A DEBATE ON THE PHILIPPINE LANGUAGE PROBLEM (1)

A DEBATE ON THE PHILIPPINE LANGUAGE PROBLEM – (1)

(NOTE: This exchange of ideas was carried out in the undersigned’s Facebook account. We transfer it here in the undersigned’s blogspot per the suggestion of Pepe Alas.)


Photo courtesy of SpanishTranslation.US.

My Facebook status last 2 January 2011:

Us Visayans should go for Tagalog over English. Tagalog is closer to Visayan than English which pronunciation is a problem for phonetic speaking people like Visayan Filipinos. English is the barrier that impedes the proper education of our children in the Elementary grades. Children should be taught first in their native Visayan language with Tagalog as a subject. English should be optional.
02 de Enero a las 10:18 AM ·Ya no me gusta Me gusta · Comentar
A ti, Erwin José Abcede, John Canda, José Miguel García y a otras 2 personas les gusta esto..

Pepe Alas Hello Señor! I suggest that you write about this further in FILHISPÁNICO. Please justify why Tagalog should be considered as a National and/or Official Language of the Philippines because some of your Facebook friends have totally misunderstood you. They are cowardly talking sh*t behind your back, calling you names without even THINKING as to WHY you, an Ilongo, are rooting for Tagalog. ¡Hasta pronto! =)
02 de Enero a las 11:40 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Jules Mariano I realized that when I was studying Spanish. We can't be good in other languages unless we are good with our own.
02 de Enero a las 12:49 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta · 1 persona

Pepe Alas Quite natural. You have to master your own language first before studying another.
02 de Enero a las 01:17 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Emilio Soria Yo, como extranjero, no tengo un interés personal en que una determinada lengua filipina sea la lengua nacional, pero el sentido común me indica que lo lógico es que el tagalo sirva esa función, dado que es la lengua mayoritaria en las islas y por tanto puede servir como vehículo de comunicación entre todos los filipinos. Ninguna otra lengua filipina en estos días puede aspirar a ese puesto de lengua nacional. El boicotear el tagalo por celos regionales me parece un gran error. Al fin y al cabo el tagalo es una lengua muy próxima en su gramática, fonética y vocabulario a las otras lenguas filipinas. Combatir el tagalo como lengua nacional solo sirve para aumentar la dependencia poscolonial con los Estados Unidos. Si la lingua franca no es el tagalo, lo será el inglés. De hecho hoy día el tagalo está terriblemente contaminado con el inglés hasta haberse convertido en una fea mezcolanza, el taglish, que no es ni tagalo ni inglés

En la actualidad el 90 % de la población de Filipinas entiende o habla tagalog como conscuencia de una educación bilingüe, películas, historietas gráficas y medios de comunicación.

El crecimiento del tagalog ha sido espectacular en el siglo XX, pues ha pasado de ser la lengua de la cuarta parte de la población en 1940 a la de la inmensa mayoría actualmente, bien como primera o segunda lengua.

Los filipinos cuya lengua materna no es el tagalo han de resignarse a ese hecho irreversible y procurar no hacerle el caldo gordo a sus antiguos amos coloniales.
02 de Enero a las 01:30 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta · 1 persona A Cesar Augusto Celedon B. le gusta esto

Guillermo Gómez Rivera Aside from being an Ilongo I am a Filipino that celebrates the establishment of the Primera República de Filipinas in 1896-98 which official languages were Spanish and Tagalog. It is normative that the language of the Capital City of a country ultimately becomes the national language. England has other languages like Welsh and Scottish but because English is the language of London, the Capital city of UK, it ultimately became the language. Spain has other languages like Catalan, Basque, Bable, Portuguese-Galician etc., but because the langue of Madrid, the Capital City, is Castillian, Castillian, now Spanish, is the national language of the Kingdom of Spain. China has over 2,000 languages but since Mandarin is the languae of Beijing or Pekin, its capital city, Mandarin is now the national language of China. That is the destiny of Tagalog whether we like it or not. That is why as Filipinos, we should put Tagalog over English, a colonial foreign language imposed upon us by US WASPo neocolonialism which makes all of us pay the highest electricity rates in Asia that is sending Filipinos to the poor house.
03 de Enero a las 01:50 PM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 3 personas

Guillermo Gómez Rivera Many of our English-ispokening countrymen think that to be for Tagalog is to be against English. This is so for them becasue they have been somehow taught that in order to be for English it must also mean that you must dislike Tagalog. This is, sad to say, being narrow-mided without knowing that it is, indeed, narro-mindedness. Tagalog is a native language inteligeble one way or the other to all other native language speakers. English is not becasue it is a foreign colonial imposition to enslave Filipinos to the whims of the US WASP international market. An analysius of Filipino poverty will inevitably show that Filipinos are poor because they have been purposely subdeveloped with the imposition of a foreign language in their childhood and they were never able to round their thought in their own languae nor in the forced English language. This is genocide.
03 de Enero a las 02:22 PM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 2 personas

Emilio Soria English as the medium of instruction in Philippines does not improve the quality of education. It actually have a damaging effect.

Student achievement is positively related to the use of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction.

Philippines is getting poorer and poorer. English is preventing the Philippines from keeping pace with many of its East Asian neighbours who do not use English as the medium of instruction in reducing poverty.
Martes a las 12:54 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay My sincere apologies, Sr. D. Gómez, but I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of English as a language of instruction. Why should we limit ourselves to learning one language or another? Most Filipinos are already multi-lingual so calling for abolition of English is just detrimental.

Neither should we treat Tagalog and Illonggo (or any of our 175 languages) as interchangeable. All should be respected as national languages and hold vernacular sway over specific areas. That should be enough to sway patriotism and community pride.

In practice, this means treating any non-local language as a foreign language. For example, if you are Cebuano, then Tagalog and Illongo are just as foreign as French or Swahili. They will be learned as optional foreign languages IF THE STUDENT SO CHOOSES.

As for having an OFFICIAL language, we must consider the needs of global communication and ignore any impulses towards pride or nationalism. If we wish to speak to the world, we must learn their tongue, not be arrogant to demand that they learn ours.

This would mean making English, Spanish, and Mandarin, the official language in all government documents as well as being primary use for instruction. Having a non-native language as the official language will quell the current feelings of animosity and envy our people have for not having their mother tongue chosen as the lingua franca. Sad truth, but Filipinos can live with "I may not have it, but at least my neighbor doesn't either."

Every student should be fluent in these three official languages plus the area-specific vernacular. Any other language to be learned should be elective. This may appear difficult, but then only the weak and unimaginative will fail to rise to the challenge. Either way you look at it, they don't deserve our attention, resources, or effort.

As proof, my family speaks Bicolano, Kapampangan, Illonggo, Cebuano, Pangalatok from the places they were born in, even if most of us now live in Manila which is Tagalog territory. We've learned French, Spanish. German, Russian, Serb, Afrikaan, English, and Latin from our travels abroad and marriages. What is the only common language of communication we all have? English. And to some extent Spanish and Latin.

Do not limit yourself or take away this opportunity from other people. Filipinos need to learn more languages, not less. And they will only do so if they see the need for it. That is our task. Not to dictate what they should or should not have. Thanks.
Martes a las 09:01 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Pepe Alas Francis, you misunderstood Señor Gómez. He is not for the abolition of the English language. He is only against its use as a neocolonial weapon against the Filipinos. As a matter of fact, Señor Gómez's stand is to make the English language only an optional subject in schools instead of teaching it compulsorily. We've already discussed this matter numerous times. The English language is crucial nowadays. But to FORCE it among the Filipino studentry is another matter. More on this in a future blogpost.
Martes a las 09:42 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay How on Earth is a language used "as a neocolonial weapon against the Filipinos" ? Languages are nothing more than thoughts expressed vocally... and last I checked I neither pay taxes nor swear alliegiances to any extra-national power so I am suspicious about claims of 'neo-colonialism' as this seems to be a scapegoat and excuse for home-grown failings.
Martes a las 09:56 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay How is English to "be made optional." anyway? That sounds just as cumpulsory as imposing it or Spanish or Illonggo.

If you mean, by relaxing existing regulations requiring English to be mandatory, then I whole-heartedly agree. Such decisions should be made by parents and students and schools. Government and lobbies should just butt out.
Martes a las 10:07 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Pepe Alas How on Earth is a language used "as a neocolonial weapon against the Filipinos"? Languages are nothing more than thoughts expressed vocally...

That's exactly what I thought when I was 17 years old. It will require a whole article for me to e...xplain this to you, Francis. So stay tuned. I'll let you know once I'm done. =)
Miércoles a las 08:44 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera There must be a law from Congress making English Optional while requiring that Ilongo or Hiligaynon be the medium of instruction in all our elementary schools in Western Visayas. Add Tagalog as a Subject becasue they will need it when they come to Manila. Those who want to perfect English, let them do so on their option.
Miércoles a las 09:42 AM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 1 persona

Pepe Alas ‎"Those who want to perfect English, let them do so on their option."

Exactly. This is for the simple reason that more than half of our population is not interested in English at all. Because if they are, then the Philippines would have been... an English-speaking nation. And on the contrary, the Philippines is NOT an English-speaking nation. You know what we are? Regrettably, we're a Taglish-speaking nation.
Miércoles a las 09:49 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay Any government powerful enough to give you what you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have. This is why I do not trust statements like "there must be a law."

If there is a demand for the teaching of certain languages, then why isn't it more prevalent? Surely, private schools would never turn down an opportunity to provide such profitable services?

For example, Xavier School in Manila is a very expensive exclusive school and they teach Chinese, not because of any law from Congress, but because they see that parents are willing to pay through the nose to get it. Improvements are swift because of competition.

Don't tell me that no one has the time, dedication, or desire to produce textbooks in those languages, without a government directive or a handout? And yet, when I go to Bacolod, the only systematic study of Hiligainon there is in the public library, printed in the 1930's by the US Army.

I want these textbooks and I want this education available, but is anyone willing to help me? Donate money? Time? Effort?

I propose we form a private association to produce and market a systematic 13-year textbook curricula for the language. Any serious takers?
Miércoles a las 10:06 AM · Ya no me gustaMe gusta · 1 persona

Adelbert Batica Fijense - los chinos, japoneses, coreanos - hacen la inginieria, la cuenta (accounting), y las artes y las ciencias en sus propios lenguajes, y ellos han avanzado a pesar de "no english". Aun los malayos y indonesios, y otros vecinos en As...ia - hacen las tareas en sus propios lenguajes. Pero nosotros - ya nos emborrachamos en da inglis, y...segun ese video mandado por mi 'panyero Kenneth - somos un "basket case" - economicamente, politicamente, culturalmente. Que paso?! Wassapaning?! Como dice un amigo kastila: "ingles, ingles, demasiado ingles!" No llores por mi...
Miércoles a las 12:20 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Pepe Alas Este tema sobre da inglish me hace muy enojado, ¡jajaja!
Miércoles a las 05:17 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera Dear Francis: I am not proposing the aboition of English. I just request that it be made optional in our curriculum like Spanish is now being offered.
Miércoles a las 05:36 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay Don't worry. I'm not misunderstanding you. I just don't want all this effort to wind up depending on the condescending patronage of some politician who like others before him care little what ordinary people think.

Anyway, would you like to ...assist in writing those textbooks? It is a difficult undertaking requiring donors and writers.
Miércoles a las 05:40 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera NO. We dont need to make Spanish and Mandarin official languages here. It is English that should be removed as a COMPULSORY medium and language for all Filipino children. Not all Filipino children have the necessary IQ to master English. Any educator knows this. It is a waste of time and mney to impose English upon Filipino children in the primary grades who can not even fully speak their mother tongue. So, everybody should be first educated in their respective native languages with Tagalog as a subject. Later on, in 3rd and 4th High School, English can be introduced as an optional subject. Even in college it should be an optional subject. In courses where English can be used as a medium of instruction at the option of the students. then have it there. but not force English upon everybody even if they do not fully understand it. I hope you understand what we mean. Regards.
Miércoles a las 05:42 PM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 2 personas

Guillermo Gómez Rivera Francis: What textbook is that. I need to see it first. Thanks.
Miércoles a las 06:03 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay ‎"Not all Filipino children have the necessary IQ to master English."

Isn't that a rather pessimistic outlook Sr. D. Gómez? You might as well say that not all Filipino children have the necessary IQ to master walking and chewing gum at the same time!

It is true, that not everyone has the same level of talent, but as someone who has carefully studied the education METHODOLOGIES used by the DepEd, it is not surprising that people fail to learn English.

This has NOTHING to do with English as a second language or anything inherent in the language itself. The problem occurs how it is taught.

From a linguistic perspective, learning English as a second language is no different from learning Spanish, French, Dutch or German as a second language. Filipino children, no matter what economic status, are naturally multi-lingual. But it must be taught properly with grounding in phonemics and orthography.

ALREADY KNOWING A LANGUAGE IS NO DETRIMENT TO LEARNING ANOTHER.

The heart of the problem is that the DepEd requires its teachers (through certification) to teach English as if it were Chinese, requiring children to memorize words in conjunction with pictures of the objects and concepts. This style of learning (which disregards the ALPHABETIC PRINCIPLE) is known as "whole word method" and leaves the student with just enough knowledge to be a productive member of society, but not enough to consider higher thoughts that may disturb the status quo. (Read up on "whole word")

For the more conspiracy minded, you could say that this is exactly what the planners wanted when they designed this system FOR USE ON THE AMERICAN POPULACE. This system is not American in origin, but Prussian and even today most of Northern Europe use it, so even if the Americans did not land here, I believe we would have still have had to deal with this since Franco's government used it almost exclusively. (Read up on Gatto and Kellmeyer and Prussian education.)

Unless this TEACHING METHODOLOGY is corrected, then a majority of Filipino students WOULD FAIL TO LEARN SPANISH just as they now fail to learn English.

You may not know this, but most of my generation have FAILED TO LEARN TAGALOG even coming from the best schools in Manila. Sure, we speak enough to get by and learned enough to get passing marks in the exams, but then again, most Filipinos who fail to learn English pass the examinations. Why would there be failure to learn Tagalog when taught in Tagalog by native speakers, in Tagalog territory?

Respectfully, this is why I believe that your assumptions about the English language and the capicity of Filipino students to learn are flawed.
Miércoles a las 06:22 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Ronald Ryan Lara Question: Is there any existing daily newspaper with a wide circulation in the Philippines that is written in Tagalog/Filipino or other Philippine dialects? None! It is because English is almost our mother tongue. If we are still underdeveloped, it is not because of our insistence on English, but despite our extensive usage of English for the past 100 years.
Miércoles a las 06:59 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay Sr. D. Gómez: I was saying that we should write a 13-year set of Hiligainon textbooks.

Mr. Lara: I believe that there are daily newspapers in Tagalog. However, the language has stalled in other areas, such as literature, technical terms, etc.... This is because our alphabet has been crippled. both Sr. D. Gómez and I share this belief. He blames the Americans and their education system, I blame Lope C. Santos and the Filipino nationalists.
Miércoles a las 07:13 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Ronald Ryan Lara Francis, the only "newspapers" in Tagalog having the widest circulation in our country are Abante, Tiktik and Remate! As you know, they often use vulgar, if not obscene, words in their headlines. They write in Filipino, and more often than not commit so much grammatical mistakes. Has anyone seen a Philippine Daily Inquirer equivalent in Tagalog? No one!
Miércoles a las 07:48 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay All you said was daily newspaper with a wide circulation, not that it had to have any literary aspirations.

And why be surprised? When Lope C. Santos destroyed Tagalog, the language of the principalia, of Rizal and Balthazar, has degenerate...d into the speech of the vulgar, obscene, and uneducated folk. So of course, the popular periodicals would reflect this.

Don't blame the languages, fix how the language is taught and transmitted!
Miércoles a las 08:04 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Ronald Ryan Lara Francis, this blame game will lead us to nowhere. Let's not be hypocritical by saying that we prefer Tagalog to English. Rizal was also being a hypocrite when he said that "ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa malansang isda," when he knew that if he wrote in Tagalog instead of Spanish, no one would read him!

My point is that the domination of English in the Philippines' newspapers is a reflection of how deep has English penetrated our national psyche. We think in English, we debate in English; indeed, English is already a part of our being Filipinos. And our good command of English is the reason why we have many OCWs working abroad, who keep our economy afloat. Thank God, the public schools in the Philippines where I studied taught me English since kindergarten!

As for Spanish, we can no longer re-institute it, simply because there are not much Spanish teachers available in the Philippines to teach it.
Miércoles a las 08:35 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Rafael Martinez Minuesa The report released by the Monroe Commission in 1925 said that most of the problems identified by the commission were attributed to the attempt to impose an English-based education system.

Although Filipino children were ahead of their American counterparts in subjects like mathematics, they lagged far behind in English-language related topics. George Counts, a Yale professor and a member of the Commission wrote: “Half of the children were outside the reach of schools. Pupil performance was generally low in subjects that relied on English, although the achievement in Math and Science was at par with the average performance of American school children...”

Another of the conclusions of the commission was that: “Upon leaving school, more than 99% of Filipinos will not speak English in their homes. Possibly, only 10% to 15% of the next generation will be able to use this language in their occupations. In fact, it will only be the government employees, and the professionals, who might make use of English.”Ver más
Miércoles a las 08:37 PM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 1 persona

Ronald Ryan Lara Rafael, the conclusion released by this Commission was WRONG, then! The study/report made in 1925 obviously did not predict accurately the consequences of English-based education system, probably because it was done too early. These Filipino children in the 1925 report were first generation learners of English; hence, the difficulty. But as English rapidly became the language of commerce and government, the succeeding generations did better than their elders in terms of English-based education.
Miércoles a las 08:53 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Francis Bonganay What Rizal said was true, but even he doesn't have any authority to tell anyone what their own language should be. Neither does anyone else.

Spanish or any other language can be taught in schools, but first there must be a demand for it. You can have a million teachers for a language, but if nobody wants to learn, it will not work.

I think the best way is to go through home-based education. This way we don't have to deal with the politicians, but directly to the parents. If the curricula is excellent, then it will stand on its own merits.
Miércoles a las 09:06 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Rafael Martinez Minuesa Ronald,
More than a 100 years have passed by, and still there aren't any writers that can be even remotely compared to those of the Spanish era.
Miércoles a las 10:12 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Ronald Ryan Lara You're right, Rafael. No Filipino writer in English - since the introduction of English in our country since 1898 - has eclipsed nor equalled the writings of Rizal and the other ilustrados during the Spanish era. Our Philippine literature in Spanish is more voluminous compared to the English one. But then, as a medium of communication in a country of 7,000 islands, English proved to be superior to Spanish, since English was easily absorbed by nearly all Filipinos (thanks to USA's legacy of public school system), compared to Spanish, which was spoken only by a few, and which evaporated into thin air.
Miércoles a las 10:29 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Rafael Martinez Minuesa That's also a fallacy. All of it. One by one.
First, Philippine literature.in English is more voluminous compared to the Spanish one, but the quality of the Spanish one light years away.

Second, it wasn't only Rizal and the other ilustrados. There were 2 Universities in the Philippine Islands before the US even had one (Harvard), and Tomas PinPin was writing and printing Filipino books written in Spanish and Tagalog more than 150 years before the formation of the United States of America.

Third, English has proved to be inferior to Spanish, since English was (still is) unpalatable to nearly all Filipinos. This is so in all countries where English has been imposed, such as Puerto Rico.

Fourth, Free access to modern public education by all Filipinos was made possible through the enactment of the Education Decree of December 20, 1863. Primary instruction was made free and the teaching of Spanish was compulsory. This was ten years before Japan had a compulsory form of free modern public education and forty years before the American government started a so-called free modern public school system in the Philippines. Contrary to what the Propaganda of the Spanish–American War tried to depict, the Spanish public system of education was open to all subjects, regardless of race or financial resources.

Fifth, While the 1903 Census officially reported the number of Spanish speakers at a little over 1% of the population, it only considered those born in Spain and completely disregarded Spanish-educated natives, the mestizos and the Chinese population which would have placed the figure at more than 60% of the population. According to those figures, Jose Rizal, for example, would have not qualified as Spanish speaker.

Read for example the report made by Henry J. Ford to President Woodrow Wilson on conditions in the Philippines, that stated that:

" as I traveled through the (Philippine) Islands, using ordinary transportation and mixing with all classes of people under all conditions. Although based on the school statistics it is said that more Filipinos speak English than any other language, no one can be in agreement with this declaration if they base their assessment on what they hear. Spanish is everywhere the language of business and social intercourse ... In order for anyone to obtain prompt service from anyone, Spanish turns out to be more useful than English ... And outside of Manila it is almost indispensable. The Americans who travel around all the islands customarily use it.

The use of Spanish as an official language has been extended to January 1, 1920. Its general use seems to be spreading. Natives acquiring it learn it as a living speech. Everywhere they hear it spoken by leading people of the community and their ears are trained to its pronunciation. On the other hand, they (the natives) are practically without phonic standards in acquiring English and the result is that they learn it as a book language rather than as a living speech. "

P.S.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the World by number of native speakers, ahead of English and only surpassed by Chinese.
Miércoles a las 11:34 PM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 1 persona

Ronald Ryan Lara Rafael, let's not be inundated with myriad and often useless footnotes to history and come up with illusions that we would be better off if we were using Spanish or Tagalog. English is the language of the Philippine government and the courts for the past 100 years, and will likely remain as such till Kingdom come. Besides, Spanish speakers are only concentrated in the Americas, most of them poor and lack global political influence, and ergo, their number does not really matter. What we need is a good government to progress, not a change in language preference.
Miércoles a las 11:52 PM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Rafael Martinez Minuesa I am of the opinion that your false claims are the only "useless" contributions to this thread.
Neither it matters what your opinion on global languages is because you have proved to be very ignorant in all questions regarding the History of your own country and its educational system.
You are a prime example of the failure of the English-based educational system.
Ayer a las 12:02 AM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 1 persona

Pepe Alas Hi Francis.

"Isn't that a rather pessimistic outlook Sr. D. Gómez?"

Sorry my friend, but that is not a pessimistic outlook at all. That is reality. And your comparison of having a high IQ to learn or master the English to that of walking or chewing gum is, I'm sorry to say, highly fallacious. One does not need to have a high IQ to learn how to walk nor how to chew a gum. Even people with mental disabilities can do that without much prodding.

Best regards. =)
Ayer a las 08:46 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Pepe Alas ‎"but as someone who has carefully studied the education METHODOLOGIES used by the DepEd, it is not surprising that people fail to learn English."

Señor Gómez has done his homework, too. As a matter of fact —just in case you are unaware— he has been in the education sector for many decades and has done extensive research and scholarly observation as to what our education institutions have been doing to the Filipino studentry.

My apologies if I begin to sound like an apologist to this great scholar. But you see, I just could not let such remarks go away just like that, especially since I have come to known fully his philosophy.

Regards again. =)
Ayer a las 08:50 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Pepe Alas ‎"ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa malansang isda..."

Gentlemen, please be advised that Rizal NEVER wrote this poem. It is only attributed to him. Many scholars of high reputation already agree on this. The only sad thing h...ere is that our educational institutions do not teach this. Or perhaps they do not know this fact, too.

Tagalistas used Rizal and this poem to help justify the case for Tagalog to become the language's lingua franca.

Regards.
Ayer a las 08:56 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera English has been forced upon Filipinos since 1900 through their daily school education, but today, in malls, parks, streets, when Filipinos talk among themselves they do so in their own language. English is not a Filipino language, period. Why force everybody to learn it? This neocolonial forcing of English over all Filipinos will only be justified if the Philippines is admited as, at least, an associate State of the USA. But it is the Americans themselves who have never made Filipinos US citizens. Under Spain all Filipinos, were at least, Spanish citizens. Yet Spanish was not forced upon all Filipinos during Spanish times.
Ayer a las 08:56 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera WE do not deny the importance of English. The Japanese, the Chinese, the Indonesians, the Koreans, etc., but not one of these nations ever allowed their politicians to replace their respective languages with English in their respective school systems. English there is optional. Here, we force English up and over our own native languages, including Tagalog. That is why, RP is an economic basket case of Asia. Our native languages should the medium of education in the elementary and High School levels with Tagalog. Not English.
Ayer a las 09:01 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Pepe Alas ‎"thanks to USA's legacy of public school system"

Excuse me, Mr. Lara. I've been studying history for the longest time now. The public school system was introduced here by Spain, not by the Americans. To say that the US introduced the public... school system in our country is a misnomer, if not a lie.

And during the Spanish and American times, the number of Filipinos who used Spanish as their first and second languages were more common compared to today's English-speaking Filipino families. To put it more bluntly, THERE ARE NO ENGLISH-SPEAKING FILIPINOS TODAY. I can guarantee you that 100%. Taglish speaking Filipinos, yes. But do they speak STRAIGHT English during their daily routine? NUNCA.

So many lies in Philippine history. I may cry.Ver más
Ayer a las 09:06 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera I have been a teacher in two Chinese Schools in Iloilo a long time ago. Chinese schools in RP use Chinese as medium of instruction in all subj ects with English as only a language subject. At a higher level, a set of subjects have English, and Chinese, as mediums of learning. That is why the Chinese are more progressive in RP than the Filipinos themselves. It is because we, Filipinos, allow ourselves to be fully enslaved by the neo-colonial policy of forcing upon everybody here the English language. And this must be stopped as soon as possible. Fiipinos will develop better if their languages are developed first. Then let us add English at will.Ver más
Ayer a las 09:06 AM · Ya no me gusta Me gusta · 1 persona

Pepe Alas ‎"Besides, Spanish speakers are only concentrated in the Americas, most of them poor and lack global political influence, and ergo, their number does not really matter."

This is close to ignorance, I'm really sorry to say, especially from so...meone wearing a corbata. But I won't debate on this anymore because I am already cooking up an article for FILIPINO eSCRIBBLES. Stay tuned.

And let me share to you that MY FAMILY'S ECONOMIC STANDING HAS IMPROVED TREMENDOUSLY BECAUSE OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE, THANKS BE TO GOD. I do not even have to leave the Philippines to work abroad!
Ayer a las 09:11 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera Ronald Ryan: Sorry to digress, but the real problem is that since 1900 the US WASP colonizers never gave a chance to our native languages to beused as tools of development. Up to now their neo-colonial agenda is nothing but to force English over our own native languages regardless of sound pedagogical principals. The Filipino child must first be allowed to develop his thought in his own mother tongue. Not in English which is foreign to him. That is why, it must be our native languages that must be used as medium of instruction in the elmentary grades up to High School. Later on, those with a higher IQ may switch to English as medium of instruction. I have also been a college Professor for over 40 years and I tell you, the majority of College students do not really know English inspite of it being forced since the elementary, and they have communication problems. If their native language with Tagalog had been developed first in them, then they would have been better off even in English.
Ayer a las 09:17 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.

Guillermo Gómez Rivera Ronald Ryan Lara: The conclusion of the Monroe Education Report even if done in 1925 is still valid up to the present time. A thesis done by a UP Profesor, Elisa Paqeo, in the 1980s, attests to the fact that English IS NOT YET THE LANGUAGE OF THE FILIPINO HOME up to the present time. There are Filipinos, of the upper class, that have adopted by now English as the language of their home, but their number is microscopic vis-a-vis those Filipino families who dont have English as their language at home. And this is one factor why the Monroe 1925 report is still valid. What is worse is that the population of Filipinos who dont speak English at home has increased by leaps and bounds and their children, if not drop outs, are packed in classes of over fifty students in the vast majority of our public schools and even private schools. The number of students in a class should only be 20, as they have it in the Manila International where I taught for one year. The present number of students in Filipino classrooms is another big factor why English is losing ground among our masses. That is why, we need to use the native languages as the medium of instruction in the primary grades and High School because no learning transfer of English occurs in those levels due to big classes of over 50 students. Let us stop dreaming and be practical. We need to at least produce literate Filipinos even if only in their own languages. We are producing functional illiterates in engish. because we are forcing ourselves to do what is impossible.
Ayer a las 11:02 AM · Me gusta Ya no me gusta.