In the Tagalog hot seat

I like being open to new things and I sometimes pay the price for it.

Just recently, I found myself serving as a judge for what I thought was a singing contest in a public elementary school. Except that it wasn’t just a singing contest. It was also a poetry recital contest, a group oration and had the teachers not anticipated the lack of time and held them earlier, it would also have been a story-reading and story-telling contest - all in Pilipino.

This trio of Grade 5 students was amazing while
doing a Balagtasan (debate in poetic verse).

I had unwittingly said yes to all these contests that were part of the school’s Buwan ng Wika culminating activity.  The principal had visited us while we were helping serve some of their students under the feeding program conducted by the Shell Tabangao Ladies Circle (STLC) and asked us to judge a singing contest in August. 



To cut a long story short, I felt compelled to honor the invitation. I was just glad that Gigi, a fellow STLC member, decided to come along and give me moral support.

I am a Cebuana. While I got good grades in Pilipino, this was during a time when very few spoke it in Cebu because there were not that many Tagalogs around to speak it. Airfare then was not for every Juan. And though my Tagalog has improved in the years I’ve been living in Manila, it is not deep enough for the kind that is recited during Buwan ng Wika celebrations.

I sweated profusely when the kids started reciting poetry in deep Tagalog, only to realize that I was not judging content. They all had the same piece and I was just judging them according to criteria that included interpretation, audience impact, facial expression, clarity of voice, etc. Pretty soon, I was just warm in the hot afternoon sun, but no longer tense.

Fourth grader Kyla Macatangay sang
"Bayan Ko" a capella

That was when I started enjoying the truly talented and gifted, the passionate, and the determined. 

I admired all the contestants for their guts, especially the teeny tiny girl who seemed about to cry but who got through her poetry recital nonetheless.

Kudos, too, to all the teachers and parents for being so encouraging of and involved in their kids.

I was feeling quite good at the end of it that when Teacher Armen turned to me and said “sa uulitin (until the next time),” I still couldn’t bring myself to say no. Instead, I told them it would be Gigi’s turn. She, too, is a Cebuana. Hehehe.