i found it amusing

i treated the family for dinner. that's basically mom and dad, my sis and my bro-in-law, my niece and her boyfriend and pc. first time for all of us to get together, since my sis and bro-in-law were just in manila for a week. it was funny seeing how the family, all of us, were now speaking quite fluently in English, primarily because my niece, her bf and pc are all very comfortable speaking in that language.

though i must say that all of us in the family have a very good command of English, when we are left to ourselves, we still feel most comfortable speaking in Filipino, well with a spattering of English words here and there. typically Pinoy, typically Taglish. But my niece grew up in Dubai and she pretty much failed to really learn to speak Filipino. And both her bf and pc grew up in families where the conversations were pre-dominantly English (aside from some time pc spent in the u.s. growing up).

so i was really amused at how the family conversation suddenly took on an English turn! i whispered to my sister that this was our way of trying to improve the breed! LOL

then we had dessert. and during that time, the age gap became apparent. (additional info. my niece is 21, her boyfriend is 23. pc is 24. ) at one end was pc discussing animatedly with my niece and her bf about books including harry potter, and wii and games and even philosophy. and of course, our side of the conversation was more about family, about work, about the other siblings. and all three of them left to buy some ice cream at the korean grocery nearby!

my dad kidded me then as they were walking away. 'you cradle-snatcher!' 'look, tatay, i didnt take him from the crib. he willingly crawled out! besides, look at how different our conversations became with our new imports!'

no wonder the term now is 'blended family'! LOL