Better than banning
October 9, 2006 | 12:00am
These past couple of weeks, I’ve had two opportunities to give lectures on a pet topic of mine, "English in the Philippines," at St. Norbert College and at the University of Michigan.
In presentations like these, I always get asked one question in the open forum afterwards: "Is Taglish or Filipino itself the cause of the deterioration of our people’s skills in English? Shouldn’t we ban the use of Taglish and Filipino in schools to improve those skills?"
The question frankly makes me cringe, but I understand where it comes from – a sense of frustration over what many people perceive to be the loss of one of our comparative advantages as an economy, especially in a globalizing world that speaks English more than any other language.
As a professor of English, I witness these degraded skills every day – not just in my students’ work, but, sad to say, also in my professional environment, in the media, and in general usage. It isn’t just a matter of subject-verb agreement, dangling modifiers, and wrong prepositions; what I’m finding is a basic inability to express oneself clearly – in complete, fluid clauses and sentences, using precisely chosen words – in English.
So this much, I will agree with: we need to work on our English, to make ourselves better understood by each other and by the world at large. But as for what we need to do to improve our skills in English, the worst thing we can do is to throw Filipino out the window and pretend like we were little Thomasite schoolkids all over again.
The situation’s far from hopeless, but it will take a lot of sustained and substantial effort to promote English and use it to our economic advantage without losing or perverting our Filipino-ness, as devalued as a trifle like "identity" now seems to be to many.
It’s very tempting to use Filipino as the scapegoat for our ailing English, most easily by associating it with a narrow and self-destructive nationalism, especially at a time when many people embrace "globalization" as if it were God’s gift to humanity and when "nationalism" sounds like a bad word we should never bring up in polite conversation.
The other usual suspect is Taglish, that eminently speakable mongrel tongue, which allegedly results in the speaker knowing neither English nor Tagalog well enough to pass the UPCAT.
But if these factors are to blame, then why do I find almost exactly the same problems in the written exams of my American students, who of course can speak English as fluently as they should, but a good number of whom have the hardest time articulating their ideas on paper with clarity and precision?
I could go on all day proposing possible remedies, but let me tell you right now about one option I won’t be rooting for. Banning Filipino or Taglish from the school or workplace may sound bold and daring, as though somebody with guts – looking suspiciously like a politician in need of an easy target or a pet cause to inflame the middle class – were finally taking action.
But it’s stupid, because it won’t work; it never has, and it never will, beyond small, short-term, and tightly controlled situations. Prohibiting people from speaking a language that makes sense and feels comfortable to them will have as much chance for success as King Canute ordering back the ocean waves. For all his powers of less than subtle persuasion, the redoubtable Lee Kuan Yew has so far failed miserably in his desire to root Singlish out of the Singaporean as one more way to make Singapore more First World than it already is. Singlish continues to be spoken with much energy and enthusiasm on the street, in the malls, and in the local plays and TV shows that could very well be the best and the most interesting effusions of a truly Singaporean culture. (Senior Minister Lee was reported to be particularly horrified by a comedian’s Singlish admonition that went "Quick, quick. Late already. You eat yourself, we eat ourself!" –meaning, "Hurry, we’re late. Let’s eat separately." OK, so it sounds silly, but as far as I’m concerned, if it makes perfect sense to two Singaporeans, they can happily eat themselves as much as they want.)
What policymakers forget is that language isn’t a zero-sum game: that you can learn one without unlearning another. Standard, "grammatically correct" English can very well coexist with Filipino and Taglish in the same brain and on the same tongue. Instead of focusing on the negatives and on the "don’ts," we could be promoting Standard English as a positive option that anyone who wants or needs to communicate with the world should learn and master. The important thing is for the user to know and to understand when to switch from one language and one register to another, depending on what the specific situation requires. Appropriateness is key. Real life is full of situations when Filipino or Taglish could save your skin – rather than letter-perfect English.
The real problem, I think, is that our teaching of English has deteriorated sharply, as well as the learning environment you need to provide around the language.
If we’re serious about improving our English – and beyond easy legislative declarations of English as the language of instruction – we should improve the English language training of our teachers, provide interesting and up-to-date learning materials on CDs and DVDs to schoolchildren, expand access to computers and the Internet, and beef up our public libraries. That sounds like a lot of money (do I hear more for education, and less for discretionary "intelligence" funds?), but since when did precious knowledge come free?
This should also mean, for example, ensuring the quality and correctness of teaching materials by weeding out corruption in the Department of Education, particularly in the selection and procurement of textbooks.
As you can see, repairing our fractured English is far more complicated than simply punishing students for splitting infinitives (incidentally, a rule that never really was) and for saying "Ay naku!" instead of "Jiminy cricket!"
And now a couple of quick plugs for good causes.
The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) will be hosting a writing workshop with author Alice McLerran on Nov. 11 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Filipinas Heritage Library on Ayala corner Makati Aves. in Makati City.
The workshop is a chance for budding authors to have their manuscripts critiqued while spending a day with the New York-based McLerran, says SCBWI head Beulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo.
"The workshop is for adults who write or want to write for children and young people – amateurs and professionals, published and unpublished authors, freelance writers, college students, teachers, parents, educators, and others who have a keen interest in children’s literature. The workshop is also helpful for illustrator-writers, visual artists who are interested in the writing process, and those who are eager to know more about the kind of creative collaborations that can take place between authors and illustrators. We hope to give all the participants an intimate glimpse into what Alice describes as ‘the kind of rewriting that is such an important part of the writing process for me.’"
It’s interesting to note that, before she turned to writing for children, Alice McLerran earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of California in Berkeley, and later an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Registration will cost P1,750 until Oct. 16, and P2,000 until Friday Nov. 3. For information, contact Beaulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo at beaulah.taguiwalo@yahoo.com or 0917-7874956, or Nikki Garde Torres at nikkigarde@yahoo.com or 0917-6671267.
Quiz Bee Foundation vice president Pettizou Tayag also wrote in to report brisk sales for their official Quiz Bee reviewer book titled Answerboards Up! Launched at the Manila International Book Fair last month, the book has proved to be a hit, selling 1,500 copies to date.
"Surprisingly, 20 percent of our book sales come from yuppies and business professionals. We initially thought that it would only be parents, students and teachers who would show interest in the book. We are also a recommended reference book for libraries at public and private schools, universities and colleges," Pettizou says.
You can get the book in all Goodwill Bookstores nationwide for only P170, or order it online through www.quizbee.org. To know more about the book or about the Quiz Bee itself and its upcoming events, call the Quiz Bee Secretariat at 712-0682 or mobile 0917-892-2560, or e-mail to pettizoutayag@yahoo.com.
E-mail me at penmanila@yahoo.com and visit my blog at http://homepage.mac.com/jdalisay/blog/MyBlog.html.
In presentations like these, I always get asked one question in the open forum afterwards: "Is Taglish or Filipino itself the cause of the deterioration of our people’s skills in English? Shouldn’t we ban the use of Taglish and Filipino in schools to improve those skills?"
The question frankly makes me cringe, but I understand where it comes from – a sense of frustration over what many people perceive to be the loss of one of our comparative advantages as an economy, especially in a globalizing world that speaks English more than any other language.
As a professor of English, I witness these degraded skills every day – not just in my students’ work, but, sad to say, also in my professional environment, in the media, and in general usage. It isn’t just a matter of subject-verb agreement, dangling modifiers, and wrong prepositions; what I’m finding is a basic inability to express oneself clearly – in complete, fluid clauses and sentences, using precisely chosen words – in English.
So this much, I will agree with: we need to work on our English, to make ourselves better understood by each other and by the world at large. But as for what we need to do to improve our skills in English, the worst thing we can do is to throw Filipino out the window and pretend like we were little Thomasite schoolkids all over again.
The situation’s far from hopeless, but it will take a lot of sustained and substantial effort to promote English and use it to our economic advantage without losing or perverting our Filipino-ness, as devalued as a trifle like "identity" now seems to be to many.
It’s very tempting to use Filipino as the scapegoat for our ailing English, most easily by associating it with a narrow and self-destructive nationalism, especially at a time when many people embrace "globalization" as if it were God’s gift to humanity and when "nationalism" sounds like a bad word we should never bring up in polite conversation.
The other usual suspect is Taglish, that eminently speakable mongrel tongue, which allegedly results in the speaker knowing neither English nor Tagalog well enough to pass the UPCAT.
But if these factors are to blame, then why do I find almost exactly the same problems in the written exams of my American students, who of course can speak English as fluently as they should, but a good number of whom have the hardest time articulating their ideas on paper with clarity and precision?
I could go on all day proposing possible remedies, but let me tell you right now about one option I won’t be rooting for. Banning Filipino or Taglish from the school or workplace may sound bold and daring, as though somebody with guts – looking suspiciously like a politician in need of an easy target or a pet cause to inflame the middle class – were finally taking action.
But it’s stupid, because it won’t work; it never has, and it never will, beyond small, short-term, and tightly controlled situations. Prohibiting people from speaking a language that makes sense and feels comfortable to them will have as much chance for success as King Canute ordering back the ocean waves. For all his powers of less than subtle persuasion, the redoubtable Lee Kuan Yew has so far failed miserably in his desire to root Singlish out of the Singaporean as one more way to make Singapore more First World than it already is. Singlish continues to be spoken with much energy and enthusiasm on the street, in the malls, and in the local plays and TV shows that could very well be the best and the most interesting effusions of a truly Singaporean culture. (Senior Minister Lee was reported to be particularly horrified by a comedian’s Singlish admonition that went "Quick, quick. Late already. You eat yourself, we eat ourself!" –meaning, "Hurry, we’re late. Let’s eat separately." OK, so it sounds silly, but as far as I’m concerned, if it makes perfect sense to two Singaporeans, they can happily eat themselves as much as they want.)
What policymakers forget is that language isn’t a zero-sum game: that you can learn one without unlearning another. Standard, "grammatically correct" English can very well coexist with Filipino and Taglish in the same brain and on the same tongue. Instead of focusing on the negatives and on the "don’ts," we could be promoting Standard English as a positive option that anyone who wants or needs to communicate with the world should learn and master. The important thing is for the user to know and to understand when to switch from one language and one register to another, depending on what the specific situation requires. Appropriateness is key. Real life is full of situations when Filipino or Taglish could save your skin – rather than letter-perfect English.
The real problem, I think, is that our teaching of English has deteriorated sharply, as well as the learning environment you need to provide around the language.
If we’re serious about improving our English – and beyond easy legislative declarations of English as the language of instruction – we should improve the English language training of our teachers, provide interesting and up-to-date learning materials on CDs and DVDs to schoolchildren, expand access to computers and the Internet, and beef up our public libraries. That sounds like a lot of money (do I hear more for education, and less for discretionary "intelligence" funds?), but since when did precious knowledge come free?
This should also mean, for example, ensuring the quality and correctness of teaching materials by weeding out corruption in the Department of Education, particularly in the selection and procurement of textbooks.
As you can see, repairing our fractured English is far more complicated than simply punishing students for splitting infinitives (incidentally, a rule that never really was) and for saying "Ay naku!" instead of "Jiminy cricket!"
The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) will be hosting a writing workshop with author Alice McLerran on Nov. 11 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Filipinas Heritage Library on Ayala corner Makati Aves. in Makati City.
The workshop is a chance for budding authors to have their manuscripts critiqued while spending a day with the New York-based McLerran, says SCBWI head Beulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo.
"The workshop is for adults who write or want to write for children and young people – amateurs and professionals, published and unpublished authors, freelance writers, college students, teachers, parents, educators, and others who have a keen interest in children’s literature. The workshop is also helpful for illustrator-writers, visual artists who are interested in the writing process, and those who are eager to know more about the kind of creative collaborations that can take place between authors and illustrators. We hope to give all the participants an intimate glimpse into what Alice describes as ‘the kind of rewriting that is such an important part of the writing process for me.’"
It’s interesting to note that, before she turned to writing for children, Alice McLerran earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of California in Berkeley, and later an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Registration will cost P1,750 until Oct. 16, and P2,000 until Friday Nov. 3. For information, contact Beaulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo at beaulah.taguiwalo@yahoo.com or 0917-7874956, or Nikki Garde Torres at nikkigarde@yahoo.com or 0917-6671267.
Quiz Bee Foundation vice president Pettizou Tayag also wrote in to report brisk sales for their official Quiz Bee reviewer book titled Answerboards Up! Launched at the Manila International Book Fair last month, the book has proved to be a hit, selling 1,500 copies to date.
"Surprisingly, 20 percent of our book sales come from yuppies and business professionals. We initially thought that it would only be parents, students and teachers who would show interest in the book. We are also a recommended reference book for libraries at public and private schools, universities and colleges," Pettizou says.
You can get the book in all Goodwill Bookstores nationwide for only P170, or order it online through www.quizbee.org. To know more about the book or about the Quiz Bee itself and its upcoming events, call the Quiz Bee Secretariat at 712-0682 or mobile 0917-892-2560, or e-mail to pettizoutayag@yahoo.com.
E-mail me at penmanila@yahoo.com and visit my blog at http://homepage.mac.com/jdalisay/blog/MyBlog.html.
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