I remember how my young cousin suffered the ignominy of his school peers after his teacher told him to wear a placard bearing a promise to speak English when inside the campus. Luckily, the “good” teacher had almost got her butt on the line after my uncle managed to stretch his patience another inch.
For whatever reason, I find it absurd to use English abrasively as a definitive kernel to achieve academic excellence.
Our command of the language may have eroded but still, it is unreasonable to impose it as the only medium for communication or even for instruction at school. We must remember that the school is not immune to the provisions of the Constitution which also specifically cites the use of the Filipino other than English as a medium of instruction. Moreover, Article XIV, Section 7 of the fundamental law even says: “The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.”
Likewise, the academe should be the first to teach the Constitutional precepts on academic freedom and nationalism. Where is academic freedom when you restrict students from speaking the local language at school? And that’s not even nationalism when we tout English to be what makes a better Filipino in us.
English cannot be forced to the throat. It is to be taught, learned and practiced to achieve proficiency not as one form of disciplinary action.
I remember when I got to Holland years back, I saw all the instructions, whether you’re on the street or a public transport, in Dutch. The same thing is what you see in Germany, France and in most EU countries. Also, in all its history, you wouldn’t find anything to do with English that made them what they are now. The same is true to Japan and Korea.
As it seems, I think we have a very misplaced view on the use of English especially on the side of the academe. A lot of schools want to impose English strictly because they’re ashamed to know that their students don’t speak “gooder” English than the others as if call centers are the only markets for their graduates.
Also, schools now want to advertise that they are an all-English institution to deviously impress that they are cut above the others…toying with the idea that they’re “sosyal” and that their school would make their kids talk like those rich kids in exclusive schools. Let’s face it, in this country English is the language of the elite — regrettably, another social layer than a social utility.
English is a universal business language, period. That’s how Koreans look at it and that’s what they are here for. Koreans want to learn English in the Philippines NOT to become better socialites when they return back to Korea but to become competitive as a nation and as a people.
Ditto for China. China is soon to become the largest English-speaking nation in the next ten years yet preserving Mandarin as the official language and the medium of instruction in schools.
The Japanese think it’s enough to have a basic understanding of English to relate in terms of trade. It never crossed their mind (even for the sake of globalization) to make English as a second language despite their far-reaching economic relations with English-speaking nations.
This is not to say that we place less importance to English but our schools need to re-stress the importance of English to its students as a language of economic expediency than of an economic symbol. And speaking of which, English is also a symbol of democracy and that schools must provide the freedom to students to learn the varying fields of discipline in a language that students are comfortable of or in a tongue they are used to.
A banana may sound gibberish in another language but a banana doesn’t lose its banana-ness when you know its “saging” in Cebuano.
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