How do you call L.A.?

RIVERSIDE, California – “Welcome to Los Ang-heles City” chirped the flight stewardess on Philippine Airlines Flight 112 as our plane landed at the Los Angeles Airport. A few minutes later, another crewmember piped, “Welcome to the City of Los An-jeles!” Some of my fellow passengers looked at each other. Which is which? For the first-time visitors, there must have been some confusion. Is the name of the city pronounced “Los Ang-heles” as the first stewardess said, or “Los An-jeles”, as the next one stressed?

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We didn’t have the time to argue about it since, despite the appeal of the crew to passengers to please sit still as this was only a temporary stop since we still had to move on nearer the terminal, several had already unbuckled their seat belts, some were about to pull out their stuff from the overhead compartments. It took another call to “please remain seated” before the impatient ones obeyed.

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Well, one couldn’t blame them for being impatient to get off. Our flight had not been the smoothest one I’ve ever taken, truth to tell. About seven hours after take-off it became quite rugged with the aircraft seeming to shudder and buck like a bronco. The unexpected movements naturally made relaxing, much less falling asleep, quite impossible. After about half an hour of this abnormal rocking, the pilot tried to calm us down by explaining that we were encountering a disturbance that could go on for about thirty minutes more. He said they had reduced the speed of the plane but we must not worry because everything was under control and all the four engines were functioning perfectly. What could we do except accept his word and pray? The bucking and rocking took much longer than thirty minutes, but thank God, the flight became calmer after that.

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It was only while making the long, long hike from the tube to the baggage claim curve and to Immigration that I remembered the different pronunciations of the city’s name by the stewardesses. “Los Ang-heles” or “Los An-jeles”? maybe it is similar to the problem posed by former Comelec Commissioner Benjamin Abalos who startled reporters and made some people rush to their dictionaries to confirm  whether it is a “hamburger” or a “hamburjer”.

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Come to think of it, I am inclined to think the “Los Ang-heles” is the proper way to pronounce it. After all it is a Spanish term, which means “The Angels”, and, as such the true pronunciation is “Ang-heles”, not “An-jeles”. Otherwise they should have given it an English name, “The Angels”.

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I also forgot about angels when I had to face the Immigration guy who raised an eyebrow when he saw that my U.S. visa was just about to expire. But he became quite chatty when he saw that my return ticket was set for within a few days only. “When was the last time you came to the U.S.?” he asked. I told him I could not remember whether it was 2006 or 2007. Again he raised that eyebrow. “You just forget a trip to the United States?” Well, I reasoned smugly, this is my seventh visit here, so I get a bit confused. Again he pored over my passport and noted, “2006”. Indeed I had forgotten that I was in the country twice in 2006, in January and in June. Then he stamped on my documents and cheeringly wished me a very enjoyable visit. It was only next day that I checked my passport and saw that I had been authorized to “enjoy my visit” for six months. Should I take advantage of that?*

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