English As Our Official Language - Languages - http://maxpages.com/defender/English

In a message dated 8/30/2004 11:31:47 AM Pacific Standard Time, enc@MUDSPRING.UPLB.EDU.PH writes:

To speakers of Philippines languages who cannot understand it,
Tagalog is as foreign as English. It may be related to other
Philippine languages, but it is not mutually intelligible with them.
If we go by the Philippine experience in public schools during the
American period, schoolchildren were able to learn to speak
acceptable English in a reasonably short time. If the indigenous
languages, if their mother tongues, CANNOT BE TAUGHT, why imprison
non-Tagalogs with a language not their own, in which they can
communicate only with the Tagalog region, and not allow them to learn
a language with which they can understand the rest of the world?
That is, if communication (and not language survival or cultural
preservation) is your only concern.

Our objective in supporting English as medium of instruction (instead of Tagalog) in our schools if our own languages are not included in the options is two-pronged:

1. Because English, like what Professor Jean Edades said, is our link to the world.
It is an asset to job-seekers in the middle-east and other places where knowledge
of English is required. Can your sense of nationalism help you? Like in the game
Trivial Pursuit where knowledge is trivial, such nationalistic sense is also trivial to
many, given the fact that it is not their language. So, perhaps only the indigenous speakers of such a language, the Tagalogs themselves, stand to benefit in it if is made medium of instruction.

2. Because English, unlike Tagalog, won't ever take the place of our local languages,
making the latter safe from disappearing. Tagalog, especially with its prestige as
the country's national language, could eventually displace our indigenous languages.
As a consequence, all the beautiful literary works we have preserved through the ages would go down the drain. With English at the helm, their continued existence
is more of less assured.

So it's really a matter of life and death sit uation for our local languages. Support a sister native-language and you're setting your own language into "self-destruct" . Yes it will be a time bomb that would eventually blow all the other languages to kingdom come! Let's beware of it.

Cabalern

In a message dated 8/31/2004 12:58:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, emmafrugaard@hotmail.com writes:

I don`t really get it!
We struggle to save our indigenous language while we at the same time undermine it?!

Emma, this is not really quite a dilemma! You just have to choose between being
a nationalist who would eventually lose her own language through the unification
process called "ethnic cleansing" (see Jed and Herb's article of the same title), or "language genocide" (see David Martinez's A Country of My Own) or being a universalist or globalist (coined words for an adherrent to globalization) which would enable us to communicate with the outside world but still keep our languages alive.

We're not undermining our languages when we choose a foreign tongue to serve as
the medium of instruction in schools. Remember, English is not just a foreign tongue like Sawili or that foreign language in Timbuktu. It is an international language used
all over the world. Aren't you happy in that you can understand and speak in English
and can communicate with peoples of other countries? Or would you be contented with just knowing how to communicate in Tagalog with fellow Filipinos? You see,
Filipinos over the age of forty and who were educated differently and don't have as
much nationalistic sense inculcated in their hearts, don't care so much about the
national language. Of course, I'm referring to those who were not born with it, such as natural born Kapampangans, Cebuanos, Warays, etc. These people do not regard it as their language and don't have that same attitude and pride glowing, like for instance, in the late Manuel Quezon, Salvador Laurel or Blas Ople's heart. It is their own language that they are proud of. This is not an indication of their lack of loyalty to their country or their utter lack of appreciation of their fellow Filipinos. Far from that. It's just that their own indigenous culture is what they are proud of more.
They are bringing out the best in themselves. Let's not allow the sense of nationalism blind us. No matter what we speak, whether we live in the Philippines or are in diaspora, we are still Filipinos and can co-exist and be friends with one another. Like halo-halo we can be mixed together and can taste better than if there were only one ingredient. That's how we should see the importance of language diversity vis-a-vis being united by having only one language.

We don' t expect harmony of opinions here in DILA, unlike in UNT (United non-Tagalogs). DILA is a battlefield where opinions on language are intelligently presented, discussed and debated. Like what Harvey says, we are just starting to voice our opinions in where for some 70 years we had been quiet to the extent of being misconstrued as agreeable to the language status quo. The birth of the internet has been a boon to us. Computers and the internet enable us to tell the world what we have been thinking all along - something we would have found cumbersome and inconvenient if we were to do the same by writing on paper, using the postal service and getting our messages published in newspapers. Yes, thanks to this modern technology in communication, although I would say that this can also have an adverse effect on us if martial law is tyranically imposed on language. Then, of course, in addition to e-mail services that were not around 20 years ago, we now have internet forums provided free for us by Yahoo and other servers. All these have encouraged and enabled us to say what is brewing in our hearts. With the establishment of DILA as a forum, we no longer have to write Letters to the Editor, letters we take time in writing but which may not even see print. So do you now see why we are just now starting to complain and air the grievances that have been in our hearts for a long time now? With the passing years, many have learned to accept Pilipino as the national language like in your particular case. Many among the non-Tagalogs have become Tagalistas and have helped in the marginalization of their own local languages - a collaboration condemned by the die-hards, the red-blooded and the true-blue. But fortunately for the latter, there are still many among us who'd rather fight than switch. For as defenders of the indigenous languages of the archipelago, our cause is worthy, and our intentions, noble. May God be with us
for always.

CabalerRn

Yeah, we have to make it happen! Remember the
movie, Field of Dreams? If you build it, they will
come. And true to that, here we are!

From Harvey Fiji:

To Emma:

I beg to differ with a few of your points.

You wrote:

"We are not at war on the turf of language. Filipino has been
accepted..."

I would submit otherwise. We ARE at war here, where only two
results are possible: either our languages die at the hands
of "Filipino" or "Filipino" is contained within the Tagalog homeland-
-assuming that they want it in the first place.

The question of whether Filipino has really been "accepted" is still
open to debate. It is still open to debate whether resignation to
fate, ignorance, or collaboration for the purposes of getting one's
bread buttered constitutes "acceptance".

The war never really ended, in one sense the war has just begun.
Being silent or isolated in our opposition for more than 70 years,
we have just slowly begun to find our voice.

You also wrote: it falls short of our expectations.

Of course it does! Because it is NOT OUR NATIVE LANGUAGE.

3. Many of us many not be happy about these developments"

Actually, we're more than just unhappy, we're furious. There's no
need to beat around the bush, let's be frank here--most of us here,
except for the partisans of the imperial subdialect who are jubilant
at what they perceive as their apparent triumph, are furious about
the national language and "furious" is an understatement.

Yes, we should preserve the literary heritage of our respective
captive nations and it's excellent that you're writing in Cebuano,
but we must also realize that all of these would only be delaying
the inevitable unless we deal head-on with Manila. Writing
literature and compiling anthologies, as well as giving them
political, financial support is great and should be encouraged but
at the same time we should realize that these would only be
rearguard actions UNLESS they are coupled with actions directed at
addressing the very policies that caused the marginalization of our
languages in the first place. Sooner or later we have to come to
terms with the biggest obstacle known as the Philippine State.

You write "we cannot win anything by caviling"

History teaches us otherwise.

Example one: Belgium from 1840s was officially MONOLINGUAL in
French and was that way until the 1960s and 1970s. That means that
while the Philippines had "Filipino" since (about 70 years), Belgium
had a French-only policy for about 120 years. If the Flemish had
not engaged in "caviling", French would still be the exclusive
language of Belgium today. Today, Flemish speakers are educated in
Flemish and their language is equal in stature with French (and
German) within the Belgian borders.

Example two: Franco was ruthlessly trying to make the Catalans,
Basques, Galicians etc. carbon copies of the Castillians by
repressing their languages and their cultures just as Quezon and his
successors have been trying to do until this day. (To Franco's
credit, he was at least honest about it though his actions are still
reprehensible and detestable). Basque and Catalan "caviling"
through their usage of a variety of cultural, literary and political
tools forced Madrid to give them linguistic rights.

Example three: The French Canadians "caviling" about English
dominance forced Ottawa to accomodate them.

To state that we can do little to stop the national language is to
be defeatist. If we really believed that, this group DILA would
NEVER HAVE BEEN FORMED NOR WOULD WE HAVE JOINED IT. It is precisely
because we believe that something can be done that this group was
formed.

Lastly, I seemed to detect an insinuation in your post that DILA
members are only engaged in 'caviling' but not much else. That
would be a serious mistake. DILA members have been engaged in
projects related to our languages, aside from speaking out against
the policies. One example: The founder of this very group published
a dictionary for his native Kapampangan language. Another example:
our moderator here has a website devoted to the Bisaya group of
languages.

To repeat, yes, we must support the preservation of our different
languages and cultures but at the same time we should be doing
something to END THE LINGUISTIC APARTHEID. And voicing our
opposition to the national language policies is just the FIRST (but
not the only) STEP.

--Harvey
Waray-Waray Nation

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