GIEU Maui

Mr. Cabalce

Mahal kong mga Philippines-Pacific team members,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful semester. I meet some of you one campus once in a while. I am always happy to give and get a hug particularly since the temperature is getting less and less like Maui's.

Lucy Peros continues to inform us about some of our favorite people in Maui. Mr. Cabalce passed on three weeks ago. His best buddies, Mr. Arreola and Mr. Baggao, were much affected by this event. I was too. I wonder whether Puno, who interviewed him, had a visitation from Maui lately.

Fortunately, the DVDs of their oral history interviews as well as the transcripts were already mailed to each of them. I hope that Mr. Cabalce was able to view his together with his family before he got sick.

Uring and Laro will be working on preparing copies of the oral history interviews for distribution to academic institutions with thriving programs on Asian and Pacific studies soon. Eventually there will be other students and researchers who will be doing what we sang in "Gapu kadakayo" : agsursuro kam ta naadal yo.

deling

Presentation at PACCM

The Philippines-PACIFIC team were invited by the Filipino American Historical Society (FANHS) to give a presentation of their experiences with the Sakadas and the other Filipino American community members in Maui, Hawaii last summer. Their audience will be members of the FANHS, the students at Paaralang Pilipino, and members of Filipino and non-Filipino communities in Metropolitan Detroit.

Not all members of the Philippines-PACIFIC team can go to this two hours presentation on a Sunday afternoon because of previous commitments. But those who have not already committed fours hours of their time on a Sunday are going.

This presentation is primarily an outreach program of the University of Michigan to the taxpayers of the State. It is also a means by which the students can learn about communities in Michigan at close range and on a more personal level. The young students at Paaralang Pilipino, the cultural school of the Filippino American community, are the direct beneficiaries of this quasi-academic activity. They will meet role-models among the undergraduate students of the biggest research university in the State - students who have had a meaningful intercultural experience with a special group of Filipino Americans.

Lessons from the Maui Experience.

Naimbag nga malem yo amin.

I added a new category to our webblog. Do you like the title?

As a language teacher, I learned a lot from our project in Maui. I thought that other students who are not as lucky as we are can benefit from the lessons we learned there too. One of these lessons is the importance being culturally competent in the use of language. Competence in using the vocabulary, the grammar, and  pronunciation of words  seem not to be as important as showing respect to another person with the use of respect particles and/or other expressions of respect. Thus, I am emphasizing this more in the lessosns for the Beginning and Intermediate Filipino classes.

Another important lesson I learned, and this I got from feedbacks from some of you, is that the pressure of imminent performance or use of the language to communicate and/or to elicit an information from another person is an effective incentive for language learning.Thus, I have designed the Intermediate Filipino class patterned after the Sakada Oral History Project. We also set up a blog "Filipino 211" where students can put in video and audio files about themselves and their interviewees as well as comments about the project and lessons. All in Filipino though, not Ilocano. Do check this page sometime. Or ask Dave about it.

See you all on Monday at the  symposium. I am sure that we will have the most interesting presentation.