A LANGUAGE competition here has combined together modern media with traditional art forms in promoting Kapampangan language among the youth.
Organized by the Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS) at the Holy Angel University, the "AmanuLympics 2019" featured crossovers between traditional art forms like the crissotan, zarsuela, and poetry with modern day mediums including fliptop (rap battle), making infomercials, spoken word poetry and designing memes.
Amanu is the Kapampangan term for "words."
"We were really thinking of an event that will bring down love for culture among the youth," CKS head Robby Tantingco said.
Before coming up with the crossovers, Tantingco and his team conducted researches on what art forms are popular among the young generation.
"We assembled those four categories into an olympics of the Kapampangan language which we opened to the public to participate in," Tantingco said.
During the competition last week, the CKS invited director Jason Paul Laxamana who is behind the viral Kapampangan mother "Indang Pacing" character.
In his short videos on Facebook, Indang Pacing talks with Kapampangan accent and uses old Kapampangan words that many young ones are not familiar with anymore.
Tantingco said Laxamana and his fictional characters have sparked nostalgia with Kapampangan grandmothers and mothers. While for the younger generation, Tantingco hopes Indang Pacing can ignite the fire for them to use the local language.
"We found out that young Kapampangans, even if they don't speak it, they understand it," Tantingco said.
Aside from the AmanuLympics, Tantingco said the CKS will continue to create programs that aim to promote the Kapampangan language among the young generation. He added that they will focus on using motion pictures like movies or television shows because "is what the young ones respond to."
Meanwhile, winners of the AmanuLympics include Joshua Rodriguez Valencia (spoken word poetry), Albert Esguerra and Kris Bernardo (fliptop), students from the university of Makati (infomercial), and Carlo Tizon (meme design). Winners from each category received P10,000 and certificates of participation.