English is our key to Information revolution

At the open forum of the 83rd general assembly of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE), Engineer Alberto, Chairman of FUSE’s advocate committee, asked the government to do everything in its power to retain English as our world language. This is indeed not only our key to modern education, but the very key to the information revolution.

Most people are not aware that as far as education is concerned the Philippines is now lagging behind all our Asian neighbors. The Philippines since the Spanish times was always the second most progressive nation in Asia next to Japan. Then, martial law came and the emphasis was no longer education. The support shifted from education to the military. Discipline was what would lead to the country’s progress and the army was supposed to provide the example of discipline. After a little more than two decades of military rule, the Philippines became the second poorest country in Asia, next to Bangladesh.

Now, more than ever, education is the key to all progress. It was so even during the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution. How much more now that we are undergoing the Information Revolution? All the information we will need to keep up with the rest of the world will be available in English. We cannot lose time translating this information to Filipino, not to mention the astronomical expense that this will entail. We don’t have Filipino textbooks in medicine, accounting, finance, engineering, architecture and all other college subjects. In the first place, where will we find the translators who can translate medical books into Tagalog? And knowledge today is doubling every three decades. Just keeping with translating the latest knowledge on all subjects will eat up our education budget.

English is the closest to a global language that the world has ever had. We are the saecond or the third largest English-speaking nation. India, some people say, has an even larger English-speaking population than the Philippines. Let us not throw away this tremendous advantage.

Tagalog is our national language but we need a world language if we are to keep up with the rest of the world. The world today is a global village and English is the most global of all languages. To stop speaking English is to isolate ourselves from the times.

It was Martin H. Fischer who said, "Any man who does not make himself proficient in at least two languages other than his own is a fool. Such men have the quaint habit of discovering things fifty years after all the world knows about them – because they read only their own language."

The value of any language is the information and wisdom it contains.