written last 2020
“Define ‘kita’ and use it in a sentence.” The professor told the students.
The students looked baffled. The professor, with a clean-cut and dressed neatly in a suit and tie, looked at his students indifferently.
A student immediately raised his hand. They all had the same question. “But, sir. The word ‘kita’ in Filipino has three different definitions. Which one will we use?”
“Enlighten me.” The professor sat down and waited for the students to do what was asked for.
Another hand shot up.
A girl stood up, Erica, was her name. “kita can mean an earning or salary that you just worked hard for. An example is, ‘Sa Biyernes nila makukuha kita nila.’”
“In English?”
The girl responded smoothly, “On Friday, they will receive their salary.”
“Good.” Said the professor. He stood up, wrote KITA in the middle of the board, and with an arrow extending outward, he wrote, ‘earning/salary’.
“Anything else?”
Another hand was raised.
Ben rises from his seat. “the word ‘kita’ can also be defined as a verb, if you want to meet someone or if you see something.”
The professor responded, “Can you put both definitions in a sentence?”
Ben stopped in his tracks, looking surprised. A stutter comes out of his lips. “O-okay. Noong nagkita kami, kwento niya na may nakita siyang aso.”
“In English?”
Ben responded swiftly, “When we met earlier, he told me he saw a dog.”
“Excellent.” The professor praised. He wrote “verb, to see or to meet” on the board.
“Can I ask for one more definition?”
Mary raised her hand, “another description of ‘kita’ is that it is a pronoun.”
“Meaning?”
“You.”
“That is incorrect.” The professor said.
The class has erupted into small bouts of murmurs.
Ben once again has raised his hand, “Sir? What do you mean when it is incorrect? Is not the word ‘kita’ also a pronoun?”
The class quieted at the sound of Ben’s voice and nodded in agreement.
“Well, can you please use the word, ‘kita’ in a sentence?”
The simplest and sweetest sentence rolled out of Ben’s tongue. “Mahal kita.”
“And in English?”
“I love you.”
The professor shook his head. “Incorrect.”
Another murmur rises from the class. The professor silences the class when he raised his hands.
“I love you translated in Filipino is ‘Ikaw ang mahal ko.’”
“But sir!” A hand suddenly flew up in the air. “is not kita a pronoun relating to two people? Instead of you, can it be translated as the word, ‘our’?”
“No.” The professor walked across the room. “What is the pronoun ‘our’ used for?”
Erica answered, “Two or more people. It can be related to the speaker and the listener, or it can pertain to the speaker and the group he or she will be with.”
“Correct. Does the word ‘kita’ also show all of these properties when being used?”
The class answers a murmured, yet collective no.
“What is the English translation for the pronoun kita in English?”
The class began to erupt and make a noise, a group arguing which word is most appropriate in the English language. The professor stood silently in front, watching the students gather their arguments and points, and debating why this word or that word is not suited for the translation of ‘kita.’
After a few minutes, the noise of the class died down, and looked at the professor, waiting for him to answer his own question.
“The word kita has no direct English translation. The uniqueness of this word is that of the connection between the speaker and the listener. Only the two of them are being connected. No word in the English dictionary has that kind of uniqueness. When the word ‘kita’ is being used, a unique form of bond is being made, wherein only the two people engaged in the conversation can relate to it. No one outside of the conversation will be able to fully understand the relationship that has just been established between the two people when they use the word ‘kita.’”
The class is in silence, awe and dawned realization was acknowledged in the lack of noise.
“That is why KITA is one of the most overlooked words in the Filipino language.
Class dismissed.”
