Nandasi dasin!

THE TITLE AND topic of our discussion today approaches that meaning in Tagalog or Pilipino when you say: sobra! or grabe! Or, even the Iluko Patientive: Naplengak! which comes close to the (Philippine) English rendition of: “I was blown away!” A few “shades of meaning” from all of these, and you’re at the portal of the Nabaloi: Nandasi dasin!
DEPENDING ON CONTEXT, Nandasi dasin! may be taken or understood as either: ‘positive’, or ‘negative’.
IF TAKEN (OR given!) as ‘positive’, the Speaker is as if saying: 1)”You’re tops in most, if not all..; so, Congratulations!” or, 2) “Your art, style, modus, etc., are unique.. I’m happy (for you) that you won!” ; or 3) “Your show and overall performance was extraordinary that it outpointed the others. Ergo, you (and your team mates) should be commended!” And so forth.
IF TAKEN (OR given) as ‘negative’, the Speaker is as if saying: 1)”you defy all – or most of our advices; so, you’re really obdurate, if not plain ‘uncounselable’ or eg matod-an!” or 2)”you must ask for some advices – not really to follow.. but to use same as anchors for your deviating courses of action!” or, 3)”you’re never true to your word – you can not afford a little transparency; your ‘only-right-thing-that-matters’ or orttm, points back just to your self-advantage, et cetera. Now, to some examples:
FOR THE ‘POSITIVE’, a teacher praising her Grade VI student who is a star-player in: Softball, Volleyball, and Lawn Tennis. Besides these, he has been a consistent honour pupil since Kindergarden. And she says to him: “Eshaxe-shaxel eh kalaingan mo. Nandasi dasi kha! (Lit. “So many Things you’re good at. Overwhelming (and I congratulate you)!” N.b. the ‘Congratulations(!) appears unverbalized in the EXPR, but content and meaning are embedded just the same as she says: Nandasi dasin kha! (EXPR for Concession and/or Approval – kha or ga, at the sentence ending).
A BUDDING YOUNG artist has recently won the admiration of ‘seasoned’, as well as ‘rising’ artists, with his unique, unprecedented style of producing figures and characters – using mostly wires. His motifs range from ethnic to Contemporary e.g. Cordi designs, animal characters, even the TV figure – the Hulk, that many kids amuse themselves watching.
Says one observer: manmano noman iman.. aiu, nandasi dasin! (Lit. “Rare indeed he is EXPR, winsome he truly is!”). Next example.
BACK IN HIGHSCHOOL, I was witness to the Ball Games, especially Basketball, Volleyball, and Softball participated and competed in by athletes of three CICM schools that time in Benguet: St. Teresitas HS in Kapangan, Sacred Heart HS in Itogon, and Immaculate Concepcion School or ICS, in Bokod. It is this last-mentioned that I attended and graduated from.
THE CAMARADERIE, THE friendship, and fellowship that the athletes and we the ‘Supporting Casts” of theirs respective were usually normal and rewarding.. experience-wise
EXCEPT THAT: AT some rare times, tension and excitement rose as the particular game is almost at end. One such instance, we classmates remember:
OUR ICS ATHLETES, were happy with Basketball and Volleyball.. meaning they win some, they lose some. Those were the usual cases. But Volleyball? No way. They won only sometimes. One day, however, as we watched:
OUR ATHLETES WERE in ‘close-fight’ against those in the other school: each time there was a homerun; they also endeavored to give them a return homerun. This continued until a ‘new’ ICS girl was to bat. Many onlookers were smiling.. perchance because she was a small-statured girl; but
WHEN THE BALL came, bat! she did and the ball flew to the fields nearby – that time being harrowed ready for planting!
THOSE IN THE bases dashed for homerun. Nobody found the ball, it got stuck perhaps somewhere in the muddy field. We, onlookers were mighty.
THRILLED AT THE sight.. some were jumping, some were laughing, some were nodding, etc.; then my peers and I heard:
“NANDASI DASIN SI Josephine! Ootek pay noman ja batter sha! (Lit. “One-in-many is Josephine! [their batter] small she is.. [xxx they won]!” Our examples now for the ‘negative’.
THESE ARE INSTANCES common for application Nandasi dasin! Among others, we can site: 1)an ‘often-losing’ candidate for a certain position; 2)a ‘perennial’ gambler of cards; even 3) a ‘troublemaker’, so-called.
THE CLASSICAL MODEL or pattern they shine-on goes: first, they lose, they suffer, or they’re ‘hurt’; then, next they seek (or they are given) advices; later, they’re warned; etc., repetitions.. same pitfalls; but never learning their lessons permanently. Their friends and those close to them sigh: Ara, nandasi dasin ka! (“EXPR, truly impossible [to reform] you are!”
THIS TYPE OF Nandasi dasin seldom or never gives ‘feedbacks’ to his advisers; nay, not even explain or narrate how the advices given him – or he sought for, worked or ‘failed’. In fact, at t he outset, he attempts at modifications – his own style. He’s got some sense of humour, but he can also be an innovator towards error.. remember: he is Nandasi dasin!
SO NOW, IF someone says to you by chance: Nandasi dasin!, it is best for you to clarify: if his comment is towards ‘the negative’? or, ‘towards the positive’. Used in proper context, it is just a meaningful Expression (EXPR)!