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

[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.