The What, the Thingie, and the Like That

My wife: Sweet, halika. Yung ano sa may kwan… paki ganyan mo nga. Please…

Me: Ha? Ano kamo? (Huh? Say what?)

This blog may be strange to non-Pinoys or even to Pinoys who did not grow up immersed in the nuances of the Filipino language and the underlying eccentricities of the culture attached to it.

If you are Pinoy and understand the language well, and speak it fluently, you’ve heard of the words ANO, KWAN, and GANYAN many times. You’ve probably used it a million times yourself.

To this day, I am pretty sure that these words do not have an exact equivalent in English. Ano literally means What. Ganyan can be translated as “like that”. Kwan, one of the vaguest of Pinoy words, can be loosely translated as “thingie”, or if you’re trying to be cute, it can be translated as “thingamajim”. …but not quite.

More interesting is the fact that these words can be as adjectives, nouns, and even verbs. For beginning Filipino language learners, these words are essential in your Tagalog 101, Advanced Literary Tagalog, and Filipino Psychology and Philosophy. It’s an interesting learning experience. Just prepare to be space out…so to speak.

Hence, my wife’s sentence construction, if directly and literally translated in English, would go:

My wife: Sweet, come here. The what near the thingie (or thingamajim)… kindly like that yours. Please…

Me: Huh? What the…?

It may sound like a complex Buddhist riddle or an existentialist statement. You decide. I understand it quite well. I’m both mystified and enlightened by Ano, Kwan, and Ganyan. I’m Pinoy.

We’re vague, we’re ambiguous, we’re ambivalent, we’re Pinoy! It’s cryptic, interesting, weird, and funny…it’s great to be Filipino.

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