Filipino not a ‘language of the learned,’ says columnist

[shadow]

sensitive lang talaga Pinoy... my take is children should learn English more, ang tagalog naman matututunan nila yan while they're growing up.

[vinj]

sensitive lang talaga Pinoy... my take is children should learn English more, ang tagalog naman matututunan nila yan while they're growing up.

Exactly!

I get comments (i na joking manner of course) from officemates that my kids are "nosebleed" to speak with but heck, they enjoy wtaching nick, disney channel and cooking shows over Willie Menyek and those other noontime bits.

[badsekktor]

I could compare this issue with programming languages.... It is all about what is being used by the majority..... Majority of the human population uses English or is familiar with English so it is more practical to use the said language....

[oliver1013]

Bad trip lang ako sa tagalog/filipino pag tinututor ko mga anak ko sa Sibika. Nakakaintindi sila tagalog pero yung usapan bahay lang, mas komportable sila sa ingles telebisyon style.

Pano mo ipapaliwanag ang hilagang kanlurang latitude at longhitud, tropiko ng kanser, timog silangan ng ekwador ek ek amp...Tapos may balita pa dati gusto daw pati math tagalog..naknang

[niky]

Exactly!

I get comments (i na joking manner of course) from officemates that my kids are "nosebleed" to speak with but heck, they enjoy wtaching nick, disney channel and cooking shows over Willie Menyek and those other noontime bits.

I hate the "nosebleed" comments. How self-defeating. Ibig mong sabihin... sobrang hirap mag-aral ng Ingles? Pwe. Galing ako sa US, at kahit mahirap, pinilit kong mag-aral ng Tagalog. My classmates who made fun of my English accent in school are now working... where? Siyempre, sa US.

[vinj]

My classmates who made fun of my English accent in school are now working... where? Siyempre, sa US.

Or at a Call Center?

I agree, whats with this elitist view on speaking English that has been imbibed with a lot people nowadays? Pero pag nalasing naman sila, pa-ingles ingles din naman. :D

I had to learn Tagalog in school as well. My teacher even suggested i watch some good Tagalog movies to help improve on also. Paado naman (but don't expect me to understand the deep words).

When i'm in Cebu, my friend was saying that their language hierarchy is Cebuano - English - Tagalog so it would even be easier to communicate in English over Tagalog if you're not adept in Cebuano/Bisaya.

[andywesteast]

Janina San Miguel, Bb, Pilipinas Q & A Blooper

In the Philippines, speaking good English is a Reliable indicator of Quality educational attainment.

Janina San Miguel is a daughter of a Jeepney Driver and was schooled in one of those "Diploma Mills".

This Video speaks a Thousand Words.

She won but eventually gave up her Bb. crown because of pressure.

[vinj]

Here's a good one:



From beerkada.net by Lyndon Gregorio

[shadow]

meron nanaman miss universe, sana kumuha na lang ng translator this time para naman hinde olats sa Q&A

[robot.sonic]

pag ako magka anak na, tuturuan ko ng english. kahit di maging magaling sa tagalog ok lang.

nagiging flat na ang mundo e. di na gaanong useful ang tagalog. opinion ko lang.

[dodongo]

Actually, There was that big ruckus over the NCEE, wherein other regions were complaining very loudly about moves to make the NCEE all-Filipino. The ruckus was loudest in Cebu, if I recall.

I mean... who are we kidding. "Filipino" is Tagalog. Period. Written down or spoken, it bears little (if any) resemblance to other major dialects.

Would it be easier for students if they learned in their native dialect? Yes. Would it help bind our nation together and ensure a large pool of highly trained professionals and technical people are available for any region or area that may need them? Maybe not.

The reason some of us can't get all patriotic about "Filipino" is because we're mixed heritage. My grandparents speak Panggalatok. My wife's grandparents speak Ilocano. Many of my teachers in Grade School were Cebuano. None of them sound anything like "Filipino" or look anything like it when written down.

But English? Unless you have a cockney accent thicker than Yorkshire pudding or a mile-a-minute New Yawk tongue, everyone can understand everyone else's English.

Other countries are not afraid of English. We have many hang-ups over it because of the preconception of it being a "colonial language". Well, English doesn't belong to the British or the Americans. The world owns English, and if we want to be part of the Global Village, the price of entry is learning the language spoken there.

Well, If I remember correctly those children who were taught in their native tongue (I believe they were from the Benguet area) were better in English than their counterparts in Metro Manila.

English alone isn't enough, for a long time we've been one of the top English speaking countries right? Yet what have we achieved from it? OFWs and Call Centers?

I'm not saying English isn't necessary for success, but I think English as the 'language of learning' as it is right now, isn't the best for the marginalized, especially when the teachers themselves aren't proficient in English. Also, I believe "mother tongue education" would only be necessary in the early years of a studying anyway, so English in school wouldn't be really limited if such a measure were implented.

[niky]

Well, If I remember correctly those children who were taught in their native tongue (I believe they were from the Benguet area) were better in English than their counterparts in Metro Manila.

English alone isn't enough, for a long time we've been one of the top English speaking countries right? Yet what have we achieved from it? OFWs and Call Centers?

I'm not saying English isn't necessary for success, but I think English as the 'language of learning' as it is right now, isn't the best for the marginalized, especially when the teachers themselves aren't proficient in English. Also, I believe "mother tongue education" would only be necessary in the early years of a studying anyway, so English in school wouldn't be really limited if such a measure were implented.

The question: Why aren't we progressing despite having English knowledge? The answers: Many.

1. Our government has no consistent thrust in regards to language. With every change of administration or change of the winds, we change our policy on the language of instruction just like that. With one DECS (now DepEd and CHED) administration, it's English... the next, they're proposing altering things and doing instruction in Tagalog. The next, they want it all in Tagalog. The next, they want all provinces taught in Tagalog. The next, they change it so that Tagalog is limited again to Civics and Social Studies. Then they change their minds again when some ultra-nationalist decides that we need to be more patriotic.

2. Education in general is suffering due to lack of quality and lack of teachers. This can be traced to lack of funding, lack of support and corruption in the government. We spend billions on education only to see teachers teaching under the mango tree and DepEd and CHED administrators holding office in crowded corridors surrounded by filing cabinets because there's no space in the buildings they're squatting in. The money has instead gone to lucrative book deals with big kickbacks or construction deals on substandard classrooms with even bigger kickbacks...

3. I think we can be proud of the quality of OFWs and Call Centers. That means we are producing good technical and semi-technical graduates and workers. The big problem is that outside of these areas, we don't have enough jobs in the right areas, and we have a huge mismatch of workers to jobs available. That's also down to poor vocational counselling and choice of courses. I mean... seriously... how many of our nursing graduates actually want to be nurses?

-

If the distance learning thrust hadn't been marred by the insanely overpriced and overpoliticized ZTE Broadband scandal/thing/deal/whatever, then we could have had distance education with standardized, high quality instruction and a good language teaching foundation, then within the next twenty years, we would see positive results from that.

As it is, politics and greed have destroyed those hopes. But hopefully it's progress delayed instead of progress denied. Seems like it's the former... as distance learning (via TV, at least) is available in a number of public schools already.

[uls]

I believe "mother tongue education" would only be necessary in the early years of a studying anyway, so English in school wouldn't be really limited if such a measure were implented.

ya sure... if your native language is rich enough and deep enough and sophisticated enough and developed enough and evolved enough to put into native words all the ideas and concepts and knowledge and information that's out there

otherwise, you'll be adopting lots of foreign words and integrating those foreign words into your native language

sounds familiar?

[niky]

Sounds like English! :hysterical:

Actually, truthfully, English really isn't any more flexible than other languages in terms of accepting and incorporating foreign terms. Tagalog itself uses many Indian, Chinese and Spanish terms (though revisionism over the decades has tried to purify it).

English is touted to have the advantage of simpler rules and construction... but there are so many "exceptions" to the rules of English that it's a big headache for some. I guess you could give it the advantage of not being reliant on accents like other languages, where a change in accent or inflection changes the word completely... but that alone would not be enough. French or Spanish are easy enough to learn if you have the patience.

No, the really big advantage of English is ubiquity. It was the language of the first globally distributed television shows and movies... which helped ensure its spread across the world compared to other major languages of the time. And thanks to the preservation of older English TV shows, movies and broadcasts, English language in its current form should remain relatively stable for decades or even centuries to come.

[uls]

Sounds like English! :hysterical:

hehe

nood ka tv patrol. you'll notice they use lots of english words

they can't report the news in pure tagalog

[marg]

In the realm of Science and Math, Filipino language is next to USELESS.

[ghosthunter]

Sounds like English! :hysterical:

Actually, truthfully, English really isn't any more flexible than other languages in terms of accepting and incorporating foreign terms. Tagalog itself uses many Indian, Chinese and Spanish terms (though revisionism over the decades has tried to purify it).

English is touted to have the advantage of simpler rules and construction... but there are so many "exceptions" to the rules of English that it's a big headache for some. I guess you could give it the advantage of not being reliant on accents like other languages, where a change in accent or inflection changes the word completely... but that alone would not be enough. French or Spanish are easy enough to learn if you have the patience.

No, the really big advantage of English is ubiquity. It was the language of the first globally distributed television shows and movies... which helped ensure its spread across the world compared to other major languages of the time. And thanks to the preservation of older English TV shows, movies and broadcasts, English language in its current form should remain relatively stable for decades or even centuries to come.

Er... talking for someone who has tried to learn French, the french language has it's own complex and confusing rules on accent and inflections and even in grammar & usage.

[ghosthunter]

In the realm of Science and Math, Filipino language is next to USELESS.

totally agree!

[uls]

In the realm of Science and Math, Filipino language is next to USELESS.

kaya nga daw sabi ng nagsulat ng article Filipino is only useful when you need to talk to the maid, the driver, etc

[niky]

Er... talking for someone who has tried to learn French, the french language has it's own complex and confusing rules on accent and inflections and even in grammar & usage.

That's why I mentioned the accent thing being one of English's advantages. Oh, French's conjugations and bewildering change in verb forms depending on the addressee are a real pain in the butt, but it's not too difficult to learn if you stick to it and have someone to talk to.

That last part (someone to talk to) is why I hardly remember any French at all.

Russian isn't as dependent on inflection, but learning the alphabet is a killer.