Sa Aking Mga Kabata

Beautiful work. It's rare to see our languages being writtin in the ancient alphabets. But...

First of all, it is doubtable if Pepe ever wrote that during his childhood, let alone wrote it at all. He was still young, and Spanish was the language of the Mercado/Rizal household, just like most of the well-off families at that time. It would to too good to be true to believe that he could make a comparative analysis of Spanish, Tagalog, and English, even.

Second, the idea that Tagalog is the native language of all Filipinos (as most of those Tagalista bastards) is preposterous and unfair. We have 151 languages, Tagalog being the langauge only of the Tagalog provinces. Everyone had their own language, distinct from each other. And even if Rizal DID write the poem, he probably adressed his fellow Tagalogs and no one else. Remember, the concept of "Filipino-ness" was fairly new; people identified themselves according to ethnic group (Capampangans, Ilocanos, Ilonggos, Tausugs, etc).

And third, Rizal's name is properly spelled JOSÉ. Not Jose. As a Spanish name, it must be written with the accent mark. Otherwise it would be pronounced HO-se, and not ho-SE. Besides, Pepe wrote and signed his name that way. Writing his name without the accent mark is a disservice to his memory. Let's show due respect.