Soy de la India

Went to my first Spanish class yesterday.

Not a proud moment though. Imagine sitting through a class, with a bunch of people who already know basic Spanish (En Serio Amigo. Tagalog and Spanish have a lot in common, if not as much as shabakano) and some reaaaallly hot Latinas, or wannabe Latinas, and you show yourself up with 2 black holes under your eyes. At least sleep a little before you come to class, idiota!!

But gotta take the blame. Should have planned my day better. I finished a lengthy work-shift on Friday, and the least I could have done then is to force some sleep on myself. But I didn't. And so, when the class began, I was awake for the last 23 hours, and feeling more sleepy by the second.

Luckily, the instructor woke me up. No, not the shaking of the shoulders, but just using a torrent of Spanish vocabulary. He just started off in Spanish, and kept going!! For a moment there, I thought I was in the wrong class - I mean, wasn't this basis 1.1. Or was he just showing off his verbal machismo?

But horror of horrors, most of the others were able to react, and even respond, to what Marlon was saying. Again, was this basis 1.1? Or maybe, there is a lot common between Spanish and Tagalog than I thought.

But after a while, it became clear that he was just setting the tone. Just trying to make people understand that Spanish was easy, since there were a lot of common words between Spanish and Tagalog. Or even English. So, here, in Instituto Cervantes, I was the black sheep. Simply because I knew as much Tagalog as I knew about Unix computing and SETI communications. Drat!

The class went on. Basic introductions. Hola! Que Tal! Muy Bien! Vale! Perfecto! Too many 'crutches-words' to learn in one day. Then, basic questions.

Como te llama?

Me llama Abhi, though I know it is a girl's name in your country. I apologize for that, but no, not Abby Viduya, for god's sake.

Then, Marlon shot me a question. De donde eres?

Flip, flip the pages. Quick and fast. Got it. Where are you from?

Again, flip the pages, look at the blackboard, ask the neighbour. Soy De India.

Marlon stops. Then, gives me a smile, and says something that still gives me goosebumps.

'India, is the only country that has the distinction of being addressed with 'the' in Spanish. So, you don't say 'Soy de India'. You say, 'Soy de la India'. Answer me again. De donde eres?

My heart was brimming. Philippines was Filipinas, United States was Estados Unidos. But India, oh my Spanish gods, India was La India. I've never felt so patriotic even when I watched 'border'. And I felt silly. Why would such a minor linguistic triviality make me patriotic. Maybe, it was the Idea that I found Spanish beautiful, and the beautiful language considered my country special. Hmmpph. Chest blown out, I answered: 'Soy de la India'.

Marlon moved to 'Come se escribe' after that. Nothing worth writing about. Forgive my pun. Unintended. Purely.