Chit-chat

Cut the chit-chat and get to work.

There's a lot of chit-chat.

The meeting started with some general chit-chat to break the ice.

I came here to talk business, not to chit-chat.

Sami was just making polite chit-chat.

Stop your chit-chat!

The Philippines is like a blend of Hawaii and Mexico. It was unfortunate that English replaced Spanish as an auxiliary archipelagic language after the decisive Spanish-American War of 1898. I sometimes nickname the Philippines as "Blue Hawaii." In any case, Tagalog seems to be strengthening in the islands, as the common person prefers to watch television in Tagalog rather than English. When I lived there in the 1970s, foreign shows were in English, but local shows in Tagalog. In recent time, American shows, Japanese anime, Korean dramas, etc. become dubbed in Tagalog. With the indigenous language, the Philippines is a highly aural-oral culture, emphasizing television, movies, videos, radio, chit-chat, etc. in lieu of much literature.

Quit with the chit-chat and get to work.

On its way to Americanization since the Spanish-American War of 1898, in the 1930s, the Philippines was still somewhat a Hispanic country. Manila was the 9th largest Spanish-speaking city in this world in 1930 with 324 552 inhabitants. The switch to English for at least written communication was set in motion. Adding to the linguistic confusion, in 1937, the Philippine government chose Tagalog, out of about 200 native Austronesian languages, as the basis of the national language, because it was already dominant in many parts of the archipelago. By the late 20th century, Taglish, the patois of code-switching between Tagalog and English, became the de facto oral-aural lingua franca in the islands, despite that Tagalog (alias Filipino) and English were separate studied subjects in school. English was the window to the external world, whilst Taglish became the familiar chit-chat on the streets and in the domestic media. Spanish embedded itself as many natural-sounding loanwords within Tagalog, Taglish, and other native languages. Tagalog had not been fully "intellectualized" as a language, as many great international works had not been translated into it. Tagalog used in non-humanities fields of science remained only experimental. Artificial Intelligence and machine translation might give Tagalog a "kangaroo-hopping" boost.

He speaks rapidly, with clarity and with obvious enthusiasm. No time is wasted on idle chit-chat.