A Little Lesson in Filipino

© Joselito Briones

I challenged one of my nephews, DanMark (yes, same as the country, German spelling), "Big Mac" to some of us, "Kuya Makky" to some of his cousins, to tell me something, so I can tell you about it.

Here's what he came up with (with my attempt at understanding the relatively new Filipino shorthand, and a translation):

sori poh sa late reply heheheh
d poh ako nkapag log in ng 2 days hehehehe
dto poh ang bago d2 nagtitinda cla lola ng fishball at halo2 un ang bago d2
hmmpp c kuya magkakaroon na ng panganay ewan ko lng poh kung kelan ang due date ni ate lanie ^_^
bkit yaw nyo poh pagandahin profiles nyo??.

-
Sorry for the late reply ("poh" is "po", a Filipino word to indicate some sort of respect, the way one would say "no, sir" to an older relative)
I wasn't able to log in for 2 days hehehehe
Here, what's new is that Gramma ("Oma" in Germany, "Inay" to me) is now selling fishballs and "halo halo" (a typical Filipino treat of sweets in ice and milk). That's what's new here.
Hmmpp... Don Don ("kuya" is brother, usually how all the siblings call the eldest brother, as "ate", sister, is used to address the eldest sister - older brother or sister other than the eldest is addressed as "kuya" or "ate" with the name attached to it) will have a firstborn already, I just don't know when Ate Lanie (Don's wife) is due. (a smiley)
Why don't you make your profile (referring to my friendster.com profile) look better?
-

You know how nothing ever happens to me when I ask my nephews to provide content to my letters to you.

The picture above is a composite, of course, the background is Times Square, in New York, while Mark's picture was taken in the Philippines.


XXX