Bien Chabacano

When I was in college, I had a very funny and embarrassing linguistic experience. My friends and I were taking leave of my friend's parents one by one (after having lunch at their house) when I said the weirdest thing. Anda ya po kame . I was glad everyone else had left when I said it because I probably would not have been able to explain myself. In 2005, it was just plain weird for people to use po in Chabacano. Today, I am reading a lot of Facebook posts where people are using po when speaking Chabacano. At the mall where you can hear conversations between store clerks and customers, the usage of po in Chabacano is very pronounced. At a Jollibee restaurant along the west coast of the city, customers are greeted with buenas dias po . Suddenly, after more than ten years, what I said in 2005 does not sound so weird anymore. Of course, not everybody does it. I suppose people whose first language isn't Chabacano would be more prone to using po when speaking Chabacano ...