Descanse En Paz, Celia Cruz

The Queen of Salsa, Celía Cruz (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003). Love this song it makes me dance. Although it has social and political allusion behind it, it's just so...happy! Cai (La Guarachera Filipina) lets brace ourselves. LOL. Guantanamera is Cuba's most noted patriotic song. ¡Azucar! Descanse En Paz (R.I.P.) La Guarachera...

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Department of Education Memorandum 490 s. 2007

Hmm. We should have learn this earlier. I hope every school have this elective so we don't need to dub our favorite telenovelas. =P

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¡Adelante!

The Philippines is composed of more than 7,000 islands and is the home of 91 Million Filipinos. Conquest come and go bringing with them their culture and at the same time the local Filipinos adapted them as part of their identity. What made an impact to most of us is the 333-year influence of the Hispanics. They left a religion, a culture that is so diverse that some neighboring countries of the South East cannot fathom or call it Asian because it's neither Asian nor Western.

Yesterday, as I was surfing the net I came across an article that talks about the re-institution of the Spanish language in 17 government schools by June 2009. I know a lot of Filipinos raised their brows about this. Is this another conquest of some sort? I guess not because in the first place it won't be replacing our ever-beloved Filipino languages. The liberation of the Philippines from Spain in 1898 was merely political, the Hispanic soul remained. Don't fret, English will remain in the areas of governance, education and commerce but didn't you know that Spanish was once the lingua franca of the islands before the Americans came? Yes. That means from the late 15th century to 1973 then 1987, it was abolished in all higher education institutions nation-wide. The first Constitution was written in Spanish and was translated to English when the Commonwealth took place.

Tagalog and Cebuano are so assimilated with the Spanish language replacing the authenticity and adapting more than 5,000 words. This calls the birth of our very own Chavacano de Caviteño (Tagalog-based) & Chavacano de Zamboanga (Cebuano-based) and are the only Spanish-based creole in Asia. The Hispanic World heard about these two unique tongues. It even reached the shores of the former colonizer. They realized that they never did a great job of teaching Spanish to the Filipinos back in the old days. Spanish was totally out of the islands in 1987. A penalty will be given for those who sang the Lupang Hinirang (originally in Spanish, Filipinas) in any language other than Filipino. A decline of Spanish speakers in the islands is inevitable.

The article was released last month and it was a confirmation of the President's decision when she had her state visit to the courts of HM Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia. It is a prefered language that can be learn by the Filipinos to compete in the growing global market. Learning Spanish will open trade relations with Latin America and Spain. Accordingly, Spanish is now perceived as an instrument of communication, with 400 million speakers and, even more importantly, as the second language in the United States, an advantage to nurses, doctors, business men & teachers who wished to work in the States. It is also an advantage for those who work in the call center industry. It has become a channel towards new opportunities and a way to climb the employment ladder.

The Philippine government won't be spending much for this. The Spanish Education Ministry and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation will help our Department of Education in the process. They will be sending teachers to help us out. In the pilot project, which will start in June 2009, one secondary school (preferably with a language laboratory) will be chosen in each of the 17 administrative regions. Two classes, each with 35 students, will be set up from among pupils in the final two years of high school. They will receive four hours a week of Spanish classes.

Does learning Spanish make us less of being Filipino? I don't think so. Spanish is starting to be less associated with Spain, the colonial past and the history and literature of the Philippines. What about our Chavacano brothers they have been speaking a tongue which is Spanish-based ever since birth? Rizal was known to be a polyglot he was competent in 22 languages to include Spanish on the list. Does it make him less of being Filipino too? It possesses more advantages than drawbacks. It's a personal choice. We have moved on. Español para todo el mundo! No es uno idíoma para la elite ni para una raza particular. Es para todo los Filipinos tambíen. ¡Adelante! ¡La Republica Filipina!

Loanwords:

• Kumusta? = ¿Como esta? which means 'How are you?'
  

• Di nako ka aguanta (I can't take this anymore) = a conjugate of aguantar, 'To last'

• Asa naman imong laba la kara/labakara? (Where is your face towel?) = Lava la cara, literally means 'You wash the face,' in Cebuano it means face towel

• Manong para! (Sir, you stop!) = a conjugate of parar, means 'To stop'

• Para sa'yo (For you) = para is 'for' in Spanish, e.g. para usted (for you)

• Pwede! (You can) = puede means, 'You can' in Spanish

New Prospects for the Spanish Language in the Philippines, Feb. 26, 2009
Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga

We're currently on no. 20 in the list. Filipino is a demonym but the Filipino culture is a mixture of Hispanic and Asian. I'm surprised we're part of the list of 'Hispanic Countries.'






Statistics were taken from this site.
NationalMaster.com

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The Tub 2

Adam's narcissistic-histrionic episodes. It's the tub not him. LOL =P

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Meet Tocara 2

'I Feel For You...'

'Don't cha...'

Limelight version as requested by the subject herself.

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The Tub

The photo shows the curves and lines of the tub and the tiles. LOL. Adam in his most daring look. by the way. =P

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Meet Tocara

The homeowner herself after hours of cooking Creamy Carbonara for the rest of us. She deserves a break for that delectable pasta. This is Adam's idea. She's not accepting orders anyway. The main subject is the face which is highlighted by the spotlight from above. This creates the importance of focus from the rest of the portions of the photo.

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Like Burning Ice Cubes

Shot taken at Café Macumba, Rosario Strip Lim Ket Kai Center. I love the lights so much. I wanna bring one for our backyard. =P

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Rendition By Force

Not my own shot but I was forced to edit it by the subject himself. My blog is not a clothing line site anyway. =P

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Moments...

McDonald's ☺

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Crazy High School Folks

This video was taken last Wednesday March 11, 2009. These are my crazy high school friends of Philippine Southfield School batch 2002. They eat a lot. LOL. Laughter and gossip are amidst their presence. They are talking about Ronil, our batch mate who migrated with his family to Canada. They are anticipating the arrival of a very cunning woman, she used to turn down our invitations to hang out with us because in the first she's now... Mrs. Dadubo. Her name makes my tummy grumble, it sounds like food. =P

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Mi Unica Gata

Ella ronronea en la mañana temprana
Ella se baña con su lengua
Ella ama leche y cosas peludos
Ella se duerme rapida mucha
Ella es mi unica gata.





LOL. Yo odio los gatitos porque son ruidosos.

Practice makes perfect! Practice makes perfect!

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Loma-Borja Nuptial

This is the best wedding I attended in my entire life. Best wishes to the newly-wed my cousin Apple & the new member of the family, Aldrin! I can't believe it, we used to play around with the rest of our cousins back in the good old days and now she's Mrs. Loma! Te I'm so proud of you finally you've found him. Talking about the wedding, everything was prepared ahead of time from the ceremony to the reception no eyebrows were raised. The innovations of multimedia in the event really caught my attention. I'm surprised we can get anything right away. We got instant coffee, instant noodles and now, instant audiovisual presentation in high definition. It was like a TV network production. Thanks to Wolfram Virtualworks for the creativity! Every lady in the hall wants to get married instantly with that very bewitching presentation.

Not only that, the photos are sensational. These photos were taken by jivajimenez. I don't know the rest of the photographers there were dozens of them in the event. Anyway, they all made a great job. I'm drooling for their DSLR cams! Below are the AVPs of the Loma-Borja Nuptial try to check it out. =P

Shot in the island of Camigúin. Wolfram Virtualwork's Loma-Borja Pre-Nuptial AVP.

The solemn celebration. Shot in San Antonio de Padua Church and Hotel Koresco Cagayan de Oro.

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Mameha & Hatsumomo

Francine: Day mas maganda pa rin ako!
Sam: Let them cast their votes girl!


Translate Filipino (Tagalog) to English click here

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¡Finalmente!

Finally, it arrived. I was a bit worried that it might get lost in the mail. A colleague of mine lost her fingerprint cards and it went to Malaysia! She has a Malay sounding name so that explains it. Luckily, she was able to retrieve it. Pheeew! This is my moment OK just bear with me. LOL.

Again, I would like to extend my heart-felt gratitude to everyone who prayed non-stop and especially for some who fasted for this. God deserves the highest praise! =)

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My First Solo Flight

I finally retrieved some of the pictures I had on my way back home to Cagayan de Oro. The picture above shows the bustling NAIA Centennial Terminal 2. I love the interior as well as the facade.I know Terminal 3 was foreseen to be the most innovative compared to Terminal 2 but it's not yet done. You get to see a lot of people traveling to different islands of the country. People of different backgrounds and different tongues but what caught my attention is, 'Ginoo ko ma byaan ta sa atong flight!' Visayan diaspora to the nation's capital is not that discernible anyway. They are just a minority. LOL.

I arrived 45 minutes before the gates opened that's a lot of time to contemplate on what to do next if things go wrong with my exam results. A bit excited too. This will be my first flight with Philippine Airlines. Yeah a bit expensive compared to the other who promised 'Every Juan' in a leased Airbus 320. Let's save Asia's first. I enjoyed my flight with PAL the price is reasonable so I must say I should book my next domestic flight with the country's flag carrier. =)


Me: Ma, I enjoyed my flight with PAL. Hehehe.

Ma: Naku, their domestic flights are good pero the international flights are... never mind. It's great you're back. Kumusta ang exam mo? Kailan ba ang results?

Me: (Tumulo ang pawis sa may noo) Ah. Mahirap... Sobrang hirap.

Translate Filipino (Tagalog) to English click here

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