Meeting Tuan Thailand - Part Two

Meeting Tuan Thailand 

March 29th, 2019

This is the Part Two of 'Meeting Tuan Thailand'. If you haven't read Part One I encourage that you read it before reading this part!

I took this photo right after I interviewed him. He is so wholesome <3 div="">

  They played another song and then asked for someone to come up again. During their third song I had told the emcee that I wanted to meet the bass player. And he told me that he was going to call people up to talk to the band members at the end and I could talk to him then. Well, the emcee grabbed me when they asked for another person to come up. The bass player and I were to sing Photograph. I know the song by heart but I learned that unless the mic was at my lip, the small space between me and the mic was enough to ensure that my voice couldn’t be heard.

  I was singing though. Which at one point, I tapped the mic to see if it worked then I turned it off and on again. Instead, I shrugged and went with it. Before I was dragged onto the stage the singer had asked for the lights to go out and for everyone to take out their phones and turn on the flashlight. I wish the mic would have worked or I would have placed the mic closer to my face but it bothers me to have the mic that close which is why I didn’t put it there.

  I got lost is the song and singing it but all I could hear was the bass player’s voice which wasn’t bad for me because I liked his voice but I wish the mic would have worked. Maybe it was my voice but I had fun regardless seeing the audience interact and having the band around me was so exciting! I wanted to get a picture with the bass player then but I didn’t because they were in the middle of getting to the next song so I got off the stage and returned to my Physics friend.

  After that I enjoyed the songs that they sung and at one point, the lead singer got off stage against to interact with the audience. He got pictures with everyone who wanted pictures and the secondary guitarist was also being interactive but didn’t get off stage. I looked up at the bass player who was defiant to the idea of getting off stage. He saw that I wanted to take a picture with him and he had thrown something off stage but (me being blind) didn’t see it until someone else grabbed.

  After they sung their last song the emcee announced that anyone could interview the band members and was welcome to go up and interview any of them. The first girl who got on stage was the first to go up and interview the secondary guitarist. Then, the emcee eyed me and I was so nervous. I didn’t know what I wanted to ask.

  Once I marched up on stage. The emcee asked who I wanted to talk to and I pointed at the bass player. Part of him was surprised but not because he knew I had paid attention to him throughout the concert but the lead singer and the other band members encouraged him as he grabbed mic and I was handed the one that the emcee had.

  His English name was Win (pronounced like Won). The first interview with the second guitarist was short and conveyed a Filipino cultural interview where the girl has asked if the guitarist was single and he said that he was. Then he asked if she was single. Filipinos get a kick out of these kind of interactions and I’m not entirely sure why but I do know that it’s very common to want to flirt publically. It defuses the nerves in them.

  Coming from a different culture, I didn’t focus on trying to flirt. The emcee wanted me to hug the bass player but I was more interested in who he was and how/why he was the bass player in the band. I personally have always wanted to be a bass player but it was also his voice that captivated me into wanting to get to know him.

  My first question was, “How many years have you been doing music?” And he was surprised that I asked him that but he said twenty years and then said that he was twenty-one.

  I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’m Asian and I can never tell the age of an Asian. Most Asians tend to either look really young or really old and I’m on the younger spectrum so I get mistaken for the wrong age all the time. So, I figured he was joking. But, I replied with, “Oh whoa! I’m twenty-two!”

  What I loved the most about interacting with him was the silent conversation we had as I interviewed him. I eyed his arm which had tattoos and I asked how many tattoos he had. He laughed and said, “Ten.” I then smiled and showed him only a portion of my tattoo on my left arm. “That’s so cool! I have three!”

  The third question I asked was ‘what is your favorite color’? His reaction was so cute! He lifted up his foot and pointed at his sock and goes, “Green!” And it was so adorable I couldn’t help but laugh. He was laughing too (nervously) but I think it helped defuse the actual nervousness he felt. The interaction in general was great.

  His English was broken, of course, but as I asked him questions he realized that my accent wasn’t the same as the emcee’s or the other Filipinos so he was looking at me trying to figure what was different about me. I was wearing a dress with boots (not cowboy boots but the term escapes my mind). I looked Filipino but I didn’t sound Filipino. So to him, he I wasn’t what he associated with as ‘Filipino’ by personality but by looks I was Filipino. Then he noticed that I even looked different than the others in a way. I didn’t match the attire of the rest of the Filipinos that were there. I had a more gothic look to me which isn’t an attire that is common, especially among the University students.

  Then I asked “Would you enjoy coming back to perform for us again?” And he was like, “Yes! I’d love too.” (Speaking on the behalf of the band).

--

  This is part two of three. If you would like to read the whole journal entry (which is 3-4 thousand words) you are welcome to by clicking on this link. Otherwise, tune in tomorrow for the last part of the journal entry!

Thank you for reading,

Dj/Cho/Nar

Discover Tuan Thailand!

YouTube

 They don't really use this but there are a few videos of their music on there.  

Facebook 

Instagram

Spotify

 Two of their songs are available on Spotify. One is 1,000 miles and the other is written in Thai so I don’t know what the name is but it’s good!

Keep up with Dj!

Ask Questions Here

 This will send me an email with your questions you don’t have to leave a name. I will post the answer to the blog!

 Facebook

      This is mainly for communication so go ahead, add me. Message me every once in a while so that I remember who you are. Otherwise, I'll delete you at the end of the year when I clear through my facebook lol.

 Instagram

       I follow anyone who follows me! This is mainly pictures of where I go!

 Wattpad

Meeting Tuan Thailand - Part One

Meeting Tuan Thailand

March 29th, 2019

(First picture I took with Win! But it wasn't very good because of the light). Still super stoked that I got it!)

  Today started off bad, then I ended up feeling sick. I was tempted to not go to this concert that my teachers enforced us to go to but I got to see the band The Bridge (a local Filipino band) and I got to interact with this band from Thailand. I do not regret going. I’m actually happy that I did. Although, I didn’t appreciate the ‘enforcement’ that was laid upon going to this concert.

  Tuan Thailand is a new band and I tried to look up more information about them but couldn’t find much. Maybe I looked the wrong way but I did find their YouTube, their Facebook page, and Instagram. Meeting them was so surreal. My classmates ended up leaving because they didn’t enjoy the music but the moment the band started to play a metal song my heart skipped a beat.

  I fell in love with the bass player and apologized to my significant other because I felt like the interaction I had at the concert was too intimate but he laughed at me and said that I was being dumb. He was glad that I had fun at the concert and I’m so happy that I went.

  When the first song began I remember watching the faces of my classmates as they looked uncomfortable with the music. Metal/screamo/punk/grudge… These genre are usually stereotyped as demonic and that’s not true!!! But, stereotypes are stereotypes.  The Philippines is a very religious country and a person can only imagine how these people misinterpreted the introduction.

 My soul resonated with the music as I began to process what was going on between the reactions of the people around me (their misinterpretations) and the lit flame of passion for music that ignited within me. I began to analyze each instrument because the speakers were blasting one portion of the song, there was screaming, singing, and other sounds that alternated between speakers.

  In the first song I focused on the scream since it was the attention catching factor in the song. The background (which was very loud at first) was a rhythm that I recognized with the metal genre. First, I faced the band and watched as the bass player’s sole part in the first song was to scream and be background but his mic worked better than the lead singers which was why he was clearer than the lead singer.

  There were three guitars in total which I later registered as one bass guitar and two regular guitars. The lead singer was dressed in a punk outfit which was another factor in me trying to understand this band. As an American who was been exposed to this genre and open to different cultures I didn’t feel that there was different culture in front of me. I had already experience this kind of music and their attire which was what made me more comfortable at the concert.

  I’ve come to realize how isolated I truly felt in this country until as of late. This concert made me feel at home. Whereas, to them, they were the foreigners but to me, they were like me. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in the New Tandem which is the journalism organization for the University. Well, when the emcee saw me, he approached and put me on spot.

  The interesting thing about this interaction was that he said ‘Buenos Noches’ which mean ‘Good Night’ in Spanish. I repeated it, not as a response but as a way to process what language he had spoken. Then, he converted to English but when he converted to English, I panicked and responded in Ilocano. This happened for two replied then I switched to Spanish as he left but he asked me ‘what was I expecting from this band from Thailand’? I told him (through the mic) that I expect them to be something unique, something that I haven’t heard before.

  Since I understand the Filipino culture, what they brought in the introduction alone was unique. This genre, without curse words, was being performed in front of Filipinos and not all of them associated that type of music as socially acceptable since the genre is stereotyped as demonic. In that way, they did present something unique but I because I’m American and because I come from a multicultural background they didn’t present something new to me. And truth be told, I loved it.

  This band brought out my passion in music again. I got lost in the concert and the lead singer did fantastic in interacting with the audience. He got off stage (which is something that not many performers do) and he walked to the back to bring the people sitting in the back to the front! Or, at least, closer to the front but he was very friendly and social.

  I wish his mic had worked better because I when I looked up the band after the concert I got to hear his singing voice clearly and it’s beautiful but because of the mic he had, the quality of his singing was tampered with. In the first song, as I mentioned before, the sole purpose of the bass player was to play the beat and scream which was what caught my attention to him in the first place.

  The secondary guitarist was adorable and smaller than the other two guitarist. (The lead singer also played guitar). After their second song they asked for someone to go up there who could dance and my friend had told me to go but I told her, I can’t dance. I can sing, but I can’t dance.

  As my second concert experience in the Philippines, I have to say, I truly enjoyed it. The Bridge was my first concert experience and they were not disappointing either! I think I’ll save the Bridge for my next post because I can take them apart in the same way that I am with Tuan Thailand.

  This band did not disappoint me and made my day. I didn’t expect to have a good time at this concert. Only because I didn’t feel well before the concert but once Tuan Thailand started to play all of the pain went away and I was back at home at a concert with my concert buddy Gloria. Before I left, she had taken me to go see Breaking Benjamin. Before that, we went to go see Seether. This band took me back to those memories. It was so surreal.

--

  This is part one of three. If you would like to read the whole journal entry (which is 3-4 thousand words) you are welcome to by clicking on this link. Otherwise, tune in tomorrow and the day after next for the full journal entry! 

Thank you for reading,

Dj/Cho/Nar

Discover Tuan Thailand!

YouTube

 They don't really use this but there are a few videos of their music on there.  

Facebook 

Instagram

Spotify

 Two of their songs are available on Spotify. One is 1,000 miles and the other is written in Thai so I don’t know what the name is but it’s good!

Keep up with Dj!

Ask Questions Here

 This will send me an email with your questions you don’t have to leave a name. I will post the answer to the blog!

 Facebook

      This is mainly for communication so go ahead, add me. Message me every once in a while so that I remember who you are. Otherwise, I'll delete you at the end of the year when I clear through my facebook lol.

 Instagram

       I follow anyone who follows me! This is mainly pictures of where I go!

 Wattpad

March 25th, 2019

  Hello everyone! Long time no personal talk…

  Last week I had my midterms. I have one midterm left that I will review today. (It’s about contemporary history and it’s not that difficult). I’ll need to watch a few youtube videos in order to review but other than that I should be fine.

  This past month I’ve focused heavily on my writing but not on my journal entries to you all and I’m sorry that I haven’t been as on schedule as when I first left. I’m hoping that my new project will help me keep up with writing to you all. I have photos saved on my USB to have scheduled. I have more than a thousand photos on my phone that I need to transfer to my laptop but I still need to post the multitude of photos that I have from last year.

  So, I have the content. I haven’t been focused on my blog which is my fault. It’s exciting to know that writing this blog will be a two way street. If I were to go home to the United States, I can then keep my friends in the Philippines updated on my whereabouts also.

  I did update the Q&A located to the right of these post. Google+ was removed so I had to take down the button but for the most part all my blog is missing is content (which I have!!!) If anything, I’m thankful for all the friends that I’ve made thus far. My friends realize that distance does not limit a friendship and that makes me more than happy.

  People talk about how they lose friends because they move away but I have very few friends that I’ve lost because of this. If anything, I feel that these friendships that unpause when we’re around each other make for stronger bonds than ones that are limited to having to see each other on a daily basest. Granted, I do like having someone physically around me for most of my days but overall, I can see my friends after a long period of time and nothing has changed.

  These are friendships that I cherish and I try to be that friend for others because I treat people the way I want to be treated. This project that I’m going to be doing is going to take place on Wattpad but I will also post the results here. I’m going to be rereading what I posted in my first week (at one point I stop posting what week it was lol) and I will write any comments, changes, or remarks about what I feel today verses how I felt the first time I got here.

  What I do know is that I have changed and I do good friends all around me. Next month will be my birthday and I tried planning a few things with my friends and I found out that I have more than I thought I did. Which is a problem but it’s a good problem to have.

  For those of you who haven’t read anything outside of this blog, I’m still happy that you’ve read this blog at all. If you are an active Wattpad reader please let me know by following me and I will follow you back! I enjoy being able to talk to people on that website because there’s a list of artist that are inspiring of different ages and backgrounds… It connects people.

  There’s a shelf the two bookstores I’ve been to in this country and they have a Wattpad section. I think that is so awesome that the website has reached out that to the point where they’re selling actual books! I don’t foresee myself being on that shelf specifically but I do eventually want to publish a book and I do know that my friends who be willing to support me in this.

  Half of the semester is over! I cannot believe it’s already here. I’ve written about cultural dilemmas in my poetry book on Wattpad. I feel that if I were to share them here, y’all would enjoy them as well. I’m having to keep a name database because I try not to spill actual names to the public but there are so many characters in my life that keeping up with a secondary name is difficult.

  Now that I think about it, I suppose that I could schedule a poem once a week from my poetry book and have the link to the poem added into the post so that people who read this and who are on Wattpad can connect with me there as well. My friends have told me that I would be a chibi in an anime. When I told my boyfriend this he told me that I’d probably be the main character.

  It’s adorable how you guys look up to me but I’m so tiny compared to most of you. Today, I went to go eat with one of my friends and I looked in the mirror on the opposite wall and realized that I am super light compared to him. Like, I’m borderline white on our scale of how dark we are. I looked at my photos in the past and realized that I don’t really get darker, I sort glow more instead of getting dark and that’s really weird to say and try to explain but yea… I glow more instead of getting darker. It’s the yellow in me guys.

  There is literally no possible way for me to cover everything in one post especially when I limit myself to a thousand words but I don’t like rambling and I do know people want to get on with their lives which is why I limit these in the first place.

  Cool news though! I finished my first poetry book since I’ve been back on Wattpad (September of 2018). This poetry book contains 100 poems about my life here in the Philippines. It also contains poems about my mental health as well as my relationships with people. I’m proud that I finished this book and I want to share it with you all. I hope I can schedule the poetry. I have a lot to get done on my blog and all I hope is that you guys will stick around to read it all.

Thanks for tuning in,

DJ/Cho/Nar

Keep up with me at the following:

Ask Questions Here

 This will send me an email with your questions you don’t have to leave a name. I will post the answer to the blog!

 Facebook

      This is mainly for communication so go ahead, add me. Message me every once in a while so that I remember who you are. Otherwise, I'll delete you at the end of the year when I clear through my Facebook lol.

 Instagram

       I follow anyone who follows me! This is mainly pictures of where I go!

 Wattpad

  

       Click this to read my poetry!

History of Science and Technology In The Philippines Part I

Hello all!

  I wanted to share some of the documents that I’ve had to read because of my four history classes. This is Part I of many. Below is a document that I had to read for my Science, Technology, and Society class. It’s a good read. I read 8 of the pages. Before I retype all of it (because I don’t know where she got it lol). I want to share to you what the assignment was!

  My teacher told the class that we were to read all fifteen pages and then write a summary of 500 words at the max. Now, my classmates (having not actually read the content) reworded sentences here and there to make up 500 words). Here in the Philippines they are taught to memorize but not analyze and that was something that my teacher preached after she told us to summarize the 15 pages into 3 sentences. Everyone tried to add all the information into three sentences where as I chose to go with the key points.

  Anywhere, here’s the document y’all. I hope you find it interesting!

A HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHONOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

By: Olivia C. Caoili

Introduction:

                The need to develop a country’s science and technology has generally been recognized as one of the imperative of socioeconomic progress in the contemporary world. This has become a widespread concern of governments especially since the post-word war II years.

                Among Third World countries, an important dimension of this concern is the problem of dependence in science and technology as this closely tied up with the integrity of their political sovereignty and economic self-reliance. There exist a continuing imbalance between scientific and technological development among contemporary states with 98 percent of all research and development facilities located in developed countered and almost wholly concern with the latter’s problems. Dependence or autonomy in science and technology has been salient issue in conferences sponsored by the United Nations.

                It is within the above context that this paper attempts to examine the history of science and technology in the Philippines. Rather than focusing simply on a straight chronology of events, it seeks to interpret and analyze the interdependent effects of geography, colonial trade, economic and educational policies and socio-cultural factors in shaping the evolution of present Philippines sciene and technology.

                As used in this paper, science is concerned with the systematic understanding and explanation of the laws of nature. Scientific activity centers on research, the end result of which is the discovery of production of new knowledge. This new knowledge may or may not have any direct or immediate application.

                In comparison, technology has often been understood as the ‘systematic knowledge of industrial arts”. As this knowledge was implemented by means of techniques, technology has become commonly taken to mean both the knowledge and the means of its utilization, this is, “a body of knowledge about techniques.” Modern technology also involves systematic research but its outcome is more concrete than science, i.e. the production of “a thing, a chemical, a process, something to be bought and sold.”

                In the past, science and technology developed separately, with the latter being largely a product of trial and error in response to a particular human need. In modern times, however, the progresses of science and technology have become intimately linked together. Many scientific discoveries have been facilitated by the development of new technology. New scientific knowledge in turn has often led to further refinement o existing technology or the invention of entirely new ones.

Precolonial Science and Technology:

                There is a very little reliable written information about Philippines society, culture and technology before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521. As such, one has to reconstruct a picture of this past using contemporary archaeological findings, accounts by early traders and foreign travelers, and the narrative about conditions in the archipelago which were written by the first Spanish missionaries and colonial officials. According to these sources, there were numerous, scattered, thriving, relatively self-sufficient and autonomous communities long before the Spaniards arrived. The early Filipinos had attained a generally simple level of technological development, compared with those of Chinese and Japanese but this was sufficient for their needs at the period of time.

                Archaeological findings indicate that modern men (homo sapiens) from the Asian mainland first came over-land and across narrow channels to live in Palawan and Batangas around 50,000 years ago. For about 40,000 years, they made simple tools or weapons of stone flakes but eventually developed techniques for sawing, drilling and polishing hard stones. These Stone Age inhabitants subsequently formed settlements in the major Philippines islands such as Sulu, Mindanao (Zamboanga and Davao), Negros, Samar, Luzon (Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan and the Cagayan Region). By the 3,000 B.C they ere producing adzes ornaments of seashells and pottery of various designs. The manufacture of pottery subsequently became well developed and flourished for about 2,000 years until it came into competition with imported Chinese porcelain. Thus over time pottery making declined. What has survived of the ancient technology is the lowest level, i.e., the present manufacture of the ordinary cooking pot among several local communities.

                Gradually, the early Filipinos learned to make metal tools and implements—coper fold, bronze and late, iron. The Iron Age is considered to have lasted from the second or third century B.X. to the tenth century A.D. Excavations of Philippines graves and work sites have yielded iron islands. These suggest that Filipinos during this period engaged in the actual extraction of iron from iron ore, smelting, and refining. But it appears that the iron industry, like the manufacture of pottery, did not survive the competition with imported cast iron from Sarawak and much later, from China.

                By the first century A.D., Filipinos were weaving cotton, smelting iron, making pottery and glass ornaments and were also engaged in agriculture. Lowland rice was cultivated in diked fields and in the interior mountain regions as in the Cordillera, in terraced fields which utilized spring water.

                Filipinos had also learned to build boards for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A.D., this had become a highly developed technology. In fact, the early Spanish chroniclers took note of the refined plank-build warship called caracoa. These boars were well suited for inter-island trade raids. The Spaniards later utilized Filipino expertise in boat-building and seamanship to fight the raiding Dutch, Portuguese, Muslims and Chinese pirate Limahong as well as to build and man the galleons that sailed to Mexico. 

                By the tenth century A.D., the inhabitants of Butuan were trading with Champa (Vietnam); those Ma-I (Mindoro) with China. Chinese records which have now been translated contain a lot of references to the Philippines. These indicate that regular trade relations between the two countries had been, well established during the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. Archaeological findings (in various part of the archipelago) of Chinese porcelains made during this period support this contention. From the Sung (960-1278) and Yuan (1260-1368) dynasties, there are descriptions of trade with the Philippines, and from Sung and Ming (1360-1644) dynasties there are notices of Filipino missions to Peking.

                The most frequently cited Chinese account in Philippines history textbooks is that of Chao Ju-Kua in 1225. He described the communities and trading activities in the islands of Ma-I (Mindoro) and San-hsu (literally three islands which present-day historians think refer to the group of Palawan and Calamian Islands). The people of Ma-I and San-hsu traded beeswax, cotton, true pearls, tortoise shell, medical betelnuts, yu0ta cloth (probably juta or ramine?) and coconut heart mats for Chinses porcelain, iron pots, lead fishnet sinkers, colored glass beads, iron needles, and tin. These people were practically the same commodities of trade between the islands and China which the first Spanish colonial officials recorded when they came to the Philippines more than two centuries later.

--

  Alright! There’s the first thousand words for you guys. I’ll be sure to type up the rest next week or later. I’ve literally been at this café for four hours straight. People have come and gone and there’s only one student who was here when I originally got here but now she has a friend.

  This research paper is a good source to see how people writing in the Philippines. They’re very technical. I had to stop myself when I typed a sentence I would’ve said different but it’s not my work so I wanted to copy it exactly as it.

  Anyway, I’m thinking I’ll queue these in March. I know that sounds silly but I’m very OCD about how I do my post and I don’t like starting anything new in the middle of the month. So you’ll probably see this the first week of March. I’ll be sure to have the rest typed up for the month and for months to come!

Hope you enjoyed this read!

I'll be placing these where my weekly updates go until I schedule more content.

DJ/Nar/Cho

Keep up with me at the following:

Ask Questions Here

 This will send me an email with your questions you don’t have to leave a name. I will post the answer to the blog!

 Facebook

      This is mainly for communication so go ahead, add me. Message me every once in a while so that I remember who you are. Otherwise, I'll delete you at the end of the year when I clear through my facebook lol.

 Instagram

       I follow anyone who follows me! This is mainly pictures of where I go!

 Wattpad

 If I don’t write a post here there’s probably a chance that I have written something on my Wattpad because there I post poems! They are shorter reads with more meaning. I am currently working on two poetry books but the more important one that ties into this travel blog is called ‘A Barrier Meant To Be Broken’.

March 11th, 2019

March 7, 2019

  I’ve been typing up all these post and not posting them so I want to sorry for that everyone. This will be my most current post that shall post on March 11^th. Midterms should be in two weeks! I can’t believe this semester is already almost over. I do know that I’m having a bit of trouble this year in the subjects that I actually like due to me not being able to absorb the content. I’m going to have to do a lot of studying this coming week.

  For those of you who actually read these I do appreciate the attention you give. I’m sorry that I’ve been on and off on these. I do write to you guys. I lack in actually posting them. So, I’m hoping that I can schedule what all I have typed up for you that way you have something to read.

  Gaming: Not many Filipinos play games. If they do, it’s Mobile Legends or League of Legends. Card games are considered gambling. One of my friends asked me if I wanted to be the Dungeon Master when I returned home and I got excited. I told my friends here that I wanted to try to play this game with them. It’s proven to be more complicated than they expected and well… I’m probably not helping with my complicated way of thinking but I do hope that I can guide them through a game before I leave.

  If you’re not sure what game I’m referring to, I’m talking about Dungeons and Dragons. I had brought my book over from the U.S because I hoped there was a group here that I could play with and it turned out that the game didn’t exist. At least, not in my city.

  When I first arrived in the Philippines my communication skills lacked and they still do but I can communicate comfortably with these three so I’m hoping this goes well. I have them set up for the most part. The only thing now is to have them place their ability scores in what they think they should do. My girl best friend wants to look up more about the game before she chooses her scores and I understand that.

  Something interesting about this game is that most of the Filipinos I know aren’t aware of medieval times so I get to teach them history as well as English. I’m hoping that we can exchange Ilocano and English and help me build a vocabulary this way. I hope the story that I set for them isn’t too hard to follow.

  What I noticed in the generation of Filipinos from the ages 16-21 is that they don’t have concrete problem solving skills. My friends are smart and I’m sure they’ll figure it out but I wanted to present them with a situation to test that skill and to help them practice it. I originally made the campaign for my friends back home but since there are less of them and a none of them have played the game I made it smaller.

  Language Learning: When I go home to San Emilio, it’s easier for me to pick up on Itneg and I can actually practice it with one of my friends in Abra. However, his Itneg doesn’t always line up with mine. Usually, there is only an accent difference but occasionally there is a major difference. I’ve learned that his Itneg is closer to Filipino while my family’s Itneg is closer to Ilocano.

  I have two tutors again this year. I told my Ilocano tutor that my major difficulty is my lack in vocabulary and he informed me that even the Ilocano speakers of today have that issue. He enlightened me that even though Ilocano is what the teachers speak during 1^st grade to 3^rd grade, they don’t actually teach Ilocano. During 4^th to 6^th (maybe 7^th?) the teachers are told to use Filipino and for 8^th to 12^th they are pushed to use English. Technology is usually introduced in 11^th and 12^th grade and that blows my mind. Some may or may not be introduced due to the lack of funds.

  Out of all the languages I can attempt to speak, Ilocano is the most likely. If I spent more time with my family it would probably be Itneg instead of Ilocano but I spend more time in the city. (Not that I don’t like spending time with my family) It’s that traveling all the way there is not cost efficient). I can understand more Ilocano than Filipino.

  Now, this is going to be confusing but I have to clarify something. People will argue with me but this is what my teachers have told me. Filipino is not the same as Tagalog. Tagalog is a dialect of Filipino spoken in Manila. Filipino is the national language which is standardized. As I said, this is what my teachers have told me and I’m going to stand by it but I won’t argue what is what because well, if there’s a language I do know it’s English but I still have trouble with that language…

  That being said… I can sing, write, and read in Filipino but I cannot understand it. How is this possible? There are song in ‘Filipino’ and I can mimic the sounds that the singers make but that doesn’t mean I know what they’re talking about. Writing in Filipino is pretty easy due to the fact that I understand how to sound out the words and I understand the format in which Filipino follows.

  Ilocano is the most spoken language around me. This makes it easier for me to grasp the language. However, what people don’t understand is just because I can understand the words that are presented to me, it doesn’t meant that I can present the words from my own mental word bank and it’s frustrating.

Overall: People have asked me, “How can you not speak the languages of the Philippines? You’ve been here since April right? This past almost year has been useless if you can’t speak the languages.”

  Let me tell you. I know that I’ve improved and I wish that I could only focus on one language. I can’t exactly prevent the other feeds of languages from coming into my mental feed. Through the people I’ve interacted with I learn as much as I can but language learning has proven to be the most difficult challenge for me as of yet.

  I would also like to mention the ‘s’ that is tagged to the word ‘language’. When I first got to this country I could hear a difference between Itneg and Ilocano but I didn’t know why. Now, I understand what the difference is between the two languages. I still get Ilocano and Filipino mixed up. However, I do know that I recognize Ilocano words easier than Filipino ones when they are spoken. When Filipino is written I can see that it’s Filipino and to be honest, I think that’s enough proof to show that I’ve improved.

  So no. I am not fluent in ANY of the THREE languages that I’m having to learn. But, at least I can tell the difference between the three. I hope that within time, I can speak all three. I really do. There has been a lot that I’ve overcome this past year and I don’t feel that this past year has been a waste. I’m enjoying my time here and I want to continue to learn through my friends and family.

This turned into a rant, I’m sorry everyone.

Thanks for listen,

DJ/Cho/Nar

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