I’m
not sure what to make of Pantech’s latest concept phone. The screen swivels allowing a wider viewing area, and the keyboard opens up to reveal a stereo speaker, hence making it a three-tier phone. I can’t quit make out the purpose of the “orange circle” other than a mechanism to hold the handset together. The unit reminds me of the good old Transformer days.
What happened and what I did last Tuesday was indeed embarrassing. All day long the question running through my head was, “What’s the point of all these?” Why do we have to dress up in gowns and be made up to celebrate our org’s anniversary? Why at the expense of our… dignity? At the end of the day I just surrendered myself to everyone’s excitement and eagerness to see their male orgmates in drag. Well, as long as everyone is happy, I shall be happy about it. I love UP MCO nonetheless.
Yesterday, I saw Sukob at SM North EDSA’s new cinemas at their recently-opened mall, The Block. This recent addition to the SM North complex actually makes the mall larger (in terms of floor space), than what used to be called the third largest mall in the world, SM Megamall.
What just irked me when I went to SM yesterday was when I noticed that SM North EDSA’s cinemas’ lobbies are designed with pictures of Hollywood and Western movies. This also holds true to Gateway Mall’s cinemas. Am I not in Philippine cinemas? It was disappointing really, that even in the physical space and aspect of our major cinemas, we see how Hollywood-oriented our moviegoing culture persists
spent yesterday afternoon at Megamall and last night at Pobbe’s party.
Oh, by the way, I rode the public bus yesterday for the first time! Yes, I’m sheltered like that. At first I had no idea what to do. Do I pay immediately upon jumping in or do I pay when I get down? Anyway, I just took a seat and observed how other people paid and went down. The public bus system leaves so much to be desired. Like for example, there doesn’t seem to be any consistent bus stop system. Buses stop everywhere to pick passengers up. And, bus drivers cut through queues and keep swerving and switching lanes. And most buses I see are major air polluters. There are far too many of these ill-trained driver-driven and air-pollutant buses in Manila already, I rarely see any of them filled up. Anyway, so it took fourteen pesos and thirty minutes for the bus to get from Commonwealth to Megamall. So, the bus stopped everywhere and yet it didn’t stop at Megamall. Bwisit talaga! (Do you even say ‘para’ in a bus?). I had to take the MRT back to Ortigas.
Driving lessons last Saturday were okay. But I am dissatisfied with my instructor. He answers my urgent questions on the road with more questions thereby confusing me all the more, and then he scolds me when I get confused while I’m driving. Well, if he didn’t speak as if he was drunk, or if he would have answered my questions directly, then the test drive would have been smoother than how it actually went. But because he was confusing me a lot, I just had to stall in the middle of the country’s widest avenue. Hmph. One time he scolded me for using my diskarte. ‘Wag ko raw munang pairalin diskarte ko. Minutes later I stalled, because I cautioned myself and not used my knee-jerk diskarte. So he scolded me again. Pairalin ko naman ang diskarte ko! Buwisit!
Okay, last Sunday, I visited the wake of my high school classmate’s dad. It was a pleasure to see him again, a couple of months after graduation. We caught up on each other for a while, and then talked about his dad. It’s so sad and infuriating, really. It was such an unnecessary casualty.
Keure… I’ve talked to some of these Korean professors (whom I worked with). South Koreans are really struggling for ’specialized’ English learning programs because most of the employers (who are employing applicants good jobs) back there in their coutnry augmented “with English proficiency” as a job application pre-requisite. Poor thing is, those Koreans who have not taken English subjects (or haven’t taken English subjects seriously) during their elementary days need to take compact, comprehensive, and expensive English proficiency programs to supply their language ‘deficiencies’. Mahirap daw makakuha ng trabaho ang di marunong mag-English. It’s not that their language are taught in a medium which they hardly understand. Perhaps it’d be applicable for Koreans studying here in the Philippines (like me ^_^). Koreans boast their education as one of the best in the world and all their instructional materials are published in hangugeo. Mapa-mathematics at maging technical and scientific terms ay translated or transliterated into hanggungmal. Ewan ko na lang ngayon, but I think changing their medium of instruction is part of the government’s supression for English language education. They, too, are blabbing about their government insisting Koreans to, not only to enroll in military schools, learn English. They also talk about ‘nationalistic’ matters na napansin kong kinaiinggitan ng mga Filipinos. Masyado na ring Americanized ang SK
My younger brother graduated from high school yesterday.
It’s been a while since I’ve last been to OLGM. I’ve only visited the school at most five times since I graduated from its grade school department six years ago. My past teachers, when I bump into them, always express their disappointment at the fact that I rarely visit my grade school alma mater. Which is lamentable for me too, since I studied in OLGM for far longer than I studied in Ateneo or longer than the time it’d hopefully take me to complete my undergraduate studies in UP, and also because I graduated as my batch’s valedictorian. Visiting appears to be the least I can do to show gratitude or something. I don’t know if they were serious but some of my teachers were sort hinting that I should come back after a few years and speak in a future commencement ceremony.
Anyway, one change I noticed in OLGM is that there is a much higher ratio of Korean students now. This is a guess, but from how I observed my brother’s batch, one of every four students in OLGM is Korean. We had one or two Koreans in our batch too, but I’ve never had a Korean classmate in my seven year stay in OLGM, so I find it such a novelty. They’re here to study English, I suppose. Which is sort of sad because they seem to be doing it at the expense of learning Science or Math. I’ve always believed that Science and Math should be taught in a student’s native tongue. How can someone learn Math or Science well if it’s being taught in a foreign language that person is not very fluent at? I don’t know if it’s a trend, but most of my Korean batchmates were struggling with their studies. But if it is a trend, I’m sure it’s not because Koreans are generally poor-learners, it’s because the lessons and subjects aren’t taught in their language.
Anyway, I digressed too much. If ever my grade school alma mater do get me to speak in a graduation ceremony in the future, I’d tell the students that if there’s one thing they could emulate from their Korean colleagues, is that the Koreans will always go back to Korea after studying abroad. We definitely need a similar or stronger sense of nationalism and responsible citizenship to make it work here.
