The state of the nation’s English

At our last meeting of the English Speaking Union Philippines chapter on July 10, it came to our attention that only two percent of public school elementary teachers had reportedly passed an English-proficiency test.

No big surprise there, although the headshaking was shared around the table. More work simply appeared to be cut out for us.

It wasn’t as much of a disappointment that our last candidate for the International English Speaking Competition in London last May didn’t even make it to the semifinals, as a few of our previous candidates had also fared the same way. But for the most part, our selected young speakers have generally done well against worldwide competition — with as many as 60 or so rivals — over the past 15 years.

In fact we had produced two winners in Patricia Evangelista (2004) and Gian Dapul (2008). Not bad for a fledgling country chapter that had participated in the IPSC for a mere number of years at the time, thanks to the efforts of the then Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Cesar Bautista.

We have missed him for over a year now, but have done our best to carry on with his legacy. Another great loss has been that of Lolene Reed, who with her husband Ken had seen to the foster care of our young candidates in London each year. Ken continues the tradition on his own.

When Patricia made the breakthrough for our country chapter in 2004, as only our third candidate, she benefited from the Reeds’ unstinting support. The same could be said of our embassy do-it-all at the time (when it came to all matters regarding information and cultural literacy), Ed Maranan, the prizewinning writer to whom we here entrusted our young candidates for final speech polishing.

It was good to see Patricia and Ed reunited at that last meeting, which was supposed to have been hosted by Ed Chua, now our prime mover and supporter since Amb. Bautista passed away. But Mr. Chua, recently retired from Pilipinas Shell, had a last-minute conflict of engagement, so he couldn’t make it, albeit his venue hosting was sustained.

Others present were our new president Gigi Virata, Erlinda Panlilio, Lourds Montinola, Kat Legarda, Santi Dapul, David Reynolds, Mike Cabigon (representing Nick Thomas of The British Council), and this writer. We missed longtime members Marlu Vilches (our former chair) and Butch Dalisay, as well as new members Joy Virata, Chico Sobrepeña and Marife Zamora.

Santi Dapul reported that his son Gian (who had topped the IPSC as a Philippine Science High senior at the age of 17), was leaving for France to study in INSEAD as a scholar of the Washington SyCip Foundation. He had graduated with a BS in Chemistry degree, then taught at the Commonwealth Elementary School under Teach for Philippines, before working for Energy Development Corporation.

Gian’s winning speech, “Fish Mucus and Foot Fungus,” may still be checked out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqzL3xznfiU while Patricia’s “Blonde and Blue-eyed” is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjwYW2ZdY04

It was reiterated that we need to shore up our membership. We had earlier considered inviting the heads of the largest BPO firms that relied on English proficiency, and feedback had reportedly been good. Other personalities, from academe, theater and media, were suggested. Kat Legarda proposed that we find ways of having the incoming British Ambassador assume a prominent role, as it used to be. Patricia suggested affiliating with the yearly press conference for students ambitioning to become writers, and offered to get us in touch with the organizers.

Gigi presented a draft framework that envisioned a sizable cadre of English-speaking Filipino students, teachers and employees, parallel to improving English proficiency. We would need a support staff and a business plan, and seek to increase the number of participants in the school competitions for our future candidates for London. Development workshops might also help, as well as increased exposure to public speaking by way of both traditional and social media.

It was also suggested that ESU Philippines initiate and maintain a small boxed column in some broadsheet that would recall the effectivity of what had been the popular “How’s Your English?” by Jean Edades — from decades ago. Such a regular feature could go a long way in initially pointing out common errors in Philippine English (“resulting in” not “to”; “a whopping sum” not “whooping”; “among them are” and not “among them included…”)

The idea quickly expanded to the possible use of Twitter and other social media. I consented to take the lead in this initiative, but only if it can be a team effort, with Ed Maranan and Butch Dalisay pitching in, at no prejudice to also seeking contributions from fellow writers who use their FB posts as occasional grammar Nazis, such as poets Joel Toledo and Marne Kilates. Why, we could also draft writer-friends Jessica Zafra, Tina Cuyugan, and Jose Carillo (the last has been maintaining a column and authoring books on proper English usage).

Let’s see. Proof of the pudding, as Shakespeare said, is in the proving. Err…

In any case, even as we desperately attempt to forestall any further deterioration of our version of a World English, from the other side of the coin, the realm’s, that is, we hear of how the Oxford English Dictionary has added more specimens of “Filipinisms,” such as the following: “comfort room,” “high-blood.” “carnap,” “dirty kitchen,” “gimmick,” “presidentiable,” “mani-pedi,” “sari-sari store,” “buko juice,” familiar words of Spanish origin such as “estafa,” “despedida” and “pan de sal,” and terms of Pinoy etymology, including portmanteaus and concepts, such as “mabuhay,” “barangay,” “balikbayan,” “halo-halo,” “sinigang,” “utang na loob,” “KKB (kanya-kanyang bayad),” “barong,” “suki,” “baon,” “bahala na,” “kuya,” and “kikay.”

These have been added to the first list of Pinoy words incorporated in the OED in 2015, among these “salvage.” “batchmate,” “adobo,” “balut,” “kare-kare,” “lechon,” “leche flan,” “pancit,” “puto,” “pulutan,” “baro’t-saya,” “pasalubong,” “lola,” “lolo,” “tita,” “tito,” “yaya,” “arnis” and “tabo.”

Danica Salazar, a UK-based Filipino lexicographer who serves as consultant editor for OED, says that the OED now uses the term “Philippine English” as a label for the Filipino variety of English usage. She adds that the word “kilig” — “the tingly feeling associated with romance that is challenging to describe in one English word” — may be the next addition.

Well, even as we may also soon expect the addition of “dirty ice cream,” we’re certain that it won’t be in relation to a dirty mouth. What might be is “p**ang-ina” given its reported abuse in referring to other world leaders. And could “EKJs” and “tokhang” be far behind? For today, all we must hope for is that a rape joke doesn’t make it to the dirty state of someone’s speech.