“Puhon, puhon;” Language and Resilience of the Filipino | Von Ryan Abrantes | TEDxAvenuesWorldSchool

raise your hand if you're familiar with the crunchy Moorish Filipino spring roll stuffed with pork and vegetables, the life of every Filipino holiday, raise your hand if you're familiar with ube, the cartoonish purple yam that can be turned into crackers of sugar, cakes, pastries or even ice cream and is taking the upper division of the avenues by storm, go eight stories south to try some, raise your hand if you are familiar with the beautiful beaches of Boracay, Cebu and Palawan, stunning beaches of white sand, crystal clear water, a perfect summer getaway or maybe you I'm in my 9th grade integrated science class.

I see some students here in one way or another. You probably had a connection or interaction with Filipinos or the Filipino people. After all, there are an estimated 4 million Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the United States of America. 2018, but our country is more than its good food, and in some ways, there is more to the story of our beautiful nation. The Philippines is an archipelago in the west of the Pacific Ocean and in the region called the Pacific Ring of Fire, being in this place means that there are an average of 20 tropical cyclones that will enter the Philippine area of ​​responsibility and eight to nine of them will make landfall.

Being in the Pacific Ring of Fire annually means that there are hundreds of volcanoes in the country, 24 of them classified as recently active in our country. has been one of the most affected by the kovit 19 pandemic with thousands of lives lost and many more hospitalized, in fact, in January 2020 the province of Batangas had to deal with the eruption of the Ta'al volcano and the destruction of the typhoon ulysses while dealing with the global pandemic, bad luck, I guess by a more common standard you would think that we are not the luckiest nation, you might even assume that Filipinos would be a miserable bunch, but for some strange reasons, the Filipinos are always portrayed in the media as happy and smiling.

I don't know how you can smile while half your body is submerged in flood water time and time again a word has been used to describe the Filipino people, resilient and quick to recover from suffering, happy in the midst of their difficulties, indeed, in the recent world, happiness. report that the Philippines is ranked 61st out of 149 nations and is happiest compared to most of our East and Southeast Asian neighbors surfing in the flood waters having a drink with friends in the middle of the flood smiling amidst all these devastations I think you could call that resilient My name is von

ryan

de brances and I am a professor in the upper division of Avenues and I was born and raised in Valenzuela City, Philippines, but my parents are both from the Hindu south of Leyte, why Do I tell you this?

There are actually more than 120

language

s. In the Philippines, my siblings and I grew up speaking Filipino, but my parents speak a different regional

language

, Visayan. In this talk I will use the Visayan language as a lens to discuss and reflect on the

resilience

of the Filipino people. I hope in the end. From this talk we will understand how Filipinos are so resilient and develop the

resilience

within us. I guess let's start by defining resilience. Resilience is the ability to cope and thrive in difficult situations and suffering. It is the ability to recover after a setback. life for an entire nation could be the ability of a country to maintain social order in the midst of a crisis growing up my mother always said the word pujon or pohon which roughly means if God wants, we can wish or pray, she will tell me . this when I'm stressed because I have exams ahead or when I'm getting my hopes up, I hope we can have a bigger house or more food on our table, my mom said, which translates into when you finish your studies. and finding a good job will happen even now in the midst of a global pandemic when traveling has been very difficult.

My mom would say that one day you will be able to come home on vacation and visit us, we will pray about it, she added to a statement. it almost makes it a form of prayer this hopeful encouragement is almost a form of prayer it is an act of building resilience on my mother's part it gives me hope that one day I will be able to buy that house or one day I will be able to go home on vacation and see them one day we will be able to achieve our dreams is related to the religiosity of the Filipino people is correlated with studies that relates a sense of spirituality destiny or religiosity as a factor that builds resilience being predominantly Christian Filipinos in the country are known to draw on their faith in middle of a crisis.

Pray, wait for God's help, it will come personally. I have seen more Filipinos go to church after a storm or even during a storm, so the first word is resilience through a sense. of spirituality, destiny or religiosity, the second word is that it could be roughly translated as forward, continue or carry on, not only would you hear this from visayan parents, but also if you are a student or professor of the university of the philippines, padayon is what you will hear when you got good grades on that test and you are happy and excited to show it to your parents and this iron father would say oh angalinga, which means okay, or when you are shaking, probably some of my students would relate. because you didn't do very well on that test and you're afraid to show it to your parents after a lecture on how to be prepared, be proactive, a parent next door would go, I know you can do this, keep going, you've been successful and you've done it. accomplished. your goals keep moving forward you struggled and stumbled get up and keep moving forward padayon is a sense of mission the american psychological association relates or attributes a sense of purpose as a strong resilience builder adayon is a conceptualization of what is beyond what lies ahead a purpose to move forward because there is a bigger dream, there is a bigger goal to achieve, last but not least is the word magtinabangan, which roughly translates to helping others, could be related to the concept or idea from bayanihan, who are literally the movers. in the philippines in the old days you literally had to take the house together and transfer it to a different place, you can't do it alone relates to the sense of community that is not only attributed to personal resilience but also natural national resilience when it was in fourth grade.

An international typhoon named Olga devastated the country with enormous amounts of flooding and rain. I remember having to stay on the roof of our studio while the water literally engulfed the entire neighborhood. I remembered praying a lot for the books I put in the designated place. The sealed buckets are still dry so they can be used next week when school resumes. I was praying that the cube would float into the house and be safe. If you think about it, it would have been a traumatic experience for me, but I found some light in seeing the situation, our landlord, who lives in a larger house with the second floor, invited all the neighborhood children in the complex to staying on the second floor of their house while the rest of the family salvages what they can from the house thinking about it I felt a sense of security as my neighbors joined in so we could have some food to eat someone's potatoes managed to stay dry the Someone's rice miraculously stayed dry someone's soy sauce bottle survived someone's cans of sardines are still available putting this together we cooked lunch for everyone and ate it while we were still on top of the roof waiting for the water to go down magna bangan es a reminder that it is difficult to develop resilience on your own, you need to have neighbors who will cook that lunch and eat that lunch on top of the roof, on the other hand, it is important to remember that resilience is not a simple concept or a simple trait that is simply developed praying having a mission having neighbors like all aspects of human behavior there are many social political elements to consider developing one's resilience unfortunately, the narrative that Filipinos are resilient can often be used against them as an excuse to simply demand of them to Filipinos to be resilient amidst the calamities of oppression or even racism because after all, they will survive anyway, they are a resilient race it is easy to praise the resilience of the people who are on top of the roof when you are on the fifth floor of your apartment.

We must remember that conversations about resilience must be accompanied by discussions about creating a situation or environment that helps build resilience. In people we must remember that pohon must come with padayon and magdena bangan resilience must be a by-product of overcoming challenges, not a requirement. People should be expected to be resilient after surviving disasters. They should not be expected to be resilient every time a catastrophe occurs, so three words are pohon, which is resilience through a sense of spirituality, destiny or religiosity, padayon, resilience through a sense of purpose or mission in magdena bangan, resilience through a sense of community, I hope that we can all develop resilience so that we are supported, I hope that the Filipino people with a resilient spirit continue to thrive and live safe and prosperous lives.

I hope we can all develop resilience and support those around us to develop it themselves in the meantime, let's continue with our personal goals, continue with our mission and have faith that we will get there we will get there oh thank you