Two Tongues Twisted

[Don’t mind the picture. I’m opting for a tamer post this time around, after that ratty debacle, haha.]

If you’re a writer, and English is just your second language, do you play favorites?

I did, once. I almost never wrote in Tagalog. A great shame, considering I am Filipino. But it just seemed like I was more comfortable weaving stories in English than in my native tongue. Add the fact that I knew more ‘big’ (read: polysyllable) words in English than in Tagalog, and you have a writer filling up pages and pages of pompous, highfalutin text.

If you’d allow me to make one ridiculous analogy, then let’s just say one tongue was drenched in saliva, and the other was as dry as the Sahara baked to the fullest.

But of course, the times have changed. Eventually, the spit of life found its way to the other tongue, nourishing it, allowing it to smoothly lave and lick at the victuals it desired to consume. These victuals were, of course, your usual yummy morsels of prose and poetry fodder.

To make the poetically abstract lines above clearer –- my ardor of English gave way to my ardor of Tagalog.

Want to really know why I left my blog for a month? Well, this web journal is in English, and I wanted to keep it that way. Unfortunately, I almost abandoned writing in that language. At least for a month.

I found Tagalog better suited to express my recent ‘musings’, which leaned towards Filipino societal concerns and manifested in poems. And what better tongue to use for these ‘nationalistic’ ruminations? Certainly, a Filipino tongue -– Tagalog.

For one whole month, I demoted English to school papers and system documentations. There was no room for creative writing in English.

But now, I want to strike a balance. These two tongues need to share the spit of life. For ridiculous analogy number two, I’d say these two need to finally French kiss.

I began with English. I swung to Tagalog. I will end with both English and Tagalog. That’s what you call having the best of both worlds, er, tongues. For my prose, which consists of my journal writings and –- this is a hush-hush thing between us, okay? –- fantasy ala “swords and sorcery” novels, English is my baby. For my poetry, Tagalog reigns supreme.

So in effect, my escapist doppelganger speaks English, and my serious, patriotic self is fluent in the native speech (did you actually think the Magdalo flag in my Blog Profile was only for decoration?).

As I begin my third year* of ‘true writing’, I guess I have another challenge to face. No more playing favorites.

Dammit Corsarius, enough talk -– let’s get these two tongues tangled up right now.


*Another hush-hush thing of mine. I only began writing for leisure in second year college. Before that, I used my decent command of the two languages only for school requirements and journalism work. Absolutely no self-initiated creative writing. I didn’t even bother to have a diary. Ah, tempus fugit.