Eh, Kasi Bisaya by Claudio V. Tabotabo, MA (September, 2006)

Anybody who used to wear out of the craze was labeled baduy, but not anymore this time. Today the man is called Bisaya instead of baduy. Any one who accidentally speaks English in a hard accent though he comes from the Northern side of the country, or from Manila, is unfairly called Bisaya.

But there is a worst connotation being forwarded of course by the non-Bisaya, the meaning of the word "Inday and Dodong" In Manila the word Inday means housemaid, and Dodong house boy. But it's not just the prejudice that is being referred here. Inday for some people of Manila means prostitute.

It is a humiliating connotation that calls for the attention of the educated sector. Humiliating because it is a disrespect to the old people of the Visayas and Mindanao areas who address their daughters Inday. In English the equivalent of Inday is darling. It signifies refinement, passion, devotion, care and love which the non-visayan speaking Filipinos laugh at and abuse.

Cory Aquino protested against the publication of a new French dictionary with definition of the word Filipina as domestic help, nanny and prostitute. They say the dictionary was circulated and being used today. We did not mean to say that there are no prostitutes in the Philippines. There are high caliber whores anywhere in the world so that we cannot allow such a definition to be synonymous with the word Filipina. We do not mind the French defining themselves as Musolinic, Napoleonic, Barbaric or any other terms that satisfy their partiality. If the Philippines has a diplomatic relation with France, then the French people have put a grudge on it, which the Filipinos must answer with something radical.

People are sensitive to the language that they even prefer to desecrate the rules of grammar to avoid biases. In the 1980s the so called Politically Correct Language was a proposition of a hot debate (English Teaching Forum). It is definitely wrong to say, Every student has to pass their exam. It violates the subject-verb agreement but conforms to the new rules of gender neutrality. The pronoun "their "is used rather than the correct one "his" because "his" signifies male and disregards female.

It was the Politically Correct Language that gives birth to such words as; "herstory" rather than "history"; chairperson rather than chairman; humankind to avoid the use of mankind; sales person rather than sales lady; flight attendant rather than flight stewardess.

To avoid pejorative language to name people with illness, the blind are called visually challenged; deaf people with hearing impairments.

Toward deracialization came the words; African American to replace the words, Negro, colored and Afro-American. Oriental or Asiatic became Asian or Pacific Islander.

Politically Correct Language must be the predominant cause for the delayed draft of Reagan's speech about the Berlin Wall. Reagan's speech writer had tried to use the most benign word, the verb for breaking the wall. After which the phrase "bring down the wall" came into view which the American president did use in his speech that eventually brought down the Berlin Wall.

Refinement in the use of language to avoid prejudices is after all the exponent of a good education. Unfortunately, some men of our society try to flaunt their superiority complex and cover their ignorance by making fun at the natural differences of others.