required me to “unlearn” my first 30 lessons, because it was new stuff that was almost completely opposite from the first 30 lessons.  It took time, but once I got my head around it, it was not too difficult.  Lessons 41 through 50 were the same – new concepts that were difficult to get into my head.  But, I’ve made it.

So, ten lessons to go.  I am thinking I can do that in 6 more months or so.  Possibly by the end of the year, but I don’t want to push myself.  I want to just enjoy the ride, and take enough time to learn the material well.  I already know enough Cebuano that I can have a good conversation with anybody, and even if they say something that I don’t know yet, I can figure out what they are talking about.  It gets easier every day, it seems.

Next Page

It all started out with my old laptop, a Compaq laptop that was only about 18 months old, or so.  I started having problems with it.  The monitor was starting to give out on it.  If I touched the monitor, the screen would go white.  Because I make my living on the Internet, I cannot afford to go even a few days without a computer.  Because of this, my wife told me to go buy a new computer when it was my birthday last week.  So, not wanting to disobey my wife (!), I rushed out to get a new PC.

I ran into some problems buying a new PC, which I wrote about on my other blog, click the link to read about that.  As it turned out, the big local PC dealers were not helpful, and few of them had anything that I really wanted to buy.  At that time, I decided to try a small local computer store that I had not visited in years.  About 5 or 6 years ago, I bought a Shuttle PC at a little shop called “PC Shack” in Uyanguren, also known as Chinatown here in Davao.  PC Shack was a very small, very local Mom & Pop type store.  They treated me well when I went there 5 years ago, but I had not really gone there regularly over the years.  But, last week, I visited there again, and I’m glad I did.

Actually, as it turned out, I discovered that PC Shack had “bit the dust,” sort of.  They had been bought out by a company out of Manila called “Qube”.  The sign still said PC Shack, but the stuff inside all said Qube.  As it turned out, I was very glad that I went to Qube.  They had a number of PC’s that interested me.

I saw a new form factor of PC that really caught my eye quickly, it is called a “USFF” PC, which stands for Ultra Small Form Factor.  This USFF PC runs on a dual core Intel Atom processor.  The Atom is the processor that runs the new little “netbooks” and “net-top” desktops.  I liked this one because it was a dual core Atom, so more powerful, but still efficient, cool operating, etc.

My new USFF PC, sitting on my desk next to my cellular phone

In the past, I have always been a “power guy” when it came to PC’s.  I wanted the fastest, most powerful PC that could be bought, and I was willing to pay a premium price to get the best.  Now, I still want a good quality PC, but I want only the power that I need.  I am not a “power user” to be honest.  Most of what I do is just stuff on the Internet, and a few other minor things.  I do some light photo editing work with Gimp Image Manipulation program, and the most power hungry thing I do is Video editing, but I do that only rarely.  When I started thinking about getting an Atom powered PC, I was worried if it could really handle my needs or not.  In fact, I held off for a number of days trying to decide if the Atom was really right for me or not.  In the end, I talked to several friends who have similar power needs as I do, and they told me that they are able to do it on an Atom based PC, so I took the jump.

I sure am glad that I gook the plunge too, because I love my little Atom USFF PC!  It’s great.  Here are the Specs of the PC that I purchased:

• Intel Atom Dual Core 330 1.60GHz
• nVidia MCP7A-ION Chipset
• Integrated nVidia ION
• 2GB DDR2 800MHz Memory
• 320GB Mobile SATA Hard Disk Drive
• Internal Card Reader
• Wireless Lan
• HDMI 1080p FULL HD Support

Overall, all I can say about this PC is that I love it.  It’s so tiny, so efficient.  It runs very cool, the case rarely even feels very warm.  Although I can’t really verify this, it is said that it uses 90% less electricity than a “regular” PC too, which is cool.

Another thing I learned in the experience of buying this PC is that I enjoy dealing with a small Mom & Pop type operation too.  One thing that I enjoyed about that was that it gave me a chance to use my Bisaya skills.  I think that if I did not speak Bisaya, I would have had a difficult time buying this machine, because the clerks there had a bit of a tough time speaking English.  At first, I tried to speak English with them, but when I switched to Bisaya, the purchase went a lot smoother and more friendly too!  I enjoyed it.  I’ll be buying at Qube again too, you can bet on that!

Anyway, back around Christmas time, Au texted me and asked me if I would be interested in teaching English.  I responded to her that I really am not a teacher, and would have no idea about how to effectively teach the language.  Au told me not to worry about that, I could get help with that aspect, but she just wanted to know if I would do it.  I replied that I was unsure, but would consider it.  At that point, Au told me that she would give my name to a lady who was the owner of a school for teaching English to Koreans who are here in Davao.

Korean kids learning English

I asked Au about this school, and I learned that the school is actually very close to my house, just walking distance, and that they had a number of Koreans who were interested in learning English.

So, I waited for a while, but never heard from the Korean School.  It really didn’t bother me much, because I really did not have great interest in teaching English anyway.  About a month later, though, I got a text from the school, and they asked me if I could come by and talk to them about the position that they were offering.  I agreed.  We set up an appointment for the meeting, and just a day or so before the meeting, they texted me and changed the time and day.  This was a bit of a hassle for me, because I had a rather full schedule of meetings and appointments, but I begrudgingly re-arranged my schedule to accommodate their request.

Love it? Not so sure about that!

When I went to the school at the time that they requested me, they told me that the person I was to meet with was busy.  Hmm…. this was looking sort of amateurish to me, because they are the ones who set the meeting time, and I showed up on time.  They were not available?  Not looking good.  So, I was told to wait, and after about 30 minutes, the lady was available to see me.  I was asked to come in to the office, and I proceeded to the door of the building (I had been made to wait outside!).  When I got to the door, I was told to take my shoes off.  Huh?  In an office?  Well, the fact is that I was not prepared for this, and I was not even wearing any socks!  So, I told them that I did not know of this requirement, and did not wear any socks, and I certainly was not going to go barefoot around the offices.

Upon hearing this, I was told to wait outside and that the lady would come outside to meet with me, because I would not be allowed to wear my shoes inside the office!  So, I waited and the lady came.  It was all feeling rather uncomfortable to me, to be honest.  One of the first questions that the lady asked me is how much I would charge.  I replied that I really had no idea what they wanted to pay, or what the job was worth.  I told her that if I charged her my normal rate that I charge for consulting or other work, I am sure she would not be interested in me.  I went on to explain that if I decided to do this, I really would not be doing it for the money, but rather just something interesting to do, and I asked her to offer me a rate and I would consider it.  Funny thing is, no salary rate was ever offered after that, it was just sort of ignored.

During the meeting, a number of things came to light which really made me very uninterested in the job.  Firstly, I was told that I would teach 5 days per week, something that I really don’t have time to do.  Secondly, I was told that they needed me to teach at night, like 7pm to 9pm or so.  For me, this was out of the question, because this is my time with my kids, and I was not really willing to give up my family time.

Well, by the end of the meeting, I really determined that I had basically zero interest in doing this, and I told them that I would have to say no to their offer.  The truth is that really, one of the only reasons I even went for the meeting and considered teaching there was because in the past, I have considered the possibility of starting a service of teaching English online, and I would hire teachers.  I thought that perhaps I could learn a little about the business through this teaching job.  However, given the way the meeting went, I just felt that the school was unprofessional, and I knew that I would not be too happy with teaching there, so it just was not worth it to me.

It was not like I needed a job anyway.  I did find it interesting, though, that I had an opportunity to get a job in the Philippines, and they came after me, rather then me looking for a job!

I find that this is just another way to add more use of Bisaya into my daily life.  It also helps me by making me interact with a number of other people.  I mean, if you always only interact with the same people, I believe that the Bisaya you speak becomes stale or insular, isolated to just the way those few others speak.  I know that when I get comments in Bisaya on Facebook, I often run into new ways to say things, slightly different uses of words, etc.  I like that, and feel it is valuable.  I love my teacher, Bebe, but I can’t rely on only her as my partner in conversation.  Doing things like chatting with others online, or going places in public that provide opportunities for interaction is also very important, IMHO.

There is only one thing that happens on Facebook in regards to writing in Bisaya which I don’t care for.  There is one person (thankfully, only one person) who keeps on putting a comment where instead of commenting, he rewrites what I wrote in a different way, I guess the way that he thinks I should have said it.  I mean, am I perfect in my use of Bisaya?  No way, far from it.  However, for example, I don’t go around correcting the English of every Filipino I hear.  I think that would be rude, and would belittle them.  In my case, if this fellow is wanting to help me by correcting mistakes that I make, maybe it would be more polite to e-mail it to me or something.  Anyway, no biggie, I just ignore it, or look at it and see if I agree with the corrections that he makes.  Sometimes, the corrections are just a different way of saying the same thing that I said, although each of us is correct.

Another thing that I like to do is to go shopping at the Merkado each week.  I am talking about the Public Market, and open air market where you can buy things like fresh fish, vegetables, fruits and just about anything else you can think of.  Most of the vendors there don’t speak English, so it gives me an excellent opportunity to practice using Bisaya.

About 3 weeks ago, I went to Cebu City for a little over 3 days.  That was a wonderful trip, because Cebu is the home of Bisaya (or also called Cebuano).  The language is very pure in Cebu, not bastardized with Tagalog like it is in many other places.  It is straight, pure Cebuano, which is what I am learning.  I enjoyed the trip so much!  For 3 solid days I spoke almost 100% in Bisaya, and I also enjoyed that I could understand nearly 100% of what I heard from people there.  Here in Davao, the language spoken is very “halo-halo” which means a mixture.  Tagalog and Bisaya.  That’s OK if that is what you speak, but I can’t speak Tagalog, so it makes it more difficult to understand.  I still do OK, though.  But, being in Cebu was like being in Heaven for me!  It felt so natural for the first time to be speaking Bisaya.  I really had a good time.  On that trip, I went alone.  In July, Feyma and I have tickets to go back to Cebu together, and I’m really looking forward to the return trip!  It should be a blast, and another good opportunity to put my Bisaya to good use.

For anybody reading who is also learning a new language, keep it up!  When you get to where you can really converse in the language, the effort pays off big time!