Tongue Twisters!

This morning, I was hanging out in Mikey Bustos' uStream chatroom while getting some work done. The chatters, a lot of who were in the Philippines, were trying to encourage Mikey to speak in Tagalog continuously for at least 2 minutes. I thought, oh, my, that is a tall order. (Mikey is a Canadian-born Filipino.)

At least, I know if someone were to ask me to do that, I'd be tongue-tied. Being an American-born Filipino, I at least can understand Tagalog when I hear it spoken (all bets are off with the other Filipino languages... Mr. Bisdak, you know exactly what I mean!) but ask me to speak it, and I freeze. I tell my cousins and my friends, "Maliit na kahon ang Tagalog ko." It's my broken Tagalog way of telling them my Tagalog vocabulary is so small, it fits in a small box ("My Tagalog 'box' is small"). If I'm around Tagalog speakers (and I insist they speak Tagalog around me), one might even hear some Tagalog escape my lips.

My Tito Paeng used to tell me if I were to spend 6 months to a year in the Philippines, I would be able to speak the language, especially since it's in my brain already. Maybe he's right.

Anyway... one of the chatters put a Tagalog tongue twister in chat and dared Mikey to say it with his trademark Filipino accent. I don't think he ever tried it.

I had a look at it, and I thought, "Neat!" Of course, I know of the English tongue twisters (Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; she sold seashells by the seashore, etc.) but I had never heard of the Tagalog ones, so naturally, I was intrigued.

Pitongpu't pitong puting tupa. (Seventy-seven white sheep.)
Pitongpu't pitong butong puting patani. (Seventy-seven white bean seeds.)
Minikaniko ni Moniko ang makina ng manika ni Monika. (Moniko fixed Monika's mechanical doll.)
Butiki, bituka, butika (Lizard, intestine, drugstore)
Bababa ka ba? Bababa din ako! (Are you going down? I am also going down!)
Ang relo ni Leroy Rolex. (Leroy's watch is a Rolex.)
Usong usong isang isang salu-salong nagsisi-usyosohan ang mga aso sa asosasyon sa Ascuzena. (The dogs are busy sharing and talking at a dog association in Ascuzena.)
Kakakanan lang sa kangkungan sa may kakahuyan si Ken Ken habang kumakain ng kakaibang kakanin kahapon. (Yesterday, Ken Ken just turned left to go to the swamp near the woods while eating a weird ricecake.)

I'm sure there are others. If you can think of others, let me know. Oh, and have fun saying these. ;)

¡Hola, Tinola!

Those of you who are Facebook friends with me may have noticed that occasionally, I'll post Mikey Bustos' "Filipino Tutorial" YouTube videos on my wall.

(For a little background: Mikey is a Canadian-born Filipino, and he was seventh runner-up in the 2003 (initial) season of Canadian Idol. He became known to many outside of Canada, thanks to his "Filipino Tutorial" videos he posted on YouTube.)

Mikey just returned to Toronto from the Philippines, where he spent several days filming commercials for a Jack 'n Jill product called "Mang Juan Chicharron". Those commercials were just released today. It follows the same format Mikey has used for his Filipino tutorials.

I'll embed the YouTube videos below. I particularly liked the "Condiments" video. The first thing that popped into my mind after I finished rolling on the floor, laughing: "Kawawa naman si Frank!" (Poor Frank!)

Last word: it's people like Mikey who remind us how proud we are to be Pinoy. Maraming salamat, Mikey!

"Ate" (Elder sister, pronounced "Ah-te")


"Condiments"


"Gestures"


"Kain na!" ("Let's eat!")


Finally: a Filipino Tutorial, "Politeness"