Part 2

27Apr07

Mainly as a reaction to this, this, semi-agreement to this, and a follow-up to this, my two cents on the petition against EO 210.

As an aside, EO 210 is the executive order deceptively called “Establishing the Policy to Strengthen English as a Second Language in the Educational System.”. Deceptive becaue its provisions look more like strengthening English as a first language.

What a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that the Philippines has been, at least (I think, I’m not exactly a historian here) since the Spanish colonization, a country of two languages. One oral, and one written.

When the Spanish were here, Spanish was the written language, Tagalog (or whatever the dialect was in one particular area) was the oral language.

During the American occupation and well up to now, English is the written language, Filipino (which is really Tagalog with some additions) is the oral language.

You see it everywhere. Most of our books (Especially the popular ones. Twisted, anyone?) are in English. Our magazines. Our print ads. Our billboards. Our major metropolitan newspapers.

Do we even have a national daily broadsheet that’s entirely in Filipino?

If you go to National Bookstore/Goodwill Bookstore/Powerbooks/Fully Booked, why are the major English titles the ones in display?

It doesn’t stop there. Our driver’s licenses are in English. That Executive Order, English. When that petition was filed, English. The Building Code, the Fire Code, and (I assume) all of our other laws, English, English, English.

Nevertheless, we talk to each other in Filipino. Local television is mostly in Filipino. AM radio stations(and the FM stations that don’t cater to the upper crust/wanna-be upper crust) are in Filipino.

We write in English, but we speak in Filipino.

In fact, the only occassions where we do speak in English is a) when we’re talking a foreigner, b) when we are required to by our teachers/parents/boss, or c) when we are interacting with people who insist in communicating in English (even if they themselves can barely speak the language).

Of course, the class factor comes into play here as well. Part of the reason why a lot of our written material are in English is because books, magazines, are expensive. Since they’re expensive, the only people buying them and reading them are the people who can afford them, that is, the ABC. The ABC, who are the children of businessmen, politicians, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals, who studied in private schools, who probably have relatives in the US, prefer their literature in the English language. Why? because with all that exposure to English, their mastery of Filipino as a written language is practically non-existent.

Meanwhile, the DEF, who cannot afford all those expensive publications, who would rather not spend their money on entertainment if they can help it, go spend their idle time watching local TV (which is free), or listening to the radio (also free). Limited exposure to English means that when they do come across literature that they can afford, they’d rather have it in the language that they’re used to. Which is why, aside from the classics and the Filipino novels that the different university presses publish, the only other books in Filipino are local romance novels, komiks, and tabloids — the really really cheap fare.

This doesn’t mean they can’t read and understand English. They can, they just prefer not to, in the same way that the ABC can read and understand Filipino. The American legacy in the Philippines barely assures that.

Come to think of it, given our schizophrenia when it comes to language (and I’m probably contradicting my previous statement here then), maybe the current proposals on English as the primary language of instruction is not that great an idea. What’s their solution?

The petitioners say, by using languages closer to home: that is, first of all, the local language of a child, and then, the national language of the country.

But what is the “local language of a child” these days? Taglish, that bastard spawn of English and Filipino? And do they want to have whatever that local language be used in writing our science & math textbooks as well?

Do we really want our textbooks to follow the language of local romance novels? Murdering two languages at once?

If it’s going to be in Filipino, can we really afford to translate every mathematical and scientific concept? And (I’m not sure, so correct me if I’m wrong here) considering the problems we’ve had with textbook errors over the years, are we even capable of writing them?

In order to make it work, there needs to be an overhaul in the educational system and in teacher training in this country.

On the other hand, if everything is in English, with our poor English speaking skills, everything will be lost in translation.

So again, in order to make it work, there needs to be an overhaul in the educational system and in teacher training in this country.

Either way it’s going to be a problem. It’s going to be a problem because it doesn’t reflect the reality we live in - we don’t live with 100% Filipino all the time, and we don’t live in 100% English all the time. Why then, should we force our educational system to be 100% Filipino or 100% English?

It’s a bad idea to pretend to be either or, since we are neither.

Of course, given this, one solution would be to go all out. That is, pick a language and stick to it - meaning if the government says that Filipino is our official language, everything (or mostly everything) should be in Filipino. Our books. Our magazines. Our newspapers. Our television. Our radio. Our laws.

And maybe, just maybe, things will be different in three to five generations.

Realistically speaking though, the government should enact a policy that actually follows the way our society works. That is, that we write in English, and we speak in Filipino. This means a policy that has our science & math textbooks in English, because a) it’s easier to read scientific and mathematical concepts in English b) we don’t have to rely on faulty textbooks written by the DepEd, but ‘Asian editions’ of science & math textbooks. Meanwhile, our teachers can teach their students in Filipino, or whatever dialect the kids use because that’s how they talk to each other anyway. This way, you reinforce their learning by using the two languages these kids use, in the form they’re comfortable using them in.

Anyway, that’s what I think.

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