Wednesday, August 31. 2011What’s your mother tongue?
Whenever I need to fill in an application for an academic or career pursuit abroad, one item always gets me stumped: mother tongue.
In the past, I had no problem putting Visayan or Cebuano on the dotted line; after all, it was the language that I first learned while growing up in Davao City. But having lived away from my hometown for three decades, my proficiency in the language has declined due to infrequent usage. Like many professionals in Manila, my conversational language is Taglish. However, my SMS and email language is usually English, like most of my written output, although I can also scribble passably in Filipino (Pilipino or Tagalog to others). Most of the stuff I read is also in the colonial language, and because my work involves a lot of writing and editing, it’s not surprising that I tend to think in English most of the time. Like most Pinoys of my generation, I got exposed to English early on because it was the medium of instruction in the educational institutions I attended from kindergarten to graduate school. That’s why we frown on language proficiency tests when applying for scholarships abroad, and I’ve known quite a few who got exemptions after presenting proof of our academic standards. Once, I had to take the IELTS, the International English Language Testing System, for a scholarship application and found out that it seemed to measure comprehension and IQ more than proficiency. I doubt if native English speakers with blue-collar jobs would be able to pass the exam, and I pitied the huge numbers of Filipino nurses and seamen who struggled with the reading and writing tests. Many were in tears afterwards, as the test was a new (and expensive) requirement for those who want to work in English-speaking countries. On a trip to the U.S. west coast in the 1990s, my hosts were surprised to learn that many Filipinos speak English fluently. For some reason, they expected us to speak Spanish, which was after all the language of our colonizers for 300 years. Did we adopt English because it was the language of our more recent colonizers, or because they defeated the Spanish, or because of the Thomasites? Whatever the reason, another thing to add to the aberration of the Philippines aside from being the only Catholic country in Asia is that unlike much of Latin America where Spanish has all but replaced local languages, we still retained our various regional tongues despite centuries of colonial rule. It’s a small comfort, no matter that we are no closer to a national language after decades of celebrating Buwan ng Wika. It’s also something to keep in mind whenever we have to pause for thought at the question of a mother tongue. So what’s my answer, you ask? If the questionnaire rates fluency in reading, writing, and speaking, I would have to say English because I don’t read and write much in either Tagalog or Visayan. But if the option is there, I always select Filipino. Trackbacks
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Because the government wants us to learn english because they want us to understand what our boss will be telling us when we work overseas. Sad but true, our beloved government is preparing us to be laborers overseas.
Tama ka dyan pare.Lahat na OFWs mga utosan. Kawawa naman tayo.Gising Pinoy!
for your information,english language help many filipinos goes worldwide and with tagalog or local dialects alone it can´t help filipinos to understand even a certain rules and regulation upon boarding international flight,ships or trains.
english help the filipinos becomes competitives in workforce,education,sports and many more. if no one can understand english how on earth our country would ever understand what´s going on around the world,who would translates foreign languages into tagalog or native mother tongue? only an idiot would think to learn english a waste of gov´t funds and efforts,when it becomes a very good investment for its people to acquires more knowledge on it,so they don´t grew-up illiterates and knew nothing but speak their mother tongue that identify their stupidity and being slaves of poverty. how many tagalog speaking filipinos live in poverty compares to few filipinos that live abundantly because they has access to other languages that help them get a better job outsides of Philippines? you should be thankful that english becomes part of school curriculum at least we had few individuals fluent in english that can understand other foreign languages thru learning of english first to understand french,deutsch,niponggo,mandarin,arabic,hebrew and many more. by the way not all filipinos that goes out of Philippines becomes a slave,some of them becomes the big boss of other race depends how successful they are to the country they live abroad,comnpares to how many tagalog,visayan speaking people that has no choice but eat garbbages foods everyday of their life,sleep in the sidewalks because they has no shelter to live at,at least those people that can speak english has a better chance to get a better job here and abroad because they are more educated compares to those filipinos know nothing but their native dialect. if you don´t know nothing on english how you could search in internet knowing tagalog is not universally used as medium of communication,if you only want to search what´s inside in Philippines then tagalog,cebuano,ilocano could be enough but as you notice almost all websites run by filipino themselves are in english version. i think its about time the gov´t better used english as its official and national languages as you see tagalog didn´t help this country becomes progressives,instead tagalog drag this country to sink deeply in poverty. its a fact that millions of tagalog speaking people live in poverty,only those has little bit knowledge in english live moderately. english language is the key to enter universe,while tagalog is the key to live in over populated capital of the country that mostly suffered in poverty,crimes and injustices. i think tagalog does brought this country to suffered much in poverty,hunger and crimes as you see where there are not much people speaking tagalog they live in peace,love and harmony. i think tagalog brought curse if not badluck to this country,what do you think dude? Why did we adopt English more than Spanish compared to other former Spanish colonies? I think part of the answer is to see mass education (and national language policies) as a global trend that only took hold in the late 19th Century. By then, most Latin American countries had already become independent of Spain but continued to adopt Spanish as their lingua franca and continued to spread its usage among indigenous peoples. Philippines went on to be a Spanish colony for most of the 19th Century. And because of the lost of colonies, Spain might have been more cautious about spreading mass education. When mass education did eventually take hold in the Philippines, we were already an American colony, hence, the common usage of English and not Spanish.
The reason Spanish did not become the lingua-franca in the Philippines was due to the fact that during the 300 years period of colonization there were just actually a handful of Spaniards in the country as opposed to their numbers in the South Americas and primary school attendance were not compulsory until 1863 when it was decreed that separate schools for boys and girls were supposed to be opened in towns with a parish but it did not happen because of shortage of spanish teachers. As a result, only the rich could afford schooling in schools located in Manila and other big cities. Spanish was the official language in government transactions, documents and proceedings but the Pinoys could not speak or understand and so they employ somebody in their behalf called abogados for a fee.
Collorarily, I could not fathom why it took 300 hundred years for abused 3.5 million Pinoys to topple (w/t Amreica’s help) a few hundreds abusive Spaniards and reinforcement (just in case) from New Spain is 8000+ miles away. Sabi nila: matatapang daw ang Pinoys. Si Lapu-lapu lang pala. Ang mother tongue ko tagalog but unfortunately hindi nagagamit ko lang pag nasa bakasyon ako ( OFW )actually hindi nga rin masyado dahil ang anak ko mas madalas mag ingles, which is good for her kasi sooner or later kailangan niya gamitin pag nagtrabaho na siya.Let's face it wala masyadong trabaho maooffer ang Pilipinas mron man pag inenterbyu ka may mga nagtatagalog ba sa mga nagiinterbyu sa iyo, or pag nagbasa ka or kailngan gumawa ng report sa opisina tagalog ba ? I doubt it !So let's face the it importante sa buhay ng mga Filipino ang wikang ingles dahil sa wikang yan kumukuha ang napakarming kababayan natin na nasa ibang bansa ng ipapakain sa kani kanilang pamilya.So sana palawakin din natin ang wikang ingles sa mga eskwelahan ,the way na pinapalawak natin ang wikang filipino.
I wish na Filipino na lang talaga ang gamitin ko wika pero imposible dahil at the end of the story kailangan ko pa rin lumabas ng bansa para matugunan ko ang responsabilidad ko sa pamilya ko.Kung sinasala lang sana ng sambayanan tao ang kanikanilang mga binoboto sana mataas ang confidence ng mga investor sa atin at makapag create ng trabaho.Kung sa trabaho na inaapalayan inaalam at binubusisi ang credentials ng isang aplikante bakit sa pulitika wala .Kahit ako na investor bakit ako magiinvest sa pilipinas eh kung ang karamihan na nasa gobyerno ay mga artista at atleta.Hanggat ganito ang sytema ng gobyerno sa pilipinas,Ingles ang importanteng wika para sa akin bilang isang OFW. Maraming Salamat kay James Soriano binuhay niya ang diwa ng bawat isa sa atin. How about keeping an open-mind to learn
not just one or two languages but multiple languages or dialects--and be globally competitive,informed & confident. Possibilities are endless if we are willing to learn, willing to challenge our minds to meet or exceed our full potential as human beings. Correction: The Philippines is no longer the only Catholic country in Asia, we must share this outdated claim to fame with East Timor. However, the Philippines is still the largest predominantly Catholic Asian country by virtue of having a larger population of Catholic citizens.
A mother tongue should not be an issue. All races in the world has their mother tongue that they can be proud of. For the Filipinos, whether it is Cebuano,Ilocano or Kapampangan,or tagalog, you still speak your mother tongue. In this regard, Filipino became our official language to resolve this issue on our diversified languages. And since Tagalog has been contested as not the predominant Language in the Philippines, Tagalog instead like other dialects spoken in other regions and provinces became an integral parts of the Filipino Lanuage. Language is dynamic, and so, it is not true that Filipino Language does not grow and exist without updating itself on the changes of our times. Sad to say, the Filipinos are still confused and don't know their identity as a race, and as a nation. Filipinos should unite themselves to carry in their pockets their own language while excelling in using other countries' languages. Be proud to say that Filipinos speak Filipino Language and They are also better speakers of English or Spanish. That's more admiring!
Human resource is our best export product.We should always be proud of that. Other countries export products which deteriorates or devalues after a certain time. But the Philippines export, which is human resource, appreciates in the course of its stay in the country where he/she is working. Mabuhay OFW's.
Ang aking mother tongue ay tagalog dahil ito ang aking kinagisnan na salita. Noong nasa mababang paaralan pa ako (mga 1970s), hirap ako sa Pilipino at ito karaniwan ang pinakamababa kong grado, mababa pa sa math.
Hirap ako sa Pilipino noon sapagka't maraming salita (words) na hindi pangkaraniwang ginagamit sa pang araw-araw na pakikipag-usap. Ang dictionary noon ng ingles-pilipino/pilipino-ingles ay manipis pa sa komiks. Wala akong mapagtanungan dahil ang aking mga magulang, bagaman ang nanay ko ay tagalog/ilokano at ang tatay ko ay tagalog/bicolano, hindi rin ganoon kalalim ang kaalaman nila sa wikang Pilipino. Magaling silang magsalita, sumulat at bumasa ng ingles. Ngayon, na ako ay nasa ibang bansa na, mas madalas kong gamitin ang wikang ingles lalo na sa mga pagtitipon na halo ang mga uri ng tao. Ngunit kapag nasa bahay o sa pagtitipon ng mga kamag-anak ako ay nagtatagalog, hindi nagpi-pilipino. Sa aking palagay, wala namang masama kung mas bihasa tayong magsalita, magsulat at magbasa ng ingles. Sana lang ay huwag nating kalimutan ang ating sariling wika. Siguro naman mayroon ng mas makapal at buong (comprehensive?) ingles-pilipino/pilipino-ingles dictionary na maaari nating gamitin ngayong panahon na ito. Mother tongue ko Bisaya. Pero sa manila ako tumagal sa pagtratrabaho, kaya kelangan kung magtagalog sa mga kahalobilo kung tao. Englis naman ang kailangan kung gamitin para trabaho ko. Dito ako kumikita e, kumbaga ito yung bread and butter ko. Samakatuwid, hindi "big deal" ang pagpupumilit ng iba diyan na gumamit ng wikang Pilipino. Para sa akin, pang-Linggo ng Wika lang ang Filipino. Pero hindi ito sukatan sa pagiging pagka-Pilipino mo.
bicol ang mother tongue ko pero dahil hindi makaintindi ng bicol ang lahat ng pilipino kaya ang tagalog ang ginagamit ko sa pakikipag-usap sa mga pilipinong hindi makaintindi ng bicol at kung hindi maintindihan ang wikang tagalog ay sa ingles ko na lang sila kinakausap at kung hindi pa rin makaintindi tigil ang kwentuhan dahil wala rin saysay pag-uusap kung hindi lang naman magkakaintindihan.
ayon sa Biblia dati isang wika lang ang ginagamit ng lahat,pero dahil sa pagkakaisa ng mga tao noon na magtayo ng pagkataas-taas na tore para marating ang langit doon naisipan ng Diyos na gibain ang nasabing tore at milagrong hindi na nagkakaintindihan ang mga tao dahil magkaiba na ang mga pananalita ng mga tao dahilan para hindi na nila naipagpatuloy ang kanilang planong pagtatayo ng tore na aabot sa kalangitan na para sa Diyos ay isang kabaliwan pinaggagawa ng mga tao. noon panahon narito pa sa mundong ito si Kristo anong wika ang gamit nila? at sa langit anong wika kaya ang ginagamit ng Diyos sa pakikipag-usap Nya sa Kanyang mga anghel at sa mga mapalad na tao na nasa Kanya ng Kaharian? my hubby could tell easily if the group of people that were gathering around him are chinese,filipino,thai,bombay,latinos,malay or japanese although we all has similar looks simply thru listening to their conversation.
religion and cultures also help identify ones race but we could quickly tell what country they are from by the native languages they used. well in heaven we will all just speak in one language and i hope that would be english so i don´t need to learn another languages just to understand them. PH has the highest birth rate in Asia. The bigger the population the higher the chances we preserve the native language. Thanks to the Church for indulging us to poverty while the priest are living comfortably with church wealth donated by the poor. Stop the hipocrisy of the churches.
PH will speak better Tagalog and English if educated will like the priests. because of globalization, more and more people are finding English the important language to know. Wouldnt it be weird the day it becomes everybodys mother language?
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