My love for new language started with American English. To be more specific, it started with
Sesame Street. I still remember when I was 7 years old, time when I had sty/
conjunctival granuloma. It was abundant around my eye area that I can barely open them but my mom was shocked to see that I was still trying hard to open them just to watch Sesame Street.
Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie & Bert, Count, Bob, Little Miss Piggy, Oscar the Grouch, Snuffleupagus, Grover, the aliens, etc. were my best buddies.
This is where I mostly learned stuff like my ABCs, count 1-12, and songs like the Sesame Street jingle.
In Nursery and Kindergarten, my graduation commendation was "Best in Rhyme and Stories." In Elementary throughout Highschool, my highest grades were in English/Communication Studies. One of my social groups was English Club -- to which I was minor officer together with my high school best friend --Rina. This is what prompted me to tick off a graduate course in B.A. Organizational Communication. My most favorite professor in College was mi maestro en Espanol --Atilio Alicio y Vega (my professor in Spanish-- Atilio Vega Alicio)
In my observation, majority of people think that language is trivial, a given, can be dismissed as a thing that can be taken for granted. On the contrary, I indubitably agree with my Linguistics Professor Dear Arwin Vibar - that language is a complex, evolving, infinitely developing matter. Almost like a living creature shaped by people who use it.
I also have a desire, an excruciating longing to write and document almost anything and everything under the sun. I understand that to be a good writer, one must WRITE non-stop. Write and edit non-stop. My first unforgettable rejection was an essay full of RED MARKS by my Communication Professor - Mr. Immanuel Magalit with embarrassingly wrong lines such as "Knight and Shining Armor." My worst criticism was from DOST's Communications Media Officer. I wrote a semi-press release or article about an upcoming event which we have planned, facilitated, and carried out last early 2013. Despite the good intentions behind the event's objective which really focuses on generating jobs for my countrymen, I cannot wrap my head around the feedback I got -- "THIS IS THE WORST PRESS RELEASE I'VE EVER READ MY ENTIRE LIFE. It's amateur. It really hurts but come to think of it -- he was right. It bugged me up to this day and now I am taking that as a challenge.
In the past, I have been lazy in my compositions thinking that it is enough to rely on stock knowledge, not knowing that continuous reading and hungrily absorbing materials outside oneself or everything about the world is what contributes to good writing. Now that I am in my late 30's, I have found that I simply have to WRITE. Perhaps it is my
"personal legend." :) Perhaps, it will prevent oblivion by forever having something to leave to the world long after I have bid this world
adieu (French Word meaning -- good-bye).
Anyhow, I have learned quite a few English words since I've been born but will still list some random words in this list.
1. Eulogy - a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died.
*This word got stuck in my brain after watching -- The Fault in Our Stars (2014) -by John Green.
2. Somnambulism -- sleepwalking. State of moving but not really walking.
*The word sounded familiar when I read it on a movie review about A Coffee in Berlin (2014)
