I spent the last two weeks of my internship in DZUP camping out in the Technical Director's (TD) booth, assisting in the program, "A-List", a playlist of Asian pop songs of sorts. It's simple - you check the volume levels, you turn the mic on and off, you play songs, you make sure the spiels and the songs don't overlap, and you log the time every song/ plug plays on air.

I must admit that the tasks I've been given so far are steady, except for the couple of times when I had to do a time check in Tagalog. The first part of it goes, "Ang oras ay (numbers in Tagalog) minuto makaraan/ bago ang/mag ika - (numbers in Tagalog) ng hapon/ gabi...". I hear time checks in Tagalog, but the tricky part is in thinking of the numbers in Tagalog while I'm in the middle of the spiel. I would usually deliver it like, "Ang oras ay treinta minutos pagkatapos ng alas-kwatro ng hapon...", but I can't, because the spiel has to be in textbook Tagalog - "tatlumpu't minuto makaraan ang ika - apat ng hapon". It's company policy. The spiel is just not conversational, and, for some reason, I think it's meant to be that way. When I ask for the time, I don't hear people saying, "Ah, ang oras ay labing-limang minuto bago mag ika - pito ng gabi...".

The things is, I have a long way to go in completing my hours in DZUP, which means I have no choice but to romance the spiel and look at it, as my good self and my resume would suggest, as another learning opportunity.

Ang oras ay tatlumpu't dalawang oras bago makumpleto ang DZUP internship at isang daan at limampu't oras bago makumpleto ang internship sa labas.

To those who are still looking for internships outside, hello!