Spanglishalog

After Dad found the Ikea clothes hamper that I brought home from HKG, he asked if I wanted to put the "ropero" in my room.

Ropero. Now there's a word you don't hear anymore. But when we were kids, I'd hear that word a lot. From my grandparents, from my parents, even from Lolo and Lola's mayordoma - Aling Sianang. (Bless her soul.) Nowadays, people just call them "clothes hamper" or the generic "lalagyan ng labada."

Suddenly, I missed the days when I'd listen to my grandparents and parents converse using a mix of Spanish, English and Tagalog. There was a certain elegance when Lola Dita would call our attention by saying "Oye, hijo" or the "Ven acqui." At times, she'd point something out to her maids by saying: "mira." One speaking habit she had that Tita Evelyn still carries with her now is punctuating her Tagalog sentences with "eh" or "vale."

Growing up, there were certain words that I thought were Tagalog because my grandparents would use them in a tagalog sentence. But when I'd use those words in front of my friends and classmates, their reaction would often be: "ano yun?" Later on, I realized they were Spanish words that would be inadvertently mixed in.

Words like "vajillas", "cubiertos," "pequeno" and "alli." Once, while eating at my classmate's house in Sto. Domingo, I told him and his Mom that their "vajillas" were very nice. They looked at me strangely then asked what part of the food I was referring to.

Plus, I miss how they'd say tagalog words in their original spanish pronounciation. Just like how they'd say "ventana," "arroz," "mantequilla," and "favor."

Spanish really is such an elegant language to listen to and speak. It makes me wonder why we've removed it from our curriculum and why we've stopped speaking it. Times like these, I wish that I listened to Lolo and Lola more during my youth. That way, mi Espanol would be maravilloso.