By: Jun A. Alindogan

My fascination with the English language began in my high school years. This was also the time that I got hooked into reading and enjoying Tagalog  “komiks” serials that I borrowed from a store which charged me a few centavos as I could not bring home the copy except read through them on a long bench in front of the stall. I did this religiously every afternoon after class. It was a fantasy world that I created to bring me to a fantastical hope of illusion and grandeur.  Comprehension was not a problem as I am proficient in Tagalog, being born and raised in my home province where Tagalog is the medium of communication. However at school, the nuns did not allow us to speak Tagalog except in our Filipino class so English had to be honed and practiced in formulas, equations, elements, notations, first aid, physical education, and  scouting. One good thing though was our chance to explore an elective subject of our own choosing which we felt aligned with our interest and skill. And so in my sophomore year, I enrolled in a creative writing class under Miss Kuala. She was unique in the way she dressed up: too advanced and exotic for our time in terms of make-up, earrings, necklace, bracelet, anklet, and fabric. Her persona complemented her brilliant methodology, constructive feedback, and unconventional exercises. English became much dearer to me. My love affair with English turned much more intense with two more elective subjects in the last two years of high school: public speaking, and grammar with two equally astonishing teachers who turned texts into animated discussion and performance.

I cannot discount either the fact that I also learned my English from a glossy entertainment magazine called TV Times, that supplemented my black and white TV viewing habits in the late 70’s.  Literally I had a collection of these magazine issues that I stacked in a small lawanit (coconut husk wall panel) cabinet in my room which I felt was more of a Hollywood shrine to celebrities whom I idolized. I saved a portion of my weekly school allowance for this purpose. The magazine was not available in my town so I tagged my closest friends along each weekend as we did a short walk, munching oil-rich and sodium-laden peanuts to  a newsstand in another town. Prior to the walk, we would indulge in tapioca-gelatin drinks many decades before milk tea with tapioca pearls would appear. At times, I felt frustrated as some magazines that featured popular actors and actresses were sold out.

My favorite magazine covers featured Starsky and Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, Wonder Woman, Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Man From Altantis,  Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, and Remington Steele.  Even if I did not fully understand the plot of these TV programs, I still voraciously watched the series for their sheer visuals, action-paced adventures, and minimalist acting. In this way, these celebrities appeared normal to me as I read through their magazine stories; that they were not really larger-than-life personas and that I could also become one of them in another form, structure, and aim even if my English abilities were still raw and not as productive yet.

What also stood out from the magazine were the columns of Filipino esteemed writers like Melinda Quintos- De Jesus, Julie Yap- Daza, and Oscar Miranda from where I learned insightful writing even to the most ordinary themes and events.

TV Times was connected as well to our Black and White television set in our living room that no neighbor was allowed to step in, due to our nanny’s strict control of the sparkling and shiny red-tiled floor.  My playmates were allowed to see through our jalousie windows and watch certain programs for some time when dad was not yet home from work. In time, I would get tired of B and W visuals so I went to a neighbor’s house in another compound where a colored TV set was prominently displayed in the living area where I watched from a porch through a wide-open door every night. When I went to Manila for college, I had to leave my fascination with entertainment and a made-up world. Times changed and so did I but I will never forget how TV Times was a vehicle for my youthful innocence and ideals and how this magazine brought English to me in an unexpected way.

###

Manuel A. Alindogan, Jr. or Jun A. Alindogan is the Academic Director of the Expanded Alternative Learning Program of Empowered East, a Rizal-province based NGO in the Philippines and is also the founder of Speechsmart Online that specializes in English test preparation courses. He is a freelance writer and a member of the Freelance Writers’ Guild of the Philippines (FWGP).