We had a seminar in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya at Saint Mary’s University twice already; the last one this past December.  We stayed at the Highlander Hotel, a modest, but the best hotel, in Bayombong.  The walls are dark pink with Venetian style portraits of Filipino life.  It’s a really weird interior design, but it’s the best one Bayombong has to offer.

Vin had his shirt ironed the next morning so that he can look very presentable for this seminar, but a crew member burnt the collar.  All she said was sorry and that they will not be charging us for it.  Weird.  That shirt cost more than Php 1,500.  At the end of the day, they gave a 5% discount on our stay there.  So they ruined a 1500-peso shirt, and we saved about Php 100 on the hotel.  Do your mathematics!

The rooms may be the best, but their service definitely sucks!  At least we slept well the night before.

Wow!  I can’t believe it’s already been two years since we first opened our doors on January 22, 2007.  We had our 1st year anniversary celebration here at the office, but our 2nd year anniversary was celebrated with a bang as 75 students, friends, and clients invaded Puerto Galera with us!

With four vans, two SUV’s, and a lot of heart, we started our journey on Ayala and made our way through Batangas to Lea Beach where our two private boats awaited us.  The sea was calm and the sky was cloudy, but a glimmer of sunshine gave us hope that we were going to have a great weekend ahead of us.

We celebrated on day one with The Treasure Hunt / Amazing Race, and the team of Kiko, Edward, Jhana, Jason, Grace, Amy, Arisa, Rebecca, Jinny, and yours truly, Chris, won this event.  Our prize?  Dinner and a movie!  Yehey!

That night, we saw some great videoke singers, excellent dancers, silly jokers, mild to wild drinkers,good eaters, and so much more!

On our way back, we had another excellent adventure as our boats traveresed high waves and rocked the boats!  The high seas were no match for AIEPRO!

Thank you to everyone who joined and helped us!

Last November 16, 2008 (wow that’s two month’s ago!), we went to Tagaytay (just the Specialists) so that we can simply relax and enjoy each other’s company.

Our first stop was at Jing’s house for breakfast.  We coerced Jing and her family to make some yummy breakfast for us. We had rice (of course), scrambled eggs, hot dogs, spam, and fish.  If any of you want some free conversational English lessons, you can invite us to have a meal with you as well.  Hehe.

Before we headed to our destinations, we took some time to pose in front of Jing’s relative’s house.  It was a perfect day because the clouds above kept the weather cool, but soon disappeared as the day progressed.  Where am I?  I’m taking the pictures!

Our first destination was at a coffee shop called Bag of Beans and had our lunch there.  We met a talking parrot there.  If you like a forest blending into the city ambiance, this is the place to go.  It’s small and modest place, but the food is good.

Then we headed to People’s Palace in the Sky, an abandoned building set atop the highest point in Tagaytay.  It’s a beautiful location with lots of potential, but since the Marcos regime has been toppled, no one has taken good care of it.  What a shame!  The location is so perfect.

We were surrounded by fog.

We ended up at the beautiful Sonia’s Garden; Carmen knows Sonia, and we had an opportunity to meet the owner and visionary of the garden and two of her eager dogs.  Whenever I heard Tagaytay before, someone always made a reference to Sonia’s Garden.  She was a very pleasant woman.

We strolled, took pictures, shared stories, and ate some delicious cookies freshly baked in one of their establishments.  Yummy!  Our trip was a mellow one, and it was a great day to relax with the AIEP Specialists.

I usually watch my movies at either Greenbelt 3 or Eastwood City.  Last week, I went to watch at Eastwood City, where I reside, and I thought that the charge of Php 161 was really weird.  I asked the cashier, and she said that it was mandatory, and she pointed to a flyer.

I thought that this was BS, another way companies are passing on the cost to its customers.  I read it, and it said that I would be supporting the Quezon City inmates.  After reading that line, I told the cashier that I did not want to support the inmates at this time.  She reluctantly gave my one peso refund.  I told her I prefer to support other causes, not the cause of the inmates.  (I have been robbed here in the Philippines so I wasn’t about to support inmates.)  Long and frightening story with robbers, police, and inmates.

Most Filipinos would just pay this as it’s only one peso.  Not me.  Companies should not be passing on the buck to the customers, especially when it’s for something you don’t stand for.  If it went to the education of the children and feeding the poor, I would not hesitate at all.  Here’s another peso or more.

It’s the new year, and while some of us could care less about resolutions, there are some of us who make new plans when the new year arrives.

Last year, I was able to quit smoking.  I quit “cold turkey.”  And to continue my healthy lifestyle, I am making my new year’s resolution to eat healthier.  In order to do that, I will be consuming more fruits and vegetables and less meat, especially pork.  One of the ways I will do this is buy “juicing” it up.  That’s right.  I have a powerful juicer courtesy of Philips.  It’s difficult to eat lots of solid foods, but I can certainly drink lots of juices.

My favorite blend is a mix of apples, oranges, cucumber, and carrots.  Here’s to a healthier life.

And here’s the juice…so good!

I found this article online, and I thought about sharing it with everyone.  There are indeed many reasons why we fail to master the English language because of our own culture and upbringing.

When I was young, I moved to Hawaii, and that is how I learned how to speak English.  Unfortunately, I was not accepted by the local Filipino community there, and my very first best friend was a Caucasian kid, Kevin.  But within a few years, my mastery of the language exceeded the locals, who spoke pidgin mainly.  In fact, I became their class president, tutor, newspaper editor-in-chief, debate team captain, and many more.  But I can clearly remember how other Filipinos made fun of my accent and grammar.  The Filipinos can be the hardest, and easiest, to please!

I wanted to get rid of my Filipino accent.  I abhorred it.  I even tried denying who I was.  But my experience with culture and diversity helped me to overcome my eschewed perspectives.  I began to love my Filipino culture, and I thought that the Filipino accent was “cool.”  The accent gives us a cultural flavor, but learning the American accent is helpful as well.

Please read the article below for some extra tips and strategies.

English the Filipino way

By Antonio Aboitiz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:06:00 01/03/2009

Filed Under: Language, People

MANILA, Philippines—The ubiquity of the English language in these islands is a bittersweet reality of our culture.

The entire world is scrambling to learn the planet’s current lingua franca while we, who had it thrust upon us for better or worse, are coming dangerously close to losing our fated headstart because of a variety of complex factors.

One of these factors is the fact that many of us who do not pronounce the words like the people on the pirated DVDs everyone purchases (piracy is a crime!) are very intimidated by this inability, and therefore become frustrated or ashamed and give up. This is something that must be smashed. Not the DVDs, but the stigma and teasing that can come along with bad diction.

Making fun

The perpetuation of the national pastime of making fun of someone’s English abilities should be ended. That is because we have our own English. It is Filipino English, and it is as valid—if not more so—than the English spoken by say, Australia or Canada, nations whose populations are but a fraction of ours.

We are supposedly the third largest English-speaking nation in the world. However, that all depends on how you define fluency. If you take the number of speakers of English as a second language, we probably rank around that.

English is a difficult language to learn. It has many rules, but also has almost as many exceptions and is fantastically non-phonetic (why is knife spelled with a k?). Its earliest evolution from its Germanic base, running into long and bloody backs and forths with the Romans, Vikings, then the French, then a liberal spiking of words obtained from conquered lands belies the history of the incredible islands from which the language bursts forth and itself conquered the world.

There may be more speakers of Chinese, but their geographic scope and influence around the globe cannot rival that of English.

This is THE language of international business, diplomacy, aviation, science, entertainment, and the World Wide Web.

English was brought to us by Americans, who started our public school system (an educated citizenry is a pre-requisite to true democracy) and left us speaking lots of good English. That is, until we decided to make Pilipino the national language in 1936 (check the preface on your kid’s Balarila) and the Bagong Lipunan tried desperately to force it as a medium of instruction.

We have our own English. We say comfortable the way it is spelled, not as “cumftabul” the way an American would. We use the word “already” as no one else does. “It is ready already” “it is finished already” this is pure Filipino-English. An Australian or an American would likely say simply “it’s done.” We say “for a while”—what exactly does that mean? I take it to mean, “when it’s ready already.” Again other English speakers might say “just a moment” or “just a sec”—but they mean the same thing really. The British and their Commonwealth members use “take away” Americans, “to go” Filipinos say “take home”—or at least used to.

God help you if you ask for the “CR” in any other English-speaking nation. But hey, we’ve also contributed to the English language in general: “boondocks” is a corruption of bundok.

The very difficulty and inconsistency of the English language—its fluidity and ability to invent and co-opt words—lies at the heart of the creative potential it imbibes to those who speak it.

Our ability to comprehend English is a trump card that we have to develop further and play to the hilt.

It makes courting foreign investments easier, makes tourism more attractive, adds to the “by the grace of God” advantages we have—great natural wealth in terms of biodiversity and minerals, strategic crossroads location, and more importantly, truly friendly, caring people who have a great sense of humor.

English is a living language, just as our own languages are. We also co-opt other words and usage as they come into our lives and become ubiquitous, and unavoidable. Its evolution is not determined by scholars and laid down as the law of the land.

Evolution

This just tells me we are primed and ready to evolve our language at the pace this world now demands of everyone: fast. We share some of those built-in ethno-linguistic evolutionary characteristics that gives English its creative advantage.

Back to the pronunciation aspect. I believe one great advantage we have in the growing field of business process outsourcing/information communications technology/call centers—is that we are not grating to the native English speaker’s ear, the Americans and British folk who are our major call center customers.

You outsource that to someone from India, or Singapore, or Hong Kong, and their accents will not be as pleasing to those customer’s ears as our own accents which we make such fun of.

Let’s not lose our aces. We’ve already done that with a few of the good cards we had already been dealt.

I have several suggestions to keep our edge in English:

1. Keep speaking English and continue to use it as a medium of instruction. Take what we want from either of the other two largest English-speaking nations but be consistent in our textbooks, particularly in spelling and grammar.

2. DO NOT make fun of someone’s pronunciation unless it is constructive.

3. DO NOT fear ridicule. That person making fun of your English, well, you could probably run circles around them in your own dialect.

4. Keep speaking your home dialect, teach it to your children, and present it as a language class in school. While English may be slowly changing some of our already fractured-culture nation’s heritage, we will never ever give up our identity and cultural characteristics. Don’t worry, we will still be Filipino.

5. Remember that each dialect we lose, we lose a complete worldview. So the old languages must somehow find a way to survive or they will perish forever.

6. Keep it to a minimum with the silly acronyms. We are just plain crazy about those. Some are unavoidable (it’s a waste of time to say “Subscriber Identity Module card” rather than the omnipresent “SIM card”). For your own sake, don’t use the silly acronym unless you know what it stands for. This acronym insanity permeates business, nongovernmental organizations, cooperatives, civil society, government (“Epira—what’s that? Such silliness because if they called Republic Act No. 9136 the “Industry Reform Act for Power and Electricity” instead of the “Electric Power Industry Reform Act” we might be calling it “I RAPE”), education, religion, etc.

Numbers game

7. Remind those arrogant enough to challenge our English that on many terms, we win because we have the numbers. The United Kingdom herself only has about 60 million people, and even those guys can’t agree on the proper pronunciation of words.

8. At some point in time, our own Noah Webster will create a Filipino Dictionary of the English Language. When that happens we will have truly come of age as another birthing place for this unique modern language.

(Aboitiz recently retired from the Aboitiz Group of Companies and is current chairman of the Visayas regional committee of the Philippine Business for Social Progress.)

Yehey!  It’s The American Institute’s 2nd Year Anniversary on January 21, 2009, and we’re celebrating it in Puerto Galera on January 24 - January 25.  Everyone is invited!!!  We have almost 70 students and friends signed up!!!

In addition, we are offering a 50% discount on MyCourse, a private or one-on-one course. 

MyCourse.This course is designed especially for you for a private, accelerated learning experience. Our Specialists will assess your skills and English proficiency, discuss your goals, and customize a lesson plan that fits your needs and meets your goals.  For example, you can combine conversation fluency, American accent, grammar, writing, speech, confidence building, test preparations (IELTS/TOEFL), sales and marketing, and many more.  This module is excellent for those who want to learn more and faster at the time and day of their choice.

If you are looking to improve right now, this is the right track for you.  The investment is a little more than the group, but it’s definitely worth it as you will learn more at a faster pace because it is individualized and personalized especially for you.

This past Christmas/New Year break, I finally tried wakeboarding!  I have gone to Camarines Sur twice before, but wasn’t able to wakeboard because there were always events there.  This time, I got lucky!

I tried the kneeboarding first because it was easier.  My first try was a failure.  After three seconds, I let go of the rope, and I fell into the water.  The second time around, I made it 3/4 of the way.

Then I got bolder, so I tried the wakeboard.  I tried and tried to no avail.  I kept falling into the water.  I could not get a proper take off.  That means, I need to go again!

So wakeboarding will be another AIEP activity!!!

I have celebrated Halloween here in the Philippines for the last three years.  During the first party, I was with my friends at a condominium at the Prince Plaza next to Greenbelt.  There were less than ten of us then.  I was a goth or the Crow lookalike.  Last year, the party was held at my friend Dan’s house in Dasmarinas Village here in Makati.  I was a simple security guard.  There were about 20 to 30 of us there.

This year, it was a much bigger party, with 70 ghosts, goblins, monsters, vampires, warriors, goddesses, witches, devils, princesses, and more.  We had so much food and beer.  We had a DJ complete with smoke, laser, and lights.  We partied the night away.

We had games: The Ship is Sinking, Simon Says, and Speed Dating.

The winners of the contests received Php 3,000 for 1st, Php 2,000 for 2nd, and Php 1000 for 3rd.

It was also an international affair.  We had about 50 Filipinos and 20 friends from S. Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Ireland, UK, Australia, US, and more.

Next year, we hope to have an even bigger party.  How about 100?

Here are some pictures.  We have many more at our main website forum or gallery at www.aiepro.org.

No matter what I do, I have never been fully productive on Sundays. It’s really lazy Sunday for me. I bust my ass working from Monday to Saturday, and sometimes, I have work to finish on Sunday, but I could never muster enough strength and sense of intellect on a Sunday. All my work on this day are always halfway done or haphazardly completed. There’s something about Sundays.

I tried to write a proposal.  I tried to post.  I tried to think.  I can’t fully concentrate.  Part of me wants to fight for having a lazy Sunday.  I deserve it.  I worked to hard only to have my Sunday taken away.  So my mind says, “You have work to finish.”  But there’s another voice saying, “It’s lazy Sunday.”

So I end up just surfing the net, hoping that I would get something done in the process.  What about you?  Do you have lazy Sundays?