DRIFT

Grad school was fun except for the first few weeks when every ideology encountered seemed strange and radical. It took receptiveness and open-mindedness to get the whole picture – it didn’t matter if one is hailed from the province or not – we had to grasp them all.

My specialization was Intercultural Studies, which fed me a lot of eureka in the process – an endless aha and nonstop jaw-dropping. As interesting as it was, everyday had something to look forward to, but it was only in Cultural Anthropology I came across such a term – “cultural drift”.

The word itself has a lot of implications - a change in situation, for instance – the closest one for this matter. Fortunately, when this was asked in our final exams, I didn’t run out of example – and language drift was one of the things brought to elaboration.

I passed the course.

Years after that scholastic journey, I went back home to Manila to pursue a doctorate program. Glad to say, I stayed in a familiar neighborhood where only few unknown inhabitants around. But even known individuals can be very strange at times.

“That’s so chaca!” a friend commented.

“What’s that? Is that a Japanese word?” I asked.

“No, it’s derived from Chuckie, the ugly doll!” she explained laughing at my ignorance.

“I see” my last words.

But a language drift!

Two years later, I flew back to Manila for more modules. This time, I stayed at my sister’s house, in a different neighborhood from where I stayed before, so I could spend time with them while taking few subjects. And in one sleepless night came another funny thing.

“Hey guys, you should go home now” reminded my niece to her noisy, drunk friends. But they ignored her as if no one was really talking.

“Guys, if you don’t want a ‘pearly shell’, you must stop drinking now. It’s already late!” she insisted few minutes after the first attempt. Luckily, they dispersed.

“What’s a pearly shell?” I asked her as I burst into laughter despite annoyance.

“It means ‘to be handcuffed’ by policemen” she explained.

Crazy, but it’s just another language drift!

Everyday for two weeks, I kept hearing one strange word after another, which only one specific generation comprehends.

Again, it’s called language drift!

Certainly, my niece is not alone in this seemingly alien communiqué – there are thousands and thousands of loyalists somewhere out there - you’d see them post bizarre lingo on facebook; you’d be receiving sms from these believers; you’d probably hear them in this confusing conversation; you’d have unwanted chat on YM – thank God, not in my world at the moment.

Maybe I’m just over thinking, but actually beginning to worry that I’d be a total stranger in my own native land one day – when all this but spoken lingo should have had considered learning in the first place prior to my visit home. I hope not.

That’s undeniably language drift!

If I had to describe more words for this, it should be… SCARY, FUNNY, INFECTIOUS, STRANGE, and SPELLING FREE - obviously different than what I have written in my final exam, and what I have learned at least.

Ooops, it’s a language drift!