Personal Interview with Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Audio Clip 1
Dublin Core
Title
Personal Interview with Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Audio Clip 1
Description
The interviewer asks the interviewee to describe what his experience was like learning Noli Me Tángere in high school. The interviewee explains how he and his classmates learned Noli as a Filipino novel — not a textbook — that they discussed every week in class with their teacher. He adds that the edition they read was a thorough and direct translation of the original text, which he found entertaining to read.
Creator
Kenneth Hartigan-Go
Kaylee Hartigan-Go
Source
Personal conversation between Kenneth Hartigan-Go and Kaylee Hartigan-Go
Publisher
Kaylee Hartigan-Go
Date
November 20, 2020
Rights
Kaylee Hartigan-Go
Kenneth Hartigan-Go
Format
Audio file (mp3)
Language
English
Coverage
Manila, Philippines
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Audio file (mp3)
Duration
3 minutes
Transcription
Kaylee:
Can you describe what your experience was like reading Noli Me Tángere in high school? You can talk about things like what school year you read it, or perhaps what strategies your teacher took in teaching the novel in class, for example. Or you can, you know, deviate from that as well.
Kenneth:
[0:18] I first learned about Noli Me Tángere in high school, and that was in the third year of my high school — the second to the last year before we graduated. On that third year of high school, we had to study — rather, read Noli Me Tángere as part of a Filipino class. Language class. So, learning Filipino, but through reading a novel — not a textbook, but a novel — where we enjoyed every Saturday afternoon, a discussion with the teacher. So first, the teacher would ask us to read a chapter — everybody reads a chapter, every week. And then on that Saturday afternoon, the teacher and the students discuss the narrative. What happened to the protagonists, to the actors who were the players of this Filipino drama. But as you can see: it's like watching a telenovela that you anticipate, coming to class every week. And we had to speak in the local language Filipino, or the vernacular. It wasn't easy, but it was fun.
Kaylee:
[1:34] So the book — the novel version that you had to read was very thorough?
Kenneth:
[1:39] The novel that we had to read in the vernacular was, in fact, very thorough — a translation of the original text which was in Español. Of course, in that particular discussion, we remember in high school, it took about an hour per class. But we had the very exciting discussion because there was a bit of comedy, a bit of drama, tragedy, adventure, heroism. It's the way the prose was written it makes it — even though it was translated to Filipino — it makes it fun to read. I must admit that when reading that in Filipino, or the vernacular, it was not easy because we learned how to speak English, though we live in the Philippines. Reading heavy words in the local language for us at the high school level — and we were age sixteen years old at that time. I found it challenging. But the teachers made it funny. Made it entertaining and light. So, for me, I truly enjoyed it.
Can you describe what your experience was like reading Noli Me Tángere in high school? You can talk about things like what school year you read it, or perhaps what strategies your teacher took in teaching the novel in class, for example. Or you can, you know, deviate from that as well.
Kenneth:
[0:18] I first learned about Noli Me Tángere in high school, and that was in the third year of my high school — the second to the last year before we graduated. On that third year of high school, we had to study — rather, read Noli Me Tángere as part of a Filipino class. Language class. So, learning Filipino, but through reading a novel — not a textbook, but a novel — where we enjoyed every Saturday afternoon, a discussion with the teacher. So first, the teacher would ask us to read a chapter — everybody reads a chapter, every week. And then on that Saturday afternoon, the teacher and the students discuss the narrative. What happened to the protagonists, to the actors who were the players of this Filipino drama. But as you can see: it's like watching a telenovela that you anticipate, coming to class every week. And we had to speak in the local language Filipino, or the vernacular. It wasn't easy, but it was fun.
Kaylee:
[1:34] So the book — the novel version that you had to read was very thorough?
Kenneth:
[1:39] The novel that we had to read in the vernacular was, in fact, very thorough — a translation of the original text which was in Español. Of course, in that particular discussion, we remember in high school, it took about an hour per class. But we had the very exciting discussion because there was a bit of comedy, a bit of drama, tragedy, adventure, heroism. It's the way the prose was written it makes it — even though it was translated to Filipino — it makes it fun to read. I must admit that when reading that in Filipino, or the vernacular, it was not easy because we learned how to speak English, though we live in the Philippines. Reading heavy words in the local language for us at the high school level — and we were age sixteen years old at that time. I found it challenging. But the teachers made it funny. Made it entertaining and light. So, for me, I truly enjoyed it.
Interviewer
Kaylee Hartigan-Go
Interviewee
Kenneth Hartigan-Go
Location
Manila, Philippines
Files
Citation
Kenneth Hartigan-Go and Kaylee Hartigan-Go, “Personal Interview with Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Audio Clip 1,” Spatial Humanities, accessed November 10, 2024, https://spatial-humanities.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/34371.