The Term Of Nakakainis In The Philippines English Language Essay

Have you encountered a time when you are feeling really irritated or annoyed that you would just like to punch or slap a pesky person? When you are being disturbed by an utterly foolish person who asks nonsense questions? Or when you did not get to watch your favorite soap opera? These situations make you say “NAKAKAINIS!!”, right? But Filipino youth these days barely use the original meaning of “nakakainis”— irritated, annoyed and troubled (Nakakainis in English, Yahoo Answers. June 2010). Filipino youth would say “NAKAKAINIS” if they find things which are interesting like after watching this video (Ayos sa Trip si Manong, You Tube . June 2010), seeing this very cute picture (Baby Cheeks, Flickr [picture file]. November 2005) or cracking Filipino funny jokes like “Q: bakit bawal maligo ng sabay-sabay ang mga kalbo sa Jacuzzi? A: Kasi, magmu-mukha silang pinipritong squid ball!!” They would say “NAKAKAINIS!!” even if they are not feeling irritated or annoyed. This is the “NAKAKAINIS” of our youth. We can also say that it is the modern “nakakinis” for the youth. “NAKAKAINIS” is a form of expression that is used by Filipino youth. They use it when they see interesting pictures, videos, mannerisms or stuffed toys.

The word “nakakainis” has a prefix “nakaka-” and a root word “inis.” In Filipino, the prefix or “unlaping” “naka-” is used when the word will be used as a conjugate in the sentence. If the essay or sentence must be written in formal, the conjugate should be written having its prefix “nakaka-” first, and the root word itself. Example: nakakabaliw, nakakamatay, nakakagalit. If it is informal, the prefix “naka-” should be written fist, followed by the first syllable of the word, and the root word itself. Example: nakababaliw nakamamatay, nakagagalit. (Panlapi, Gintong Pamana: Aklat sa Wika 3. 2006)

The word “nakakainis” has two different meanings— the feeling of irritation or annoyance and the reaction of the showing of interest in a thing. “Nakakainis”, in English, means irritating or annoying. According to the definition of annoyance, if the feeling of irritations and annoyance mount up, our feeling outbursts and thus, the feeing of irritation and annoyance will be changed or result in anger or frustration.(Annoyance, Experience Festival. n.d.) It is an uncomfortable feeling that can be the reason of a sudden outburst of anger. Sometimes, if a person is really irritated or annoyed, he could not control his emotions and do something rush that would result to a big problem. People who doesn’t have control in their feelings would shout or hurt the feelings of the person who irritates or annoys them. When we get angry because of irritation and annoyance, we should have presence of mind to prevent unwanted events to happen like fighting.

The expression “nakakainis”, in a high-pitched tone, can mean the reaction after seeing interesting things. For example, a teenager sees you carrying a cute Crayola pillow and her reaction will surely be: “It’s so cute! Where did you buy that? Nakakainis!” or “I would also like to have one! Nakakainis ang pagka-cute nya!” In my high school, my classmates used “nakakainis” as an expression whenever they find cute and interesting things.

Making a person happy of satisfying a person’s need is the same as pleasing them while annoyance or irritation is when somebody or something making you feel uneasy by continuously bothering you. Pleasing a person is not easy as annoying or irritating a person. We can contrast irritation or annoyance to pleasing a person. It takes time and effort to please somebody. Most of the time, people please others because they are scared of rejection. They are scared to be left alone and thus, making themselves always “available” even though they are busy. People-pleasers, those people who please others, feel that people are taking advantage of them because of their low self esteem. People-pleasers always suffer because of low esteem and they can’t say no to people who ask them favors or requests. Ms. Carla Valencia stated in her blog that those people who like to please others are scared of people rejecting them, preventing problems between other people, problem on always degrading themselves because they are not confident enough on their abilities, skills or knowledge.” (Low Self Esteem and Pleasing People, More Self Esteem. n.d.)

Stress can be the result of being irritated and annoyed always. As stated earlier, being irritated or annoyed can lead to emotions such as anger and frustration. We all know that stress has a great effect in our lives. It makes us age prematurely, can lead us to have psychosomatic illness and greatly affect our job. “Stress can be more of a factor in determining your physical age than the number of candles you blow out each year.” (#7 Effects of Stress, About. November 2007) Because of stress, a person can look older than his present age. A good example for this one is the commercial from the StressTabs. In the commercial, Giselle Sanchez, the host of the bar, thought that a looking sick and old girl was already in her 50s so she called her as “lola”. Then the boyfriend of the girl told Giselle Sanchez that she is his girlfriend and she looks like that because she is stressed and tired from work. But the girl, after taking StressTabs, looked like she transformed into a pretty, fine, young-looking girl. This commercial is telling us that being stress always would ruin our beautiful face and will only look older. According to the number five of the effects of stress, it is stated that thinking negative things and being emotionally stressed results in psychosomatic illness. We should be worrying about it because it can be treated like in any other kind of sickness. (#5 Effects of Stress, About. November 2007) People can cure themselves by attending Yoga classes. By doing Yoga, stress will go away and it can refrain us from getting or acquiring psychosomatic illnesses. People should always think positive things to also prevent from being stressed and sick. We, people, need to have energy to work. But, if we are always stressed, we can’t do our job well. People need to rest to have energy.

The Filipino expression “kakagigil” or a intense emotion, urge or feeling that a person gets over with something that he/she thinks is totally wonderful and together describes carefully how a person responds or want to respond (Getting Gigil with It, Culture Fried. March 2010), can be compared to “kakainis”.

“NAKAKAINIS” is a form of expression that is used by Filipino youth. They use it when they see interesting pictures, videos, mannerisms or stuffed toys.” The expressions that we daily use reflects on our attitudes. Most expressions are slang and vulgar words. We should be wary of people because they will base their first impressions on other people by just hearing their expressions. Especially here in the Philippines, most expressions used are curses, slang and other vulgar words. We should be careful in every word we say. Expressions are like any other words we encounter. As we all know, words are dynamic. Thus, the expressions we daily use could also evolve its meaning in years to come.