IT’S QUITE commonsensical. If you grow up in Iloilo or West Negros, but can’t speak Ilonggo, you aren’t Ilonggo. Ditto for other languages.
The solution is to institutionalize the teaching of these dying languages in schools, mass media (which the good Joel Torre is advocating), and public communication.
As a single example, almost all passengers in planes and boats to the provinces are native speakers of the languages of their provinces. Yet announcements are in Tagalog.
It doesn’t take much for the local government of a province or city to mandate public announcements in their indigenous tongues. In Iloilo for example, the LGUs can mandate planes and boats to also announce in llonggo pre-recorded sayings such as “Maayong pag-abot sa Iloilo, ang syudad sang gugma. Kabay pa magustohan ninyo ang amon kultura kag lenguage, kag mabalik pa kamo.” Also, “Maayong pag byahe sa Iloilo. Nalipay tani kamo. Gina agda kamo nga magtener diri liwat.” Ditto for other LGUs.
Most important of all, there should be subjects that teach the local language, funded possibly by the government.
This is not without precedents. Germany, for example, requires all immigrants to learn to speak the German language. An immigrant is required to take online courses in the German language. The same applies to the Baltic countries which require non-Baltic immigrants and residents to learn to speak the Estonian and Latvian languages in order to become citizens of their countries.
Joel also shared that early in his career, he struggled with using his own voice on screen due to his strong Ilonggo accent. “I didn’t use my voice because I was very, very Ilonggo,” he recalled.
“So it took me three years or three movies before I started using my own voice.” That moment finally came in the film “Bituing Walang Ningning,” where he was able to use his voice and didn’t have anyone else dubbed it.
He stressed the importance of comfort and authenticity in language. “First language is first language,kahit paano mas secure tayo magsalita, he explained.” I feel nga kung mag-Tagalog ako, may pause ako… delayed pause for a few seconds.”
Comment: Joel Torre is narrating his experience which many Ilonggo Visayans have also underwent. It is important that they stand up for their Ilonggo language in such situations.
Here are the statements I have doubts on.
Joel cited the success of his Netflix film “Lolo and the Kid,” as an example of how language need not be a barrier.
“It’s Tagalog, but there are subtitles. Nag No. 1 sa ibang bansa, nag-No. 1 sa Netflix UAE. That’s understandable kasi maraming Pinoy.”
My comments: “Oro, Plata, Mata” is often depicted as a success for Ilonggo Negrosanon culture. In my opinion though, it badly failed the Ilonggo people by filming the entire movie in Tagalog. It was filmed in an ancestral Gaston house. My lola was a Gaston. Her father, uncles and aunties all used Ilonggo as evidenced by their letters that I have seen to each other in Ilonggo (not Spanish or English). Movies like these should be audioed in Ilonggo and dubbed in English and Tagalog. Not the other way around.
The same is true for the more recent “My Ilongga Girl”. They used Tagalog. It has failed the Ilonggo people.
Since these films’ settings are in Negros and Panay, the characters should show even just an iota of respect to the local ethnolinguistic people and use Ilonggo; and dubbed in Tagalog and English so outsiders can understand them and even teach them the Ilonggo language. Now such films would be the real success for the Ilonggo ethnolinguistic people.
Joel Torre – many thanks sincerely for advocating the Philippines’s diverse languages. (Send comments and suggestions to mabuhibisaya2017@gmail.com)/PN
