SIRENS FROM THE TONGUE’S TEARS

The author is

MADECEL C. DELA MERCED

The way you shed your tears seems to be the most painful you had since then. It sirens not directly to the ears but straight to the heart. You have been mistreated and aligned for mediocre for they don’t know what you had in-store for all.

Your simple joys whenever typical student conversations, simple household chats and everyday discourse uses you draws happiness in your smile. Those laughs we hear every day and the folk tales of the town were all owed to you.

Want to know who I am talking to? Where those sirens of the tounge’s tears comes from? They come from the forbidden Filipino Subject.

Take a sample survey of a class of 40 students. Bet you, that not even 10% of the class will answer that Filipino is their favorite subject. They rather choose those subjects using English as their medium rather than picking for Filipino.

It’s alarming for a majority of the Filipino youth does not love the Filipino subject yet it’s the reality. It’s like picking flowers in the field. Majority will pick the roses yet only some will choose sampaguita for it is tagged to be reserved for the oldies.

We, as Filipinos were tagged as no originality, as we were colonized by different foreign countries and most of our traditions and cultures were rooted to our foreign ancestors. But one thing for sure that came ours, our own language, the Filipino language. Even before the colonizers sprung in our archipelago, we had our own way of communication. Tracing from the baybayin to the now coined Alpabetong Filipino, it is that up to this time is originally ours.

Opening our ears to folk stories and everyday discussions there are some terms that seems to have no definite translations such as utang-na-loob and diskarte. This are innate Filipino traits which seems that without being taught with the Filipino subject, this thoughts will definitely would not be in existence anymore.

The siren is not so loud yet we can hear it loudly from our hearts. As we get excited to learn new from the outside, let’s not also forget to learn what we are rooting inside. We, our hearts and tongue are the only cure to stop these sirens. She does not need any attention, she needs usage. She does not need your time, she needs your love and she does not need your eyes, she needs your heart.

— oOo—

SST-III at Talang High School