SAVING OUR LANGUAGES THROUGH FEDERALIZATION PART II - Languages

(continued)

Because there is no indigenous ethnolinguistic people that speaks English or French in these areas, use of these neutral languages places all of the native peoples in a linguistically equal level, and affords protection for the smaller groups. Did using English as a common tongue make the Philippines poor? Obviously not; and we were more economically well off at this period. The peoples of the provinces also took pride in their local languages, and thus their ancestral identities, which made it more difficult for the center to step on their economic and political rights.

C. To learn English is to stop being patriotic. Again, false. English is the international language of science and trade. There have been precedents. Before English, Latin was the international language of science and trade for perhaps 1500 years. Before Latin, it was Greek. Science classes were often taught in Latin until the early 20th century. The great seminal works of science, including Newton’s Principia Mathematica, Linnaeus’s taxonomic naming of species, and many early medical books were in Latin. Newton was definitely a patriotic Englishman, but to communicate with the rest of the scientific world, he used Latin without a qualm.

D. The 'Filipino' that is being rammed into the minds of all Filipino children is easy and convenient to learn, as evidenced by most Filipinos having learned it. This is twisted reasoning. Everyone who has gone through the Philippine educational system knows 'Filipino', not because it is easy and convenient to learn, but precisely because it is taught in the educational system. Any language taught to elementary and high school children as an academic subject will be learned by them. Even if we pretend to be a devil's advocate and espouse a unity in language uniformity for the Philippines, 'Filipino' is not the easiest Philippine language to learn, as mentioned above. Furthermore, the reason why the national media is in 'Filipino' is because everyone has been forced to learn it by an educational system that flunks you if you don’t.

Recommendations:

We should implement a program to save our natural and ancient pre-Spanish languages and the ethnolinguistic peoples that they define:

1. Teach our languages in schools in their traditional areas, especially for history and literature, and many of the arts and humanities, while retaining English for the Sciences.

2. Create a dictionary, syllabus, and literature for all the languages. (This is necessary if we are to teach our languages in schools.)

3. Promote economic prosperity for all our ethnolinguistic peoples so that they take pride in preserving their language and identity.

4. Promote political freedom for our ethnolinguistic peoples so that they are free to move to save their language and identity.

5. Teach one or two Philippine language electives in the Tagalog regions so that Tagalogs in general will learn to tolerate and respect their fellow Filipinos as brethren and peers, and not as inferior races and provincianos.

There is no legal barrier to this program, and in fact our Constitution says that our regional languages should be auxiliary media of instruction.

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Page Updated Fri Oct 8, 2004 11:06pm EDT