SM and My Language Analysis

So near where I live here (to Filipinos everything is "near". This is mostly because there is no way to describe distance in terms of times because it depends how you are traveling as while as at what time you are traveling. So to describe how long it takes to get to the mall - about 10 minutes on a jeepney at 11:00 - would be a decent description. :) ) there is a mall called SM. I have been to this mall too many times already. The mall is very similar to our malls and even though these ones are very large (mega mall for example) I don't think any of them are as fun as West Ed, I haven't seen any huge water parks or rollercoasters in the malls... I may have just missed it but I don't think so.

Anyway I decided that I wanted to walk to the mall, I knew it would be 30-45 minute walk which would be a nice walk at home. So I set out. I walked along our busy street and it was an adventure. There is sidewalk some of the time, some of the time I was in front of little shops and the worst was when there was just vegetation and I was walking hang in the road, drivers don't like that at all. But I made it. I had to cross the road twice and that is an amazing feat in itself. You cross one lane at a time, sort of and nobody stops for you. There were definitely no pedestrian crossings where I was. Nobody walks here, public transit is so easy to use, that will have to be another blog entry. Anyway the long and short of it is that I survived, I got a ton of looks and I'm sure everyone thought I was strange. I won't likely do it again but it was good to do once. I guess I shan't be walking for enjoyment here. Maybe in San Agustin....

So if I told you before I leave that there is not a Filipino language, I apologize. Filipino is based on a language called Tagalog and is spoken here in Manila. I'm not sure how it works in all the other provinces but there is a different dialect in Romblon too. Now this is somewhat of an issue for me. I enjoy learning new things and though I am not very good at learning new languages I still enjoy trying. But should I try to learn here and if I am trying to learn the Romblon dialect then I won't be able to use it in Manila. This whole situation is not giving me incentive to learn the language. Too bad I didn't have a French speaker here who could help me work on my French while I was here.

So this is my analysis of the language. This is after my 15 minutes of instruction and reading simple phrases in the Romblon dialect so take it with a grain of salt. In English we put the emphasis of words on the consonants. However, in Filipino the emphasis is put on the vowels which seems backwards to us. It is the same in French actually who also put their emphasis on the vowels. Sadly I cannot insert some sound clips or I would give some examples. You might need to ask me when you see me next. However, the one thing that I really enjoy about this language is that they pronounce every letter which makes it a whole lot easier to read than English and definitely easier than French who only pronounce half their letters. Thus Taal (the volcano that I really want to check out) is pronounce Ta-al and and not Tal which is how we would want to pronounce it. It's fun to discover.

I absolutely hate not understanding anything that is going on though. When I am at the dorm conversations fly around me and I am supposed to remain oblivious and not care what's going on. Those of you who know me well know that I like to know what's going on so this isn't my favourite thing. How to change that though? I have no idea. If I learned what they speak in Romblon I think I may still be lost in Manila. Maybe I'll just have to suck it up and remain oblivious. I like being the one capable of speaking something that not everyone else understands but that is definitely not the case in the Philippines. I need to learn more French! lol, Riviére-du-Loup here I come!