WE ALL know that in order to communicate with other people, especially people who are foreign, we have to use and speak in English.
Here in the Philippines, English language is considered as the second language. We were taught at a very young age on how to speak and communicate using it. It was then developed when we go to school as most of our subjects are taught in English. Some people also have struggles with this subject and it is very reasonable since this is not our first and main language in the very first place.
Most people tend to believe that a certain person is intelligent since he or she talked so well and fluently in English. Yes, some of them are intelligent but English is not only the basis of intelligence.
This is also the same in situations where people from the northern part of the country who speak Tagalog, treat us, Mindanaoans, with indifference and even sometimes look down on us because of the dialect we speak.
Billy Crawford, It’s Showtime host, added fuel to the fire when he said to a Tawag ng Tanghalan Mindanaoan contestant that it is reasonable for people from Mindanao to have a difficulty in the English diction during an episode that was aired two months ago.
Not to be biased, but Mindanaoans are in fact more multi-lingual. We can speak the vernacular, we can also speak Tagalog and English. Some even know more than one dialect and a few foreign languages. On the contrary, most Tagalogs only know Tagalog and Engish, nothing else.
The point is we are born unique and different from each other. We have something that we are good at that for some people they are not. There are also instances that your strength may be a weakness to someone and your weakness maybe a strength to someone. That’s why there is this thing called multiple intelligence.
You see not all people are the same. We cannot just judge someone because of their race, their culture, their appearance or etc. We are made unique. Learn to respect others uniqueness and do not just judge someone without knowing them, like the famous quote says “Do not do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you.” Respect others if you also wanted to be respected. (Jamille Galido Monforte, FSUU Intern)