My sister told me this story which happened here in America about a year after her migration. She was in the workplace and chatting at the hallway with a fellow Filipina in Tagalog when an American manager from another department passed by and abruptly interrupted their conversation. Why don't you two speak English to each other so you can practice?, he asked.
My sister was momentarily stunned, but quickly got to her feet. I don't have to practice English, she said, because it's as good as yours if not better.
The manager went straight to my sister's supervisor, a fellow white American, to complain about this little brown lady who must have thought she was privileged to answer back. The supervisor was apprised of my sister's retort, and all he said to the whiny manager was, You bet she's darn right.
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And darn right a lot of Americans know Filipinos speak English well but like any other foreign culture will have to speak their own when with their own. Some Americans, however, don't get the idea that not speaking English is not disrespect of the English language, but rather a respect of the speakers' own language when among themselves.
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In the company where I work, all you have to do is walk through rows and rows of cubicles and you will hear an array of foreign languages. And why not, a migrant's native tongue is where his real heart is.
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I, too, have my share of not being able to shrug off my native Tagalog even if I tried - despite living in America for more than a decade, despite working for a huge company with no Filipino other than myself - just as the case in the office yesterday: My admin, thinking something was wrong with certain documents, handed them to me for spot-checking. I said aloud, Why did she (a colleague) do this na naman?!
My admin looked at me, perplexed.
And there was this analyst from another department, a looker from Hungary, who I once saw at the employee lounge. She started yapping to me in her native Hungarian, and as soon as she ended I yapped back, Wala akong naintindihan sa pinagsasabi mo. We both laughed to our native tongues' content.
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Haynako. Sino ba pwede makausap dyan ng Tagalog. Nuninuninu...
