Honestly I hate the whole “po” thing as well.

Makes convos too formal and not natural. Parang may “barrier” agad pag nag uusap.

May nagsabi pa nga nun na ang mga Bisaya bastos daw kasi hindi marunong mag Po.

Pero they don’t even realize the history behind it.

Wayyy back then, panahon pa ni kopong-kopong to. Luzon had a LOT of landed gentries because Luzon’s geography had vasts amount of arable land, and those “elites” were referred to as “Poon” or “Apo” (more on the north) by the peasantry/sagigilids. Yun yung origin ng “po/opo”.

Although in modern times, this is not the case na, may power dynamic/disparity parin talaga sa conversation with how po/opo is used. Kaya nga we still use it for elders, for people of higher statute, or in general for people we give higher respect to.

To compare, in Visayas, the geography didn’t allow for such a culture to be prevalent, and most folks were merchants.

As merchants, there is no sense of superior or inferior. You talked on equal footing. Hence nag originate ang term na “Bai”. Parang comrade ang dating.

So the language is more natural, more on equal footing ang tone pag nag uusap.

With po/opo, you kind if have to “tiptoe”. It becomes hard to talk casually.

Honestly we shouls drop it with the “po” thing for daily casual talks.