Losing My Grandmother's Language

"Abierto" — I read this word on a random restaurant's window while I was riding a tricycle to a cafe. For some reason, it was very very familiar to me. 

After thinking long and hard about why it was so familiar, I realized my lola used this word a lot. So when she died nobody in my household used this word anymore.

My grandmother grew up still studying Spanish in school so the way she spells and speaks still has a lot of Spanish influence. She used a lot of Spanish loanwords when she speaks like abri, abierto, tiempo, puerta, pensar, etc. I think most Hiligaynon in Iloilo still use these words on a daily basis.

However, since I grew up in Mindanao, my Ilonggo is different. My Ilonggo is a mix of English, Cebuano, and Tagalog. I don't integrate as much Spanish as my lola did.

Just as our family lost "Chinese," I think we will slowly lose this one too. The next generations in our family will probably even slowly lose Hiligaynon.