The business of loving Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines - Spanish gentleman Jose “Don Pepe” Rodriguez, the Manila director of Instituto Cervantes (IC) and general coordinator of Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation (SPCC) has a continuing business in the Philippines – to reinforce cultural relations between the Philippines and Spain and promote Spanish language in the country for steady dialogue and cooperation.

Two things are working in favor of Rodriguez’ business at hand: Aside from more than 300 years of shared heritage between the two countries , the man at the helm of IC and SPCC has an on-going love affair with the Philippines which started 30 years ago when he first met his soon-to-be bride portraitist Lulu Coching in Spain. It was to be the start of an enduring love affair with the country which he describes as a “ stupendous panorama.”

In fact, many will describe Rodriguez as your regular Pinoy who can comfortably converse in Tagalog complete with one liners, phrases and expressions. And he can boast of having been to more places in the Philippines than most Filipinos, having visited the countryside from tip to tip of the archipelago.

His extensive travel all over the Philippines was demanded by his work as a journalist and bureau chief of the Spanish news agency Agencia EFE for South East Asia and the Pacific.

IC Manila is credited for strengthening the Spanish connection in the Philippines through the SPCC, a grant program of the Ministry of Culture of Spain whose aim is to enrich cultural relations between Spain and her former territories including the Philippines .

SPCC wishes to promote the things in common between the Philippines and Spain in the realm of language, culture and the arts. “What we do is explore the many elements that bind our two cultures and work to make them flourish,” explained Rodriguez.

Rodriguez fully appreciates the power of language in international understanding, commerce and cultural exchange.

Thus, IC offers Spanish language courses on various levels with more than 6,000 enrolments – a 100-percent increase in their academic language program since Rodriguez assumed position in 2006. IC was created by the Spanish government in 1991 to teach Spanish language and increase cultural knowledge on Latin-American countries.

In 2007, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed a Memorandum Order directing the Department of Education, Commission of Higher Education (CHED), and (TESDA) to encourage the teaching and learning of Spanish throughout the country.

In the agreement, Spanish, once an official language of the Philippines, was reintroduced in high school through a “Special Program in Foreign Language,” that is aimed at schools whose students have demonstrated competence in English and are also capable of learning other foreign language. The support of the Spanish government in the teaching of the language will be implemented in two phases, from school years 2009-2010 until 2013-2014, through Instituto Cervantes.

Selected teachers from these schools were also trained under the supervision of IC and DepEd’s Bureau of Secondary Education for the effective implementation of the program. The goal is to build up the competitive advantage of Filipino students in the global arena.

The move was an offshoot of globalization which prompted countries to level up their competitive edge in job opportunities by making its citizens learn some of the world’s most widely-used languages such as Spanish. Some 21 Spanish-speaking countries with economic activities worth US$4 trillion await the services of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors which demand call center agents that speak Spanish. 

According to DepEd, learning Spanish will prepare Filipino students in a linguistically diverse global workplace and they can expect better employment opportunities if they have the advantage in major languages.

“Filipinos have a link to Spanish language and culture and in fact more than 20,000 Filipino words have Spanish origin,” Rodriguez observed, adding “Besides, Filipinos have the natural talent to learn foreign language faster.”

Moreover, bringing back the Spanish language in the school curriculum would help today’s generation understand and re-connect with the past. Many of the works of Filipino freedom fighters, including national hero Jose Rizal, were written in Spanish. Their work have not diminished their social relevance and literary luster.

To date, the Spanish language training program held at Instituto Cervantes is participated in by some 106 teachers representing 62 schools.

Currently, there is an on-going summer training course for Spanish teachers which started in April 11 and will end on May 25, 2011 at the Instituto Cervantes in T.M. Kalaw in Manila . Its goal is to further improve the capability of teachers in the diverse aspects of learning/teaching Spanish as a foreign language.

Studies have shown that facility in just one foreign language is now perceived as a disadvantage in a global market that is culturally and linguistically diverse. While English is a major language, it only accounts for around 30 percent of the world gross domestic product and is likely to account for less in the future.

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world in terms of native speakers and the second largest language for international communication.

Spain, also, is the European Union’s biggest provider of development aid to the Philippines especially in the field of education. And certainly, things can get even better.

For Rodriguez, his continuing love affair with the Filipinos has not shown any sign of withering.