Wednesday, October 01, 2008 Editorials: English language dominance
THE move in the House to restore English to its dominant position in the education of Filipinos should be welcomed.
It should not be taken by ideologues as a kind of downturn in our effort to arouse and develop deeper sense of nationalism in our people.
Rather, it should be considered as a means to further enrich the sentiment through the ingestion of keener insights into the nationalistic experience of other countries similarly situated as we are.
Note that since the start of the American dominance in the country and its Anglo-Saxon cultural influence, the Filipinos flourished and bloomed intellectually.
That English eventually became the language of instruction in our schools, as well as the medium of communication among our people as a second language, indicated the deep influence of the language among the Filipinos.
Over a period of forty years, American mentors taught Filipino school children to speak good English.
Within that time frame, we were noted as the only English speaking people in Southeast Asia.
National language law
English was a language that sort of united the Filipinos since they were speaking in various tongues spoken as a regional language.
That was until the ultra-nationalists among our leaders thought that we could still be a better people, more patriotic and affectionate to our country if we have a national language other than English.
Congress then enacted the national language law mandating the use of Tagalog as the dominant language, with the rest of the dozen or so major languages of the nation acting as satellite.
The Filipino’s proficiency in speaking English had made them a notch higher than the other Asians, and yet our ultra-nationalists failed to recognize this advantage.
It was as if being able to speak the “legally decreed” national language would make us citizens of exemplary integrity and honesty, impervious to graft and corruption in public office because of love of country.
But what is happening now is that we are losing our edge in the global job market.
House bills
The bills now pending in the House proposed by Rep. Eddie Gullas, and another bill by Rep. Raul del Mar, aim to restore the English language as medium of instruction in our schools, strengthen it once more as a second language, and thus hopefully give us the social and economic edge again over other Asian nations.
