Genius

 


     Last night, I was on YouTube and stumbled on a video that aimed to enhance your English vocabulary. No idea why YouTube recommended it, I don't watch similar videos. I just finished watching a video on how great the bass line on “Head Over Heels,” which is one of my favorite Tears For Fears songs (it’s about a man madly in love with a woman who, he’s afraid, is just wasting his time; its official music video is also great), I scrolled down and there was the vocabulary video, where the host would show a word and you’d choose the correct meaning.

     I found the comments, Americans taking pride on scoring 13 out of 15 questions, a bit perplexing at first because English was their language. You see, I wasn't that smart, but I got 15 out of 15 (it was easy, it was multiple choice, and the most difficult word was eschew), and then I realized that even Filipinos found some Tagalog words difficult.

     Like this incident, where I was conversing with a lady, and she suddenly asked me the meaning of this one Tagalog word while she was holding a Tagalog book. She was sitting and I was standing beside her, and the question prompted me to look directly at her, and it was at that moment that I realized how pretty she really was. I mean, I already knew that she was pretty, but looking at her that close, while she looked back at me, it felt ethereal…”

    “I’m lost in admiration, could I need you this much?”

     …and I felt that at that moment, I could ace every vocabulary quiz. Lol.

     The word she was inquiring about? It was henyo. And henyo is, of course, genius in English.

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