For the Love of Kalanguya
This entry is an excerpt from the article called KALANGUYA DREAMS in the first issue of the CFM QUARTERLY "KALA NGOY YA?" I decided to put it up here since many Kalanguya College students are now in the lowlands, and integrating into the mainstream Philippine society...
My brothers and sisters, please help me dream for our people and for our language!!!
KALANGUYA DREAMS
by: Ajig Gem
The ongoing mission of CFM is specified in the article ‘What is CFM?’ I therefore want to expand that into a vision that reaches new heights and extends to wider horizons. We at CFM believe that the Kalanguya people as well as the Kalanguya language can and should be an active voice in the Philippine society. Let us do away with waiting for our government to do things for us, rather than taking up our armors and marching to the sound of battle. We, among ourselves should envision ourselves to achieve for our country let alone our community. God has blessed us with wisdom and knowledge to be able to creatively think for ourselves and turn our dreams to glaring realities. We will never arrive if we do not take the initiative to act right where we are.
So what are our dreams? Let me ask you something. When you are in the lowlands, do you pretend to be someone else other than the full-blooded Kalanguya or Igorot that you truly are? Do you get irritated when you see your fellow Kalanguyas walking in single file along the streets and not in a horizontal line like the lowlanders do? When your child begins to learn to talk, do you talk to him in Ilocano and ask everybody around your child to do the same? There is nothing wrong with that but as a Kalanguya parent, it is your duty to inculcate love for own language in your child as early as possible. It is better for the development of the child to be speaking the language that flows through his or her veins than to be fluent in something else that he can never be identified with. On the other hand, it would even be better for a child to be bilingual, trilingual or even quadrilingual but make sure that one of those languages is the language of his or her heart.
You would ask me, “How about the children who are products of intermarriages?” It saddens me when such children utter vehement denial when they are called an Igorot or Kalanguya. It just shows that their parents have not cared to introduce them to the cultural identity that half of their personality is made up of. Going back to our dreams, don’t we ever want to hear news and read books in our own language, or do we think our language is not good enough to be put on paper or heard in the airwaves? What if we have a radio station and a news paper of our own? Would you read it? Would you listen to it? Would you promote it?
There is no limit to what we can do as a people who believes that the God we worship has blessed us with every blessing that we need to fulfill our dreams for His Glory. Let us be dreamers and doers.
My brothers and sisters, please help me dream for our people and for our language!!!
KALANGUYA DREAMS
by: Ajig Gem
The ongoing mission of CFM is specified in the article ‘What is CFM?’ I therefore want to expand that into a vision that reaches new heights and extends to wider horizons. We at CFM believe that the Kalanguya people as well as the Kalanguya language can and should be an active voice in the Philippine society. Let us do away with waiting for our government to do things for us, rather than taking up our armors and marching to the sound of battle. We, among ourselves should envision ourselves to achieve for our country let alone our community. God has blessed us with wisdom and knowledge to be able to creatively think for ourselves and turn our dreams to glaring realities. We will never arrive if we do not take the initiative to act right where we are.
So what are our dreams? Let me ask you something. When you are in the lowlands, do you pretend to be someone else other than the full-blooded Kalanguya or Igorot that you truly are? Do you get irritated when you see your fellow Kalanguyas walking in single file along the streets and not in a horizontal line like the lowlanders do? When your child begins to learn to talk, do you talk to him in Ilocano and ask everybody around your child to do the same? There is nothing wrong with that but as a Kalanguya parent, it is your duty to inculcate love for own language in your child as early as possible. It is better for the development of the child to be speaking the language that flows through his or her veins than to be fluent in something else that he can never be identified with. On the other hand, it would even be better for a child to be bilingual, trilingual or even quadrilingual but make sure that one of those languages is the language of his or her heart.
You would ask me, “How about the children who are products of intermarriages?” It saddens me when such children utter vehement denial when they are called an Igorot or Kalanguya. It just shows that their parents have not cared to introduce them to the cultural identity that half of their personality is made up of. Going back to our dreams, don’t we ever want to hear news and read books in our own language, or do we think our language is not good enough to be put on paper or heard in the airwaves? What if we have a radio station and a news paper of our own? Would you read it? Would you listen to it? Would you promote it?
There is no limit to what we can do as a people who believes that the God we worship has blessed us with every blessing that we need to fulfill our dreams for His Glory. Let us be dreamers and doers.
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