Yesterday I was talking to some people from General Santos and in reflecting back, I realized I have spoken several dialects, intermixed. I cannot seem to speak all in one language. Since they were Filipinos, I ended up mixing Visayan, Tagalog and English. Subconsciously, I tried to speak all in one dialect, but somehow end up mixing again because I can't remember some words in that specific dialect.
My background: I am of Chinese descent, born in the Philippines, moved to Canada 30 years ago, a Canadian citizen, a Filipino citizen, married to a Norwegian and have been out of Canada (sailing to different countries in the Pacific) since 2002 and am now back in the Philippines. I speak Chinese, Visayan, Tagalog, some Chavacano, English, some Norwegian, some Spanish and a tiny sprinkle of Canadian French (struggled with this in French Polynesia). Sad to say, I am not an expert in any of the language/dialects that I speak, except for English. Even that, I still consult Webster once in a while. When in Canada, I think numbers in English. When in the Philippines, I do it in Filipino or in Chinese. In Norway, I count in Norwegian. I have several expressions - multilingual I must say.
There is nothing specific I want to point out with this article. Just that I suddenly had a feeling of identity crisis. My conclusion is that no matter how I speak, nobody can take away the inherent culture, values and traditions in me, being taught to me from birth. In looking around, you can tell from children how these are being passed on by their parents, no matter where you end up, or which nationality you have.