Did you come across that comic strip in the Saturday Star just last week? Two characters were conversing. One was surprised to see the other. “I thought you were in Boston to visit you parents,” one of them remarked. The other narrated what happened to him.”
“I went to the airport for my flight to Boston,” he began. “When I got there, I saw the sign: ARRIVALS. I went that way, I have just arrived, haven’t I. Somebody told me to go to DEPARTURES, I hesitated, why should I? The police told me to go to Departures, I was blocking the way, so I departed and here I am.”
The meanings of words and for that matter, the language that we speak may be comprehended in different ways depending on the individual receiving the messages.
Communication is a very important aspect of our social lives. The presence or lack of it may make or break a marriage, build or destroy business get a candidate for an office elected or rejected; make a student pass or fail on exam, create agreements or bitter arguments between individuals or groups.
Verbal communication is considered as one of the most important ways of delivering a message and yet, it is said that only 15% of communication is verbal. The pitch, tone, loudness or softness of delivery and all kinds of body languages affect communication.
The same words may be an appreciation or sarcasm depending on the delivery. A remark intending to condole may be misconstrued as belittling or a lack of sensitivity. The state of mind of the receiver of the communication has much to do with the interpretation of a remark.
The expression “I will kill you” has been the cause of many troubles people have been involved in. Some men and women often utter this expression without serious thought as to its real meaning. Unfortunately, it sometimes lands them in jail. Sometimes the circumstances where in the expression was uttered contribute to the interpretation. A husband and a wife were arguing about a petty issue. The husband was in the kitchen chopping some chickens when this argument happened. At the height of the exchange of words the husband became exasperated and uttered, “I could kill you!” The wife called the police. You must have guessed what happened next.
I was in a meeting one day when a Bicolano member arrived lat. “Naku pasensya na, Nahuli ako.”
We were concerned. What did she do that got her apprehended? “Bakit ka nahuli?”
“Hindi, hindi ako nakarating sa oras.” She explained. The word “nahuli” has different meanings according to the accent used. It could mean “late” or “:caught” according to the way it is said.
In Tagalog, egg is itlog; in Pampanga, egg is ebon. It is a joke among Filipinos that Pampanguenos are advanced. Egg (itlog) to the Tagalogs is already ebon (ibon or bird) to the Pampanguenos.
The Filipino national language which is based on the most widely spoken language in the Philippines, which is Tagalog is very phonetic! We spell it the way we say it. We do not have long or short vowels or silent letters. For this reason, we are sometimes becoming butts of jokes when we speak. We might say pillow shits instead of sheets. When I was still teaching one child asked me why there are some letters that are put in words when they are not needed like in “pneumonia”.. I could not answer the question with confidence. I just said that each country has its own way of spelling.
Idioms are more difficult to explain, I saw a fellow Filipino who actually looked under the table when a first language speaker of English said, “Are you pulling my leg?”
The recent political conventions in the United States provided a very interesting source of how words are sliced and spliced. The term Obama care is uttered by the Republicans with sarcasm. President Obama said in one of his speeches that the national medicate that was approved by him is really “Obamacare, I care”.
During the convention the audience was chanting: “Forward! Not backward!. The expression carries tremendous meaning: (Forward with the present government and “Not Backward” to the past Republican Government that is alleged to have brought the recession.
The term middleclass refers to the majority of the American people. In the Philippines, there is a very small portion of the population that can be called middle class. The majority are the poor when we classify them according to the standards of living.
I know of some people whose language is often “loaded”.
I do not just listen to what they are actually saying, but to the innuendoes behind them. I realize that this is not a good habit of mine. Often, I find things that hurt me. I guess the better way is: Take it with a grain of salt. (Now do not bring a package of salt with you all the time!)