By Maxine Flores-Bulado
Excuse me, Ma’am, what is tagay?”
An innocent query made by an even more innocent individual. It started out in jest; surely, they would know what this local slang means.
In my Philippine Literature class one day, our topic was about Filipino songs – like those sang during drinking sprees. I was discussing how Filipinos are fond of drinking and socializing, that we even coined the term tagay.
(From my readings, the term is derived from the way the local folk drink a shot/tagay of rhum or gin or tuba that is rationed in a single glass, served to everyone in a circular manner by a designated tanggero.)
Thus, my student’s question. I was taken aback by their lack of awareness of a term that I have been verily familiar with since my teenage years.
Curious, I posted about this on Facebook, and with many of my fellow millennials reacting, I realized I wasn’t the only one surprised by the younger generation’s unfamiliarity with the term.
With much contemplation, I realized that I, too, unconsciously don’t use the word tagay anymore. The common term now is “shots” and — something I just discovered — baso.
As hard of a pill it is to swallow, we must face the fact that there is a blatant gap in generation. If I may be so bold as to proclaim that the death of a generation is in our midst. Subtle as it may be, there comes a time when one realizes that his generation is now slowly dwindling – like sand coursing through one’s fingertips.
Though I wish it ended there – with the unawareness of old terms, and the birth of new slang. Sadly, there were more words the college students were unfamiliar with.
One such word is anahaw, our national leaf. “We have a national leaf?” an astounded student asked, to which I responded with an utterly flabbergasted expression. I had to explain to them why it is relevant in our country.
As if to add salt to the wound, I found that some of them do not even know who Ferdinand Magellan is! To this day, my fellow instructors and I continue to contemplate: How can we, barely into the semester, achieve a higher level of education when some students are not even aware of even the most basic knowledge such as this?
So I tried to test my suspicions, and administered an exam that required the students to answer using common nouns, and proper nouns (which should be capitalized, right?) But I found out the hard way that some of the students do not use cursive (or don’t know how?), and can only write using all capital letters (never mind if it’s a common noun)!
Despite something as elementary as this, some of the students clearly struggled with the exercise, and even voiced their disdain for writing (and who knows, for being compelled to think?)
The conclusion we came up with is that the growth and emergence of technology, and the dependence of this generation on gadgets has caused some decline in thinking and analytical skills.
I would like to highlight the fact that I’ve been referring to the tertiary level of learning, thus, having to witness current students struggling with basic information that we had learned during our time as college students is a rather saddening thought.
Such basic information should have been taught to them in their primary years of learning. It goes without saying that learning at home is even more basic.
Surely, there are advantages to the use of technology as a new way of parenting; the children become tech-savvy at an early age. But there are also disadvantages.
The fault does not solely rely on the parents since modern households now have both parents working for two paychecks, thus, having lesser time to spend (and educate) their children. Having a gadget is a handy nanny for the modern parents. One click of the gadget, and the child behaves.
At that early an age, one cannot blame how enslaved we have become to a hand-held device. I walk past students at the university, and although they may be physically huddled together, most of their faces are stuck on their phones – playing games, surfing the Net, scrolling Facebook, mindlessly watching TikTok or other random videos on YouTube.
I am simply left to wallow in my memories of being with my barkada, sharing stories and ideas, laughing together, engaging in minor debates, etc. Lest we focus our attention on the smaller changes, we realize they are not entirely small at all.
Note-taking in the classroom has been replaced with simple clicks of their phone cameras, taking photos of the teacher’s Power Point presentation. Manila papers, cartolina papers, posters, and other visual aids during class reports have been replaced with Canva presentations (which, not a few times, are mere cut-and-paste materials).Sometimes even their exams and homework are casually (unapologetically) uploaded on FB Messenger or Google classrooms. I doubt anyone photocopies materials and other sources anymore; why would they when have Bluetooth and online messaging?
And just like that, our generation is slowly disappearing to pave way to another one. I never imagined myself saying the cliché “Back in my day…” yet, here I am finding myself repeatedly saying it.
Suffice it to say, there are also some advantages living with the next generation.
This new generation has opened doors for a more empathic group of individuals. My students don’t simply take things sitting down, and are more than aware of their rights thus, having a more vocal group when it comes to voicing out their opinions.
This generation seems more practical and logical, with majority of the students maintaining high-paying online jobs on the side, and working as independent entrepreneurs.
This generation also seems bolder in challenging social norms, and breaking boundaries, being more expressive.
This generation just love themselves, and ooze with confidence with who they are and what they want to do in life.
I was once part of a generation that looked at my parent’s generation with derision. I used to view my time as the prime generation that bore a good balance of globalization and social awareness. With this, I apologize to the older generations that may have slowly accepted the death of their time in the spotlight, and stepped back for my generation to shine.
It should never be a battle of which generation reigns supreme. We all have our hitches. Perhaps, this is the death of my generation but I pray the birth of a better and more comprehensive generation combining all the positive aspects of the generations prior. In the end, a death of one generation should conclusively be a step for the next.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
