"That's not my problem anymore, that's your problem anymore!"
"The sky's the langit"
"How have you been up to?"
"First and for all"
"You're barking at the wrong dog!"
"Let's call it tonight!"
And then of course, there is the everybody's favorite restaurant. No it's not McDonalds. It's not even Jollibee, it's "Kahit Saan."
Saan mo gustong kumain?
Kahit Saan.
Saan mo gustong kumain ng dinner?
Kahit Saan.
Of course, it has other branches such as "Ikaw. Susunod lang ako." "Saan Mura." In any case, Kahit Saan restaurants serve the best servings of the Filipino's all time favorite "Ikaw Bahala," "Ikaw Na Lang Order Para Sa Akin" and of course, the all popular and ever tasty "Kahit Ano."
Now while you are all eating, we cannot help but engage in conversations which seem to elicit that all popular and universal to all the questions in the world: "Wala lang!" and "Okay lang!" You know, conversations that sound like this:
A. Bakit mo ginawa yun?
B. Wala lang!
A. Punta tayo sa mall.
B. Bakit?
A. Wala lang.
Or conversations that resemble this:
A. Kumusta na yung trabaho mo?
B. Okay lang
A. Hindi ka ba inaaway ng boss mo?
B. Okay lang.
A. Bakit ka nga niya pala pinagalitan?
B. Wala lang.
A. Na-hurt ka ba?
B. Okay lang.
A. Anong sinabi mo pagkatapos.
B. Wala lang.
A. Sige. Kain na tayo
B. Sige. Saan mo gusto?
A. Kahit Saan.
B. Anong gusto mong kainin
A. Ikaw bahala. Ikaw?
B. Kahit ano naman ang gusto ko.
See what I mean? The cool thing about it is, at the end of the day, we seem to still understand each other. We seem to get the drift all the time, anywhere. As the popular saying goes "That's what I am talking about it!"
So why did I write this article? Wala lang.
What if you, the readers didn't learn anything? Okay lang. Pagbigyan niyo na lang ako. You know what they always say "Just cut me some SLACKS!"
Bow.
(By the way. The grammatically challenging statements here came from the book "The More The Manyer: Pinoy Clichés and Other Words of Wisdumb" illustrated by my colleague in the English Department, Elbert Or. The book is published by Tahanan books and will be available in leading bookstores by next week).
