Thoughts of A Journalism Student

Theater to Spread Awareness Nationwide

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) utilizes the medium of theater to spread social awareness on different issues present in today’s government to the different regions and provinces of the Philippine archipelago.

In an interview conducted with one of PETA’s directors, theater organizers, playwrights, actresses and artist-teachers, Joanna Marie L. Katanyag, she expounded on the different ways that this theater association has “uniquely” guided many Filipinos to become a better nation as a whole.

Kantayag explains that our Filipino culture is a banig. It is interlocked with the many different cultures the Filipinos have adapted from its colonizers from the Spanish era to the Japanese puppet government most especially the strong American influence, traders and many more. All these cultures have interlocked in what can only be called the Filipino culture. Katanyag explains further that each strand of the banig has its own story and influence. It is a “beautiful mess” made by the Filipino people throughout our history.

With that type of culture present in today’s society, Katanyag poses the question of how do we go from that banig we have?

“Paano mo imamamaximize ang banig natin?”

Katanyag goes on saying that the Filipino culture does not change but rather evolves through time. This can be seen in the fashion of the people and even in the language that has evolved like the jejemon and the bekimon language have inevitably become a part of the banig.

When the Filipinos see a trait that is not a great one, the question of whether or not we must change is must come up.

“Gusto ba natin ipagpatuloy ang ganun klaseng kultura?” Katnyag questioned.

With the question being posed on changing the Filipino culture, Katnayag elaborated on a different angle of looking at theater as a medium that is not only used for someone’s stepping stone to fame, but also a means “as a tool to educate people” and a way to make the youth participate to make our country a better one. By doing so, PETA has shown how they would want to spread the change it wants to present to society in the form of creative performances and workshops.

During the different seasons of the year for PETA’s productions, certain themes and advocacies are prepared for each show in order to make the people aware of the different social problems persistent in our country.

PETA’s current advocacy is “positive discipline”. Katanyag explains that this is the advocacy of not using physical and verbal abuse as the way of motivating the youth. PETA is helping a bill to be passed regarding this advocacy to make it aware that abuse between husband and wife, hazing and death penalty are not the only forms of physical abuse.

PETA believes in a positive environment for every Filipino youth to be able to grow, participate in the Philippine society and become better leaders for the future of the country.

In the time of the 2009 presidential elections, PETA provided a workshop performance entitled Bagong Bilang in partner with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts on voter education. It provided the youth with the correct background of how to vote and the proper way of choosing a correct leader for the country.

Katanyag explained that PETA took the opportunity of taking an estimated total of 5 million youth in our country and turn them into a new generation of good voters wherein she was the director, writer and facilitator of this particular workshop.

The stimulus of this kind of activity is a story telling scenario where in they provide a play about a young person with no knowledge on voting and is interested in doing so. The participants of the workshops are then incorporated into the play by pausing for some activities and lectures.This workshop was a nation-wide tour in the three islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to be able to reach as much youth in the country as possible

In another instance, PETA provided a workshop on sexuality education during the days when the congress and the senate debated if the Reproductive Health Bill should be passed.

“Luma na ang issues ng teen pregnancy pero hindi ibig sabihin na hindi na siya nangyayari,” Katanyag explained regarding the reason behind the workshop. “Talamak pa rin siya kaya gumawa kami ng workshop performance on sexuality.

This workshop tackled the sexuality as the “whole personhood of a person”. This was inclusive of a person’s biological functions, gender, sexual preferences and personal identity.

Katanyag expounded that the goal of PETA for this workshop was for a person to realize that they are made of different aspects. With these aspects, a person must be able to think critically in order to help not only himself but also his peers and countrymen.

In times of national calamities such as the Typhoon Yolanda, PETA worked on a program on community risk and disaster management entitled Padayon, An Informance on Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction. Katanyag was the writer for this particular program.

This program aims to train the people of a community to be able to stand without the government in situations such as this. Tools, qualities and guidelines are taught to the people in order for them to be able to assess their area’s status during a natural disaster and “how to manage and survive from it”.

This program was an “informance” – information performance about community performance and disaster reduction for time that natural calamities will hit our country. This play is currently being shown in different areas of Palo, Leyte and is going to be shown in Tacloban this year.

Paramdam, an interactive site-specific performance on bullying in 2014 is also an example of one of the many advocacies that PETA spreads social awareness to specific groups of people.

Aside from informances and performance workshops, PETA came out with a comics to advocate their advocacy for the rights to safety zones for children. The comics was entitled A-ZONE COMICS: Si Intoy at si Miss Sulit, Pader Issues.

The Mark of A True Journalist

A doctor's professionalism is characterized by his success or failure in performing a surgery and how reliable the prescriptions he gives his patients are. On the other hand, a politician's professionalism can be seen in interviews and how he handles the press with their many accusations against them. For a journalist, good grammar is the key to their professionalism.

A journalist's job is to tell stories to the people, but it is not in the messages and stories that he tells where his mastery of the profession is seen. It is seen in the words and symbols that they uses in order to deliver that message.

It is whether or not they know whent to put a ',' before or after the independent clause that starts with an 'and', ot the simple spelling of 'you're' and 'your'. It is very important to know how to use grammar correctly because that is where the professionalism of a journalist shines through.

Since the start of elementary school, students have been taught the different figures of speech. It starts with the simple nouns and its kinds. The pronouns, verbs and adjectives are next to help us construct our sentences. With sentence writing comes the proper capitalization and use of punctuation marks. It is a cycle of figures of speech until the student reaches high school. By the time they graduate, a student must be equipped with the right grammar to help them get by essays and literary analyses.

As it has been shown, all students are eqquiped with the basics, and so it can be said that everyone has been taught proper grammar. However to the handful that are called to become journalists, the need to develop their grammar a step higher is necessary.

Every morning, millions of people open their newspapers to read nothing but proper news. To not know how to use grammar correctly would be a big mistake not onlu for you but also for the company you work for. To produce work that is not examplary will be embarassing for you. The medium of a journalist is through the words that are printed on the newspaper for the whole country to read.

Having grammar that is above the mediocore status is the standard, and it will show the true profesionalism of a journalist. It was everybody expects to see as they open the pages of Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Star and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Don't Get Lost in those Idiomatic Expressions!

Have you ever experienced hearing a phrase by your favorite TV character and have no idea what it meant? Or did you professor have that said all these idioms and you just stared at him blankly?

Learn this list of idioms and I’m sure you will no longer be lost in the dark.

At the head of the class – most skilled or knowledgeable about a certain field
Head and shoulders above – someone or something who is a lot better than others being compared to
A head start – an advantage granted or gained at the beginning of something
Have a good head on one’s shoulder – to have common sense
Off the top of one’s head – in an impromptu way; without much thought
Put one’s heads together – (usually by a group ) to think about something in order to get ideas or to solve a problem
Use one’s head – to think; have common sense
Make one’s head spin – cause one to be giddy, dazed, or confused
Over one’s head – beyond one’s depth
Scratch one’s head – express puzzlement or perplexity
Head over heels – completely; thoroughly
Lose one’s head – lose self-control; panic
Out of one’s head – crazy
Soft in the head – stupid
Heads will roll – people will get into severe trouble
Talk someone’s head off – to speak too much
Laugh someone’s head off – to laugh too much
Hard-headed – tough; not moved by sentiment
Thick-headed – stupid
Hot-headed – hot-tempered; impetuous or rash
Cool-headed – not easily excited; calm
Knucklehead – a stupid person
Bonehead – a dunce
Sleepyhead – one who is in need of or groggy from sleep
Pothead – one who habitually smokes marijuana
Head off – to go
Head on – with or involving direct confrontation
Head in – to move into something
Turn heads – to be so interesting or attractive that people turn to look
Keep one’s head above water – avoid succumbing to difficulties
At the eleventh hour – almost too late
In the dead of the night – during the middle of the night
A nightcap – an alcoholic or hot drink taken at the end of the day or before going to bed
A night-bird – a person who is habitually active or wakeful at night
On the spur of the moment – on impulse; without planning in advance
One’s Sunday best – your best clothes which you wear on special occasions
To do something at the last minute – to do something just before the deadline
It’s all in day’s work – a part of what is expected
To have seen better days – have declined from former prosperity or good condition
To call it a day – to stop a particular activity for the rest of the day
To fight tooth and nail – to use a lot of effort to oppose someone or achieve something
To have the time of one’s life – to have a very good time
To kill time – pass time aimlessly
To learn something by heart – to learn something so well that it can be written or recited without thinking; to memorize
To have one’s heart in one’s mouth – to feel strongly emotional about someone or something
To pull someone’s leg – play a joke on; tease
Not to have a leg to stand on – to have no support for your position
To be on its last leg – about to stop working
To pay through the nose – pay an excessive amount for something
To stick one’s neck out – to take a risk
To give someone the cold shoulder – to behave towards someone in a way that is not at all friendly
To run shoulders with someone – to meet and spend time with someone
To toe the line – to conform to a rule or standard
To hold one’s tongue – to avoid speaking
To make a slip of the tongue – an error in speaking in which the speaker says something unintentionally
To let one’s hair down – to relax and enjoy yourself without worrying what other people will think
To escape by a hair’s breadth – to barely escape
To have one’s hands full – to be busy or totally occupied with something
To be a handful – to be difficult to deal with
To be an old hand – to be skilled at something through long experience
To get the upper hand of something – to have power and control over someone or a situation
To say something off-hand – to say something without preparation
To have a finger in the pie – to have a role in something
To keep one’s fingers crossed – to wish for luck for someone
To see eye to eye – to agree on something or view something the same way
To keep a straight face – to not show one’s feelings
Elbow room – space which allows you to move around
To get something off one’s chest – to confess, or speak about something that has been bothering you, especially when it this comes as a relief
To play music by ear – to reproduce a piece of music one heard
To be within earshot – to be close enough to something to hear it
To pick someone’s brains- to seek information to someone knowledgeable
A bone of contention- the subject or point of an argument
To have one’s back against the wall-to have very serious problems
To be up in arms- in armed rebellion; very angry
To break the back of something- to end the domination of something
To see red- someone to be angry
To see the red light-to stop what one is doing
To catch someone red-handed-apprehend someone in the course of wrong doing
To have green fingers- to be good at keeping plants healthy
To turn grey-extreme anxiety or grief can turn someone’s hair grey
To see pink elephants- euphemism for drunken hallucination, caused by alcoholic allusions or delirium tremens
To feel blue- to be depressed
To be dressed in black- to mourn or be sad for an unfortunate event
To beat someone black and blue- hit someone until they are bruised
A feather in one’s cap- a symbol of honor or achievement
A wolf in sheep’s clothing- a dangerous person pretending to be harmless
To clip someone’s wings- to reduce someone’s privileges as a punishment
To take the bull by the horns- confront a problem head on
To have butterflies in one’s stomach- to get nervous or tense
To rain cats and dogs- to raining in great amounts
To count one’s chickens before they hatch- make plans based on events that may or may not happen
To have other fish to fry-to have other things to do
To go to the dogs- go to pot; go to hell
To wait till the cows come home- for a long but indefinite time
To err on the safe side- to err on the side of caution
To set the ball rolling- maintain a level of activity in and enthusiasm for a project
To talk down to someone- to speak to someone in a patronizing manner
To clear the air- to get rid of doubts or hard feelings
To throw someone’s weight around- put on weight
A saving grace- A redeeming quality, especially one that compensates for one’s shortcomings
To affect ignorance (of something)- to enlighten; share knowledge
To be asking for trouble- to do something that would cause trouble
To be barking up the wrong tree- a mistaken emphasis in a certain context
To beat the air-to strike violently repeatedly
To blow one’s own trumpet- blow out of proportion
It all boils down to- to emphasize the importance of something
To buck one’s ideas up- to summon one’s courage
To buckle down to something- to settle down
To burn one’s bridges- to cut off the way back where you came from
To burn a hole in one’s pocket- to cause someone to be tempted on money
To burn the candle at both ends- getting up early in the morning
To burn one’s fingers- to get one’s self in an unexpected trouble
To burn the midnight’s oil- to work late into the night
To butter someone up- to flatter someone
To buy a pig in a poke-something that is bought without the buyer knowing its true value
To call the tune- a musical setting of a hymn, poem, psalm etc.
To catch someone napping- catch someone who is unprepared
To catch someone red-handed- to catch someone doing an wrong act
To chop and change- to keep changing what you do or plan to do
To cross the Rubicon- to do something that inevitably commits one to following a certain course of action
To curry favor with someone- to try to make someone like you or support you by doing or saying things to
To cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth- to plan one’s aims and activities in line with one’s resources and circumstances.
To draw a blank-to get no response
To err on the safe side- doing the thing that is safe rather than risking
To feather one’s nest- to decorate one’s home in style and comfort
To fish in troubled waters- to involve self in a difficult situation
To flog a dead horse- to insist in talking about something that no one is interested in
To fly in the face of someone- to challenge someone
To fly off the handle- losing one’s temper
To follow the crowd- go along with the majority
To follow in someone’s footsteps- to do the same things in your life as someone else
To gild the lily- to over embellish
To hand out bouquets- to give out or confess one’s love
To handle someone with kid gloves-to deal with someone very gently
To harp on the same string- to play the same note over and over
To hear something over the grape-vine- to hear news from someone who heard the news from someone else
To hold the olive branch-to offer to make peace with an enemy or rival
To hit below the belt- an unfair blow
To iron out differences- resolve differences; settle disputes
To join forces-to work together in a common enterprise
To jump on the bandwagon – to support something because of its popularity
To kill two birds with one stone – achieving 2 things with only one activity
To know where the shoe pinches – the true cause of the trouble
To know which side one’s bread is buttered – to know who to be nice to and what to do in order to get an advantage for yourself
To lead a charmed life – a life in which one is always lucky and safe
To lead someone a dance – lead someone around in your point of view
To lead someone a dog’s life – very unhappy or unpleasant life
To lead someone up the garden path – deceive someone
To leave much to be desired – be imperfect or unsatisfactory
Let by-gones be by-gones – leave whatever happened in the past
To let sleeping dogs lie – not talk about a bad situation that most people forgot
To let something drop – casually reveal a piece of information
To let the cat out of the bag – reveal facts previously hidden
To let the grass grow under one’s feet – to not waste time by delaying
To meet one’s Waterloo – to encounter a big obstacle and be defeated by it
To meet someone half-way – to agree in a condition
To mend one’s ways – to change someone
To mince one’s words – traitor
To mind one’s p’s and q’s – practice good manners
To move heaven and earth – do everything you can to achieve something
To nip something in the bud – put an end to something before it becomes larger
To pat someone on the back – to congratulate
To pocket one’s pride – to hide your pride in certain situations
To pour oil on troubled waters – to calm two talking person who are fighting
To rain cats and dogs – hravy rains
To rest on one’s laurels – to stop trying because of satisfied achievements
To ring a bell – to remember something
To rise to the occasion – to stand up to what you believe
To rob Peter to pay Paul – to take something from someone for the benefit of another person
To roll one’s sleeves up – to be serious in a situation
To throw in the towel – to stop something
To tighten one’s belt – spend less than before
To wash one’s dirty linen in public – discuss something that should be private
To weather the storm – to be able to continue doing something despite problems
To whistle for the wind – to take purposelessly
To make one’s feet wet – get a little first time in something
To stick one’s neck out – take a risk
To stretch a point – do something unacceptable
To smell a rat – to suspect that something is wrong
To speak volume – giving out opinion
To steal someone’s thunder – lessen someones force or authority
To spill the beans – give away private information
To split hairs – to argue about a trivial aspect of an issue
To stick around – to stay a little longer
To run in the blood – a unique characteristic in your family
To be six feet under – to be dead
To die by one’s own hand – suicide
To come to an untimely death – death at an early age
To be on piece-work – paid a fixed rate regardless of time
To cook someone’s goose – to ruin someone
Straight from the horse’s mouth – comes from an original source
To hold one’s horses – to calm down
To look a gift-horse in the mouth – not to refuse something good that is being offered
The lion’s share – the owners share
The leopard can’t change its spots – one cant change essential nature
To put the cat among the pigeons – a disturbance caused by an undesirable person
To have a bee in one’s bonnet – obsession
To take the bull by the horns – to deal with a difficult situation
To have other fish to fry – to have other important things to do
To keep the wolf from the door – to maintain oneself at a minimal level

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Theater to Spread Awareness Nationwide

The Mark of A True Journalist

Don't Get Lost in those Idiomatic Expressions!