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When Bicolanos Get Angry

Article  in  Exchange · June 2013

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 JIMMYLEN Z. TONIO, M.A.E.S.L.
Jimmylen Zuñiga Tonio is a faculty member of the College of Arts
and Sciences, Department of Languages. She finished her AB
Communication Arts degree, major in speech communication, at
University of the Philippines Los Baños and her MA English as a
Second Language (MAESL) degree at Benguet State University.
Catandunganon’s Kind of Resiliency
The human spirit is indomitable and no challenge is insurmountable. There are countless
tales that reinforce the truth of the previous statement. From the story of a cancer survivor to
a Pakistani Girl who survived being shot in the head for fighting for girls’ right to education to a
collective resolve of a nation to pick-up the pieces of their earthquake-ravaged homes and rebuild
the whole community, the tales are endless and come in all shapes, sizes and colors. These
stories have the same recurring plot, one that never gets old.
I live in an island amongst people who are never short of stories of survival. We have
our own share of epidemics, we are not short of political and social unrest, nor are we ever
hungry for sleazy, corrupt politicians. But there is one occasionally consistent threat to our
survival that we have to face. I couldn’t remember a time when typhoons seemed an unreal
threat to Catandunganons. Just like Christmas and town fiestas, they are expected to come,
and they never disappoint. Whatever name it is given, a typhoon would mightily pour all its rain
and blow its gusty winds to uproot trees, topple utility poles, blow the roofs off homes and
school buildings, and take human lives. Way before other provinces got their fair share of
typhoons, Catandunganons have already accepted it as a part of life. The anxiety, the fear and
the grief typhoons bring seem to be the price we have to pay for being able to live in the island.
As with any tragedy, typhoons’ after effects are lingering and punishing. The loss of
electric and water supply limits people’s way of life. Schools and offices are closed lest you
want to sit inside roofless buildings. Some roads are closed due to landslides. Food and supplies
are scarce and people have to live off whatever ration they get from the national government.
The depressing aftermath could go on for a few weeks or a few months.
Still, typhoons may not be as grave a challenge as other disasters, as they are generally
regarded as something that can be predicted and they only hit occasionally. Unfortunately,
Catandunganons’ relationship with typhoons is a bit more complicated. The predictability of
typhoons is almost immaterial since the island is in the middle of the typhoon belt. Worse, they
come far often than what could be deemed as normal.
16
REASHIELA L. KHAN
Mrs. Reashiela Lucena Khan, a Cum Laude graduate of BSED, major
in English, at Aquinas University of Legaspi, is an instructor at
CSU Department of Languages. Before becoming a member of the
CSU family, she used to be a research writer and web administrator
for several U.S.-based websites. She was also a former instructor at
Bicol College, Daraga, Albay. She has already completed the academic
requirements for MAED-English at Bicol University.
When Bicolanos Get Angry
“Hain ka nang babaknít* ka!” (Where are you, woman!) “Tiplâ ka pa nanggad?” (Are
you still asleep?) “Gamadyâ talaga ini; kung hain–hain sana macanosdos and lusbot!” (It is really
a dog; it wipes its butt just anywhere.) These are some of the crispy expressions of anger that I
love about our dialect, most of which I did not know the meaning until I reached adulthood.
When I was a kid, I knew when adults were angry, exasperated, or irritated because
they would spontaneously expel words which sounded foreign to me but so sound just furious.
Whenever I heard these words that I only partly understood, I would behave instantly and bow
my head down. They were indeed very effective by their sounds alone.
One moment I always remember was when I nagged Lola, who is a Pioduranon, to buy
me the pair of yellow dress I liked very much. She replied in a stern voice, “Tínggà. Sain mo ako
pakitkitun ning samaltâk ngonyan?” (Stop. Where do you think I can get money now?) She won.
The sound of samaltâk, which is kuwartà” (money) in ordinary word, was enough to feed me
with the images of sampadóng (slap) and tabák (big knife). Later on, I learned other derivations
of the word: samagtâk, sagták, sagrák, and hagrák, although their rootword is still unclear to
me.
As I get to know a gamut of expressions in Bicol especially used to give force to the
feeling of irritation and anger and also to express teasing and scoff ing, I realized how
onomatopoeic Bicolanos’ ear for words and how versatile the sounds of the Bicol dialects are.
We appreciate emotions very well if words that are used to convey them voice like
their meaning. For instance, the imperative “Gamità ang mata mo” (Use your eyes.) does not
strike the right emotion if simply shouted to express exasperation. Our elders hit it better if
they say, “Gamita ang malsûk mo!” (Use your eyes). Once we hear these words, the probability
is we would open our eyes larger, not just because we were told so or we know our folks are
already angry, but because the sounds are sharp and piercing.
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Khan/ When Bicolanos Get Angry The Exchange Vol. VII, No.7 / June 2013

The word ‘malsûk’, so as ‘samagtâk’, ‘babaknít’, ‘gamadyâ’, and ‘lusbot’, may not be in achieved the benchmark level 4 score in national curriculum tests in English and Mathematics,
our accepted vocabulary, but the wide presence of these words in our folks’ lexicon shows the a rise from 65% last year, citing the case of Tower Hill Primary School.
phonologic permissibility and versatility of our dialect. Many Bicol words allow grapheme The concept is simple. While we are used to say that we are incorporating values in our
variability or form derivations to accommodate tonal fluctuations in emotions. They do not solely lessons, what would be sounder when we incorporate knowledge in values? The harsh reality
rely on suprasegmental (i.e. pitch, volume, tone, length, stress, and intonation) variations. Take of schooling is that it does not literally guarantee job placement after graduation knowing the
the word ‘bitis’ (foot). Our parents do not just shift stress or change sound length to convey stern competition in every field of career. However, taught with proper values and understanding
annoyance; they actually use other words: ‘samíngkil’, ‘singkíl’, ‘lamígtis’, or ‘samingkílàn’, which of the meaning of life, man can still live in decency with high moral. Think about preventing
have no syllabic similarity at all with the accepted term. terrorism, wars and different crimes.
I am not theorizing on the broad applicability of what a blogroll, Pororopot (2005)**, Another solution, according to Fisher (2006), there is a need to build a proper strategy
playfully calls, “tamongot” (contraction of ‘taramon’ and ‘anggot’ - word and angry, respectively) to provide a smooth metamorphosis for higher education. As summed up by Stacy (1993),
or which is technically called angry register, but maybe this is the reason why “oragon” rings in strategy is concerned with how an organization has become what it is and how it will become
so many people’s ear. It encompasses a blend of fury, sportsmanship, and provocative baiting – what it becomes; that is, how its identity evolves.
beautiful qualities of Bicol tamongot. For additional information, below are some more
tamanggot for your use, (just in case you get mad next time):
References:
English Formal Bicol*** Tamanggot**** Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity, Boston: Rowman and Littlefield.
angry dagit iuragan Eagleton (2006). Your thoughts are no longer worth a penny. The Times Higher Educational
blind bulag buslag Supplement: 10 March 2006.
buttock, behind, anus lubot lusbot, lusabot
Elmore, T. Ed.D. (n.d.). Left Brain School and Churches in a Right Brain World. Retrieved August
cat ikus kusmag, kasmag, kuramag
19, 2012 from http://GrowingLeaders.com.
chatty madaldal, tsismoso(a) ba-bara, barabara
chicken manok maldos Fisher, W. (2006). The metamorphosis of Higher Education in the UK – is there an identity crisis?
child aki pusí, pâsit England: University of Hertfordshire.
cry hibi kurarat, iyak, ngurangaw Lepkowska, D. (2012). Schools revive “touchy-feely” approach. The Guardian. Retrieved on
dead gadan tigbâk, tingló February 22, 2013 from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/aug/06/rise-values-
destroy rau’ton rungkabon based-learning-schools
dog ayam gamadya, asngab, damayu Mc.Dowell, B.A. (2008). The art of trading: Combining the science of technical analysis with the
dirty ka’ti bagla art of reality-based trading. New Jersey, Canada: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
drink inum da’luk
McShane, O. (2004) Reinventing the University. On Line Opinion. Retrieved May 2013,
eat kaun siba <www.onlineopinion.com.au/print.asp?article=2695>.
eyes, awake mata alinawnaw, malsuk, amamatak
feet bitis samingkil, tingting, Kerry, S., M.D. (1999). Education for the Whole Brain. World Prosperity, Ltd. Retrieved February
23, 2013 from <http://www.education-reform.net/brain.htm>.
lamigtis,samingkilan
girl, woman babaye babaknit RSAorg (2010, October 14). RSA Animate – Changing the Education Paradigms. Retrieved May
hand kamut kamulmog, 2013 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U>
head payo samaltak, lama’-yo Sanyal, B. C. (n.d.). Need for value-based education in the twenty first century. Retrieved on
hungry gutom gulsok, gutok February 22, 2013 from http://www.here-now4u.de/eng/need_for_the_value-
man, boy lalake lalaknit based_educa.htm
mouth nguso, kimot nguslo, ngurapak, nguso, Stacey, R. (1993) Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The challenge of
complexity. New York: Harlow, Pearson Education.
money kuwarta, centavo sagrak, samaltak, saltak, imo, perak
U.S. Support to UNESCO Past and Present (n.d.) UNESCO.US.gov. Retrieved May 2013 <http://
unesco.usmission.gov/mission/support.html>
10 15
Rubio / Unmasking the Real Face of Higher Education The Exchange Vol. VII, No.7 / June 2013

danger of a lack of advanced reflection, leading to accepting a form of utopia as a false reality. night banggi, matanga gabsok, labsok
This in turn could lead to a rapid change towards a false identity, and in fact, to the development old gurang gusgus
of an identity crisis. pig orig bakten
It can be then argued in what way teachers can really be espousing student-centered shabby makanos kurakpaw
approach when, for instance, the curriculum like VET (European Curriculum that is industry- shout kurahaw kagrat
based) is overridden with the economic agenda. Thus, highly prescriptive approach is given to sleep turog tipla, tupsok, tuspak
teaching and learning that lead to complex, overly instrumental approaches to teaching and snake halas lasulas
learning. spank tinaun badulan,
stomach tulák, turák lamasdak, tamindos
If this is the case, national policies focused mainly on reforms of the written curriculum
teeth ngipun ngislo, ngipngip
with comparatively little consideration has been given to how new curricula might affect teaching
and learning and what types of pedagogies might support with outcome-oriented curricula. Notes:
Elmore (n.d.) described some schools today as left brain–oriented. They teach by downloading * Accent Guide: Acute accent (´) means the syllable is stressed as in babaknít and tataramón kalamyás.
lecture which are passive in nature, cut music and art classes, teaching for the next test, and Grave accent (‘) means the syllable is unstressed as in lahì and barità. Circumflex accent (^) means stress
and glottal stop occurs in the syllable as in hibî and hâbon.
develop curriculum that drives teachers and learners into left brain thinking. According to Kerry
** For more information, Pororopot’s blogroll can be accessed at <http://tanhaga.wordpress.com/2005/08/
(1999) education today has focused on the narrow segment of the brain that is located at the 30/8/>.
left portion of the cerebral cortex. *** Words comprehensible to Bikolanos in general, irrespective of their ethnoliguistic classifcation
In a more scientific perspective, left-brain bias does exist in our educational system as ****The list is an incomprehensive collection from different Bicol sub-dialects. Since colloquial, some of
Albert Einstein puts it, “the intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful these words may not also appear in Bicol dictionaries. There may also be variations in the spelling of the
[k] and [c] sounds. Bikol dialect uses three graphemes for [k] sound: k, c, and que, and o and u for the [ ]
servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
sound.
The same observation was mentioned by Roger Sperry (1973, as cited by McDowell,
2008) in his quote,
the main theme to emerge… is that there appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal
and nonverbal, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres respectively
and that our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the
nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society
discriminates against the right hemisphere.
While we are advocating progress, we often neglected aesthetic-values as essential,
arguably more essential than economic progress. We are witnessing nowadays that progress
would not definitely warrants peace rather human values in a global form regardless of religions,
beliefs, traditions and races. Anyway, why can’t we globalize the same?
According to Sanyal (n.d.), educational institutions, local, national and international
agencies, have to work together to make value-based education an essential component of
educational programs to change the attitudes and behavior of the human race. According to
UNESCO’s Constitution, “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the
defenses of peace must be constructed” (U.S. Support to UNESCO Past and Present, n.d.).
According to Lepkowska (2012), a growing number of schools now are seeing the
benefits of adopting ‘values-based’ learning in a fightback against the current competitive
culture in education. She mentioned that overall, 85% of the latest cohort of year 60’s has

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