Friday, August 26, 2011

James Soriano Article

Biglang nagkaroon ng trend ng link sa pesbuk at sa twitter at ito ay may kinalaman sa isang article na inilathala sa Manila Bulletin last Aug. 24. Ito ay sa isang narration ng isang person named James Soriano tungkol sa wikang ingles at sa wikang filipino. Sa sobrang hotness ng issue ay tinanggal sa site ng MB ang article.

Buti na lang may copy and paste option at nagawa ko pang makakuha ng kopya.

Heto ang kanyang artikulo sa ingles. Ka-nosebleed. lols.

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Language, learning, identity, privilege

Ithink
By JAMES SORIANO
August 24, 2011, 4:06am

MANILA, Philippines — English is the language of learning. I’ve known this since before I could go to school. As a toddler, my first study materials were a set of flash cards that my mother used to teach me the English alphabet.

My mother made home conducive to learning English: all my storybooks and coloring books were in English, and so were the cartoons I watched and the music I listened to. She required me to speak English at home. She even hired tutors to help me learn to read and write in English.

In school I learned to think in English. We used English to learn about numbers, equations and variables. With it we learned about observation and inference, the moon and the stars, monsoons and photosynthesis. With it we learned about shapes and colors, about meter and rhythm. I learned about God in English, and I prayed to Him in English.

Filipino, on the other hand, was always the ‘other’ subject — almost a special subject like PE or Home Economics, except that it was graded the same way as Science, Math, Religion, and English. My classmates and I used to complain about Filipino all the time. Filipino was a chore, like washing the dishes; it was not the language of learning. It was the language we used to speak to the people who washed our dishes.

We used to think learning Filipino was important because it was practical: Filipino was the language of the world outside the classroom. It was the language of the streets: it was how you spoke to the tindera when you went to the tindahan, what you used to tell your katulong that you had an utos, and how you texted manong when you needed “sundo na.”

These skills were required to survive in the outside world, because we are forced to relate with the tinderas and the manongs and the katulongs of this world. If we wanted to communicate to these people — or otherwise avoid being mugged on the jeepney — we needed to learn Filipino.

That being said though, I was proud of my proficiency with the language. Filipino was the language I used to speak with my cousins and uncles and grandparents in the province, so I never had much trouble reciting.

It was the reading and writing that was tedious and difficult. I spoke Filipino, but only when I was in a different world like the streets or the province; it did not come naturally to me. English was more natural; I read, wrote and thought in English. And so, in much of the same way that I learned German later on, I learned Filipino in terms of English. In this way I survived Filipino in high school, albeit with too many sentences that had the preposition ‘ay.’

It was really only in university that I began to grasp Filipino in terms of language and not just dialect. Filipino was not merely a peculiar variety of language, derived and continuously borrowing from the English and Spanish alphabets; it was its own system, with its own grammar, semantics, sounds, even symbols.

But more significantly, it was its own way of reading, writing, and thinking. There are ideas and concepts unique to Filipino that can never be translated into another. Try translating bayanihan, tagay, kilig or diskarte.

Only recently have I begun to grasp Filipino as the language of identity: the language of emotion, experience, and even of learning. And with this comes the realization that I do, in fact, smell worse than a malansang isda. My own language is foreign to me: I speak, think, read and write primarily in English. To borrow the terminology of Fr. Bulatao, I am a split-level Filipino.

But perhaps this is not so bad in a society of rotten beef and stinking fish. For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned.

It is neither the language of the classroom and the laboratory, nor the language of the boardroom, the court room, or the operating room. It is not the language of privilege. I may be disconnected from my being Filipino, but with a tongue of privilege I will always have my connections.

So I have my education to thank for making English my mother language.


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Nagdugo ba mga ilonglong nio? ako oo. So ano reaction ninyo? Well?


May 2 sides of the coin, may pros at cons sabi nga ng iba. (wow, me gantong factore? yes, meron na). Sa katulad ng author na tila namuhay sa marangya at sosyal na life, masasabi nga nia na it's like the language of the kalye. Pero pero pero, may mali padin on how he deliver the article. 


Well heniway hiway, sa tingin ko ay panandaliang issue lang to at sa huli ay huhupa din at matitigil ito. o sya, sya, sya..... hanggang dito na lang muna. TC!

11 comments:

  1. awww. parang kaugali nya 'yung nag-comment sakin sa DF na ang galing ko raw magkuweto sa pamamaraang pang-kalye. syet, di ko alam kung papuri o insulto!

    gusto lang sumikat nyang author. lilipas din yan. \m/

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  2. Naks naman bihasa sa ingles si mr. writer. Sana magaling din ako magingles tulad niya.

    i get a hint na parang proud siya na hindi siya masyado marunong mag Tagalog. As if to say, Filipino is a second class language.

    In theory, it shouldn't be. Pareho lang.

    The reality however is - oo, hindi siya as valuable as mastering the English language (with a twang!).

    At least he was honest about it.

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  3. well may mga kanya kanyang opinyon talaga. i respect his

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  4. may konting katotohanan ang ilan sa mga sinabi nya pero mali atang sabihin na ang wikang Filipino ay para sa lang sa kalsada, sa mga katulong, kay manong, sa tindera, upakan na yan! :))

    natatawa lang ako sa iba na pumupuna sa sumulat nyan.panay ang puna at reklamo ng iba sa mga nakasulat jan ang hindi nila napapansin sila etong panay ang english sa pagpuna at pagrereklamo...parang tama lang na sabihin na ang magnanakaw ay galit sa kapwa magnanakaw :D

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. He is the male version of Doña Victorina de Espadaña from the Noli Me Tangere, novel of Jose Rizal,

    Mabuti na lang at binura na ang article niya coz it an cause public outrage.

    Although may point siya pero sabihin na ang wikang pinoy ay pangkalsada ay di acceptable at nakakaoffend

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  7. Pinoy nga yan, ganyan pinoy eh. Shytype. Malamang nahihiya yang magtagalog. Pinoy eh. Mas cool daw pag english. Colonial mentality to. Kung yung magkamali nga sa grammar pagtatawanan ka ng kapwa mo pinoy, eto pa kayang wikang pinoy mismo na parang tinatakwil nya. Respeto? muka nya! bakit nirespeto nya ba ang wikang pinoy? Duh. Turn Off talaga ganyang pag-iisip. Umaarte talaga kaluluwa ko sa mga ganyang pinoy. Lumang issue na to kung tutuusin. Lilipas din nyan. Dami pang ganyang noypi.

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  8. Punyetakels lang khanto, magbblog lang mey dito sa sobrang violent reaction ...

    Unang-una, kaya lang naman naging major language ang English dito sa inang bayan nating wagas ay dahil sa english policy na bill, pero kung maipapasa ang multilingual educational system, iyang english na pinagmamalaki niya, pupulutin na lang sa cangcungan! Zhuzyal din mey ...

    Kainis, badtrip lang tuloy mey ngayong gabi dahil dito! Heyreet ... :|

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  9. He should have been informed! la lang, nosebleed much. :P

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So.......Ansabeh???