Cebu: An English language learning hub?

Last weekend was the 16th World Indigenous Peoples Day and groups from the Amnesty International (AI) celebrated this day at the Quezon Memorial Circle demanding for equal treatment on health, education and decision making and on issues that affected them. But then, the Philippines is a nation that is very good in celebrating these international events and then giving them lip service for the rest of the year.

A case in point is our human right to speak our own native or indigenous tongues. Surely by now, our political leaders have clearly understood the reality that the Philippines has an ethnically diverse culture and people. This is why Filipinos speak so many languages, from Ilokano in the north, Bicolano, Cebuano, Ilonggo or Waray in Central Philippines and Tausug or Chabacano in Mindanao. But then, Imperial Manila still insists that we have a national language and it is called “Pilipino”… when in truth, Pilipino as it is spoken or taught in our schools is nothing but Tagalog.

So if the indigenous people ask for equal rights on education… in what language should they be taught? But there is hope as the Philippines is headed in the right direction with the proposed Multi-Lingual Education (MLE) program where local or indigenous languages are taught in the formative stages because it is easier for kids to understand their native tongue before they start learning other languages. What is important for the Filipino is to ensure that the language that their forefathers spoke do not get extinct!

If you didn’t know, last Aug. 1, hundreds of protesters rallied in Hong Kong against China’s bid to let all Chinese people’s speak Mandarin a.k.a. “Putonghua”, which means if this policy is imposed, Cantonese would soon disappear! I don’t know how the Chinese Politburo would handle such dissent, but indeed China has so many languages and like the so-called “ultra-nationalist” Filipinos, they unfortunately believe that speaking in one language promotes unity in a country. They obviously forgot that in America, they speak mostly in English, but they did have a Civil War, the bloodiest war that Americans fought in their own land.

My good friend, Atty. Manuel “Lino” Faelnar, a board member of the Akademiyang Bisaya Board and Lubas ng Dagang Bisaya (LUDABI) and Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago (DILA) always puts a quotation after his emails which declares, “Without our language, we have no culture, we have no identity, we are nothing” a quote by Ornolfor Thorsson, adviser to the President of Iceland. He also quotes Prof. Kenneth Hale who taught linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who said, “When you lose a language you lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art.” Our Constitution guarantees our right to speak our native languages.

So will the Cebuano language ever disappear in the onslaught of a lot of nationwide TV telenovelas where Tagalog is the medium? I don’t think so for as long as Cebuanos speak their native language everyday and so with those who speak their native languages which are not Tagalog. Be proud of your languages, be it Waray, Bicolano, Ilokano or Kapampangan. So under the MLE program, the medium of instruction until the end of the child’s elementary schooling will be their respective native tongues. With this, we can see the preservation of many of the spoken languages in this country.

But lest we have already forgotten, there is a worldwide demand for the Filipino worker and it is not because of his ability to speak his native languages or even Tagalog… but rather because the Filipino can understand or speak better English than our other Asian neighbors. If today we have hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in the country, it is because they are here not only for the sake of tourism, but they are here to learn how to speak English. In Asia, the Philippines is considered superior with the English language, which is why there are so many call centers that have sprouted here.

Today from Aug. 12 to 14, Cebu will play host to the 1st Cebu International TESOL Conference, which will be held at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) with the theme “The English Language: The Power to Connect”. This international conference brings together both international and nationally renowned speakers and a wealth of abstracts from over 100 educators and participants worldwide.

TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. You can expect topics like teaching English to international students, professional issues on educational standards and alternative approaches and latest trends in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). All this is part of making the Cebu Hub for English Language Excellence (Chele) and organized by the Cebu Leads Foundation and the Mandaue Chamber. When Cebu achieves this goal, that means more foreign students or tourists will come to Cebu to learn how to speak the English. Great things are happening to Cebu.

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