His record shows 10 honors, awards and grants received, membership in seven professional organizations, trainings in 10 courses, and 45 publications and papers written. He teaches American Literature from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. every Tuesday in UE Manila, to our students in AB English, Education (major in English), and International Studies of CAS Manila and of UP.
I first encountered Dr. Burns when he was the guest speaker in the 13th CAS Manila Seminar on Contemporary Issues, speaking on the topic "Learning-Centered Pedagogy," held last January 25 at the Multimedia Presentation Room of the Center for Information Technology (CIT). Right away I noticed his soft-spoken, modulated voice. "He does not like to use the microphone," my seatmate whispered. Dr. Burns' "controversial" paradigm was the subject of our discussion from the CIT building to the CAS faculty room. We found out that many of us are traditionally inclined and resistant to the modern shift.
Now a Filipinized American
Fast-forward to Interview-Dinner Day: As soon as we boarded her van, Dean Flores asked, "Dr. Burns, what portion of you has been Filipinized?" Earlier, with the dinner date set at 5 p.m., he came late—on "Filipino time," as it were. So we laughed at the query, which he took seriously by answering, "Well, my diet. I get to eat more Filipino foods like bangus..." The passengers echoed, "sinigang na bangus, rellenong bangus, paksiw no. bangus, pritong bangus, inihaw na bangus..."
As we drove along Recto Avenue , Nicanor Reyes Street , and Espana Boulevard , we continued quizzing Dr. Burns. At one point, when asked by Chair Buri's to comment on local drivers' penchant for stopping in the middle of the road for loading or unloading, Dr. Burns said, "I have observed that. I really want to drive [while I'm here]. I always drive 'mentally'. I know them [Filipino drivers] up here [pointing to his head] but I don't know them here [pointing to his heart]."
He frequently mentioned his family; they are US-based but Dr. Burns, his wife and their child are in the Philippines every two years. "My wife once bought bangus and deboned it. When my son saw this big fish being readied, he told me, 'Fish are friends and not food,' quoting Finding Nemo. Then, in the presence of my brother and sister-in-law, my son added, 'I'm gonna report you to the police. You'll all go to jail.'" He enjoys family activities like "going to market at Rustan's Katipunan" and bringing his eight-year-old son to the Multiple Intelligence School (MIS) in Katipunan, where they live in nearby Xavierville Subdivision. Just that March morning, he accompanied his son to the tricycle station for his usual ride to school and reminded him about his boon which he usually puts in his back pack.
Has Dr. Burns spread his wings beyond the Philippines ? Before coming here, he had done some traveling in London and Paris, spending four and six days, respectively, in those places "strictly [as a] tourist." He had been to other places in Asia like Hong Kong , India and Nepal . He finds "religion amazing in Katmandu , where Buddhists and Hindus come together and can worship at any place. There is no separation between the sacred and the profane." Asked to comment on our separation of state and religion, which is patterned after the United States , he mumbled, "These are holdovers."
It seemed that he was also specializing in Philippine studies and had learned much of Philippine literature. He asked his students before what story they liked best and discovered that two-thirds of the class picked "How Leon Brought Home a Wife" by Manuel Estabillo Arguilla as their favorite. He was thrilled and talked on the recurring themes of expatriates or repatriates, about literary heroes/heroines coming back home with a personal agenda like making a change. He mentioned in the same breath Juan Laya's "His Native Soil" as an underappreciated piece; Carlos Bulosan's "America Is in the Heart"; having met F. Sionil Jose and even visiting him in his bookshop, Solidaridad, and of having read Jose's book The Pretenders and mentioning its hero, Tony Samson; and finding the writings of Jessica Hagedorn, of The Dogeaters fame, difficult to follow. Upon learning that Prof. Roily Madeja is from Bohol , Dr. Burns responded, "That's NVM Gonzales' home province." He was quite inquisitive when I mentioned literature as part of my Humanities 101, probing what I teach and suggesting to include Taglish and jologs poetry, which are quite popular and appreciated by UP students. I am currently reading his paper, "Intellectual Portrait Gallery," a review essay about Augusto Fauni Espiritu's book Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American Intellectuals (2005).
With his two-year immersion and once-a-week teaching schedule, he observed that the uniforms stand out here, i.e., very much a part of the Philippine college/university culture, unlike in American academic institutions.
He also remembers a speaking engagement in Cebu , where "I was confronted by high school students... and was later told that those were not high school students but university students." He also discovered "a number of teachers are still doing their graduate studies while teaching and compared this with the bigger market of MA and Ph.D. graduates in the United States .
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About his formative years in New Hampshire in the 1960s, Dr. Burns pointed out the difference in resources: "In 1992, ours was still a marginal institution with cubicle parking spaces. After two years, we had our individual offices doubling up in size. Resources were not absolute. There were also some difficulties there." In terms of scholarship, he finds our students in "quite a wide range of ability." For instance, in the mid-semester assessment, his feedbacks range from transformative, such as "I am transformed," "I am changed," to "I'm just afraid," "intimidated," "I have difficulty in group activities or group work," "It's hard." When I talk to some of his students, most of them raved about Dr. Burns' being "a great teacher," of his "amazing teaching strategies" which most Education students hope to emulate; his free handouts; his bringing of visual aids to class, like green apples and flowers; his "hands on" checking of papers; and his "different and unique" method of teaching, such as role playing mixed with music videos and games.
Marrying a Filipina
Pilo Garden has a subtle Philippine ambience with Spanish and American influences. We actually enjoyed deciding from a number of dishes on the long buffet table—pancit canton, beef stew, mixed veggies, tahong, fried chicken, battered shrimp, etc. We were offered inihaw na pla-pla and squid, which Dr. Burns and the guys went on to pick. We had halo-halo for dessert.
While having San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen, Dr. Burns told us how he met his wife, Ruth. "In the Fulbright Office through a good friend, Alex Calata, who called on me twice to check this new Program Assistant, which I really had to meet," he relates. "I went to the office twice to see, but she seemed to be clueless about me. Evidently, my friend didn't say anything to her about me. I persisted, :Filipino style, and learned some indirect techniques in courtship, slow-moving. Until, she was annoyed and I almost had given up. One day, Ruth was alone in the office, we just started talking. When I left..."
"You were happy," interjected 'Dean Flores.
"Yes, I was happy. Then I called her, and we talked and talked. Since then, our conversations never stopped."
Dr. Burns and Ruth were married twice, first in 1994. He remembers the contract for their first wedding: "Civil Marriage Metropolitan District Trial Court 31." Their church wedding came next in January the following year. "We had limited guests, fewer than a hundred. The family was nervous because I didn't get to meet the parents during the courtship. She has this aunt who kept on asking me about 'your previous wife', 'your children' and 'when were you first married?' Now, of course, they are more at ease with me," finding out that he was, theretofore, a solid matandang binata. Ruth was 26 and he was 45 when they met. He felt that he went through a pamanhikan when he met the girl's parents at the LA airport, and having the back-breaking experience of carrying his father-in-law's and cousin-in-law's stuff, balancing the baggage in his two hands and arching his back. It was like the paninilbihan stage in a traditional courtship as presented in local literature, where suitors go through the "pagsisibak at pag- iigib."
Dr. Burns was delighted when, after some mental computation, I guessed his age as "around 53." He smiled approvingly, commenting as well that usually Filipinos look to Americans as older while the Americans look to Filipinos as younger. It was four years into his and Ruth's marriage when their son Sebastian was born.
Dr. Burns' birthday is February 25th. He was touched to have received a beautiful birthday card last February from his mother-in-law, who is of the Arjona clan of Surrallah, South Cotabato.
He had been in the Philippines in the 1970s as part of his military duty. The second time was in 1989. Since then, he has been returning to the country every two years with his wife and son. Their latest arrival was last September 2005 and their stay will end this June. His father is living in Chicago; his mother died one and a half years ago. He has four other siblings, and all five of them were born within the baby boom years.
I asked how we could make a difference in research and he shared .j the "Public Scholarship" program they had done back home, where academic institutions partner with business and the community, supporting and collaborating with each other. Citizens then become scholars, requiring high- quality information from scholars in academe, through publications as well as student participation. In parting that evening, Dr. Burns told Dean Flores, "I am deeply honored by your invitation." The Dean gushed about how kind he is and called for another get-together for Dr. Gerald Thomas Burns with his family soon.
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