Isn’t it strange that in advertisements promoting Philippine tourism the word ‘mabuhay” is standard but in normal conversations it is never used. That being the case, why then do we use it at all when addressing a foreign audience?
“Come visit the Philippines. Mabuhay!”
Don’t we have any other conversational words that we can use in lieu of “mabuhay”?
Is our use of this word indicative of something deeper?
Share your thoughts, please.
Only the word ‘Oy!’ comes to mind.
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lpgd Reply:
May 27th, 2009 at 11:25 am
“Come visit the Philippines! Oy!”
Pwede.
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Welcome Rotunda has been renamed Mabuhay Rotunda but strictly speaking, Welcome doesn’t translate to Mabuhay which means “Long live!”.
It is a very contrived and labored greeting.
I don’t go up to a friend I haven’t seen for a long time and say, “Mabuhay!”.
Or similarly, I don’t address a stranger with “Mabuhay!” because I am naturally suspicious of people I do not know. It would be the height of deadly irony if I greeted a psychopathic killer Mabuhay and ended up dead.
And can you imagine if Lapu-Lapu greeted Magellan Mabuhay before spilling his blood on the beaches of Mactan?
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maybe mabuhay is not meant for conversation at all but a description of the filipino people’s character. perhaps this the reason why they love to use it as opening spiel in beauty pageants or in one inflight magazine showcasing the beauty of teh philippines.
when my classmates ask me how to say hi or hello in tagalog, i always say use hi or hello, or kumusta/musta, not mabuhay.
just thinking aloud
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bp Reply:
November 22nd, 2010 at 4:33 pm
wanda,
thanks for visiting and commenting. MABUHAY!!!
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