WHEN YOUR NOSE BLEEDS
THE SUBCONSCIOUS ACT OF BUTCHERING WORDS
by Avelino De Jesus
When Your Nose Bleeds
Let me guess the first word that came to mind when you read the title: English!
Right? I knew it!
The Philippines has always been one of the preferred BPO destinations in the world simply because we have one of the biggest population of people capable of speaking the English language. In the voice department, with English as the main preference and bringer of job opportunities, we rock!
Our capacity to speak the language paved the way for a lot of us to have relatively well-paying jobs. It is an academic investment that allowed a lot of us to enjoy the small luxuries in life, put food on the table, take better care of our loved ones, and further our careers.
I’m getting a little worried, though. It seems that we’re taking our bread and butter for granted – the quality of the spoken art is diminishing! Much like any skill, we are not putting in the time to practice speaking the language.
We already have problems with redundancies: “more cooler”, loosely translating our local language in English which is “major major” bad we can’t “cope up”, and mixing English and Filipino in what we say: “I have ‘na’ your drink” (with “na” meaning “already”).
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Yet, here we are making things worse butchering the skill by intentionally distorting its use verbally and in writing! The sarcastic use of "hello" by saying, “Heller” or when we signify our friendship with, “What are friends are for?”
If you ask me, I also blame the emergence of “text speaking” like: “hu u?” (who are you?) or “m8 u @ d l@bi” (meet you at the lobby). Ryt?
Unless you are a comedian and this is the brand of comedy that brings home the bacon, then feel free. I am not saying I hold full command of the English language, no I don’t. I have been guilty of these too at one point. In recognizing my own lapses, I have strived to be mindful of these and improve.
Anyway, why am I making a big deal out of it all? That certain degree of fluency we hold over the English language paved the way for international businesses to be outsourced to us. English has become our livelihood. Yes, it is the language that has made our lives a little more comfortable. I worry because if we lose it, we have our neighboring countries catching up, ready to pick up the slack.
Please don’t wait for that time to come. Take the language seriously and respect its use.Talk to your colleagues in English, talk to your kids in English, watch English movies, read English literature, and when sending mobile text messages in English, write them in full! Don’t limit the verbal execution of the language only when needed. Practice outside of it so you can execute its use well enough at times when speaking it matters the most – your job. Continue learning, practicing and improving.
Who knows? It might cure the frequent nosebleeds.