What a way to start the week. For the second time since April, I have been asked to be the master of ceremonies (emcee) for the Monday morning flag ceremony at our company. Today's program was good run, better than my first one, since I have gained courage to cut my script and do a bit of adlib. I hate public speaking but I recently learned how to swallow my shame and just get on with it. Perhaps the reason why I was more confident today is because I had caused a blunder, only a month ago, also on the same stage which was quickly forgiven by the whole company.
On September 03, following our successful Vendors' Night in Makati Shangri-la (arranged with the leadership of yours truly) I was asked to lead the recitation of the Panatang Makabayan (the old version, which IMHO is more beautiful) during the flag ceremony (featuring the previous night's festivities). I thought to myself that if I had survived emcee-ing two weeks into my work, I could handle this short segment. What I failed to realize was that the Panatang Makabayan was to be said in Filipino.
So I go up the stage, and start, and stutter through the word, "kapakipakinabang". I tried to say it, around 5 times until finally giving up, apologizing (yes, I said "Sorry", out loud), taking a breath and got through the word slowly. I was very much grateful for the crowd as they waited for me to gather myself. It was embarassing, more so because I found myself having a harder time talking in my mother tongue.
I recalled this incident to my friends from another company when we met and after laughing at me (or should I say, with me), we went into a conversation about the beauty of the Panatang Makabayan.
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| Image Source: http://onwardphilippines.blogspot.com/2012/03/true-pinoy-defined-in-panatang.html |
