Tag: languages

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When In Rome

There’s a saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. I suppose that means speaking in the Roman language, which is Latin (so it would be:  si fueris R?mae, R?m?n? v?vit? m?re; si fueris alib?, v?vit? sicut ibi). It does make sense and I wholeheartedly agree. No sense getting into a miscommunication and getting yourself sold off to slavery or, worse, getting the wrong end of a gladius. Besides, it’s the perfect opportunity to practice your Latin.

So I was in Davao over the weekend and I had the opportunity to talk with people and practice my not-to-often-used Cebuano. What struck me is that the ostensibly more upscale workers (salesladies, receptionists, clerks, etc) would talk to me in Tagalog even though I was initiating the conversation in Cebuano. I don’t know if they are taking pity on my Cebuano or they’re practicing Tagalog. Personally, I don’t think my Cebuano is that bad. Nor do I think they need to practice their perfect Tagalog.

But if they indeed are practicing another language, they might as well be practicing English. Tagalog offers no competitive advantage. English at least is our global competitive advantage. Other countries are trying hard to improve their English skills. Everybody should continue honing their English. And more importantly, I get to do so, too.

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K-12: Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education

The K-12 Program is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education and covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education. One of the features of the program is Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBME). From the government site:

Students are able to learn best through their first language, their Mother Tongue (MT). Twelve (12) MT languages have been introduced for SY 2012-2013: Bahasa Sug, Bikol, Cebuano, Chabacano, Hiligaynon, Iloko, Kapampangan, Maguindanaoan, Meranao, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and Waray. Other local languages will be added in succeeding school years.

Aside from the Mother Tongue, English and Filipino are taught as subjects starting Grade 1, with a focus on oral fluency. From Grades 4 to 6, English and Filipino are gradually introduced as languages of instruction. Both will become primary languages of instruction in Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS).

Supposedly the mother tongue of the particular school district will be used as the medium of teaching. As previously there has been effort to use Tagalog Filipino as the medium of teaching, the idea is good as it benefits children whose mother tongue is not Tagalog (though these children usually speak three languages, unlike Tagalog-speakers who usually speak only two languages). But what if the child’s first language and mother tongue is English?

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Language For Teaching

Tonight, my uncle and cousins encountered a taxi driver sidelining as a linguist (or is it the other way around?). His name is Vicente (just like my uncle) and he speaks several languages including English, Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, even Japanese. He seemed to be a smart, learned guy. I wonder which language he uses to teach his kids. Experts say that the best language for teaching is the child’s first language. I expect it would. Of course, the educational material, e.g. books, would also need to be on that first language. It’s easy to say there’s no reason why we can’t develop material for a particular language since the Japanese, Chinese, etc were able to do it. But those languages have millions of users with a huge pool of domain experts. If you are to take that concept here, you’re talking a dozen languages with a few million users each with a smaller percentage of domain experts much more those capable of developing educational material. I say instead of changing the language used at school, change the first language to the one used at school be it primary, secondary, tertiary, or beyond.

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I Hate Tagalog On Google

Google’s predilection to default to Tagalog even when I’m already logged in irritates me to no end. Alex tried to invite me to Google+ and I clicked the “Join Google+” button. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Already miffed at still not being in, I got more so when I saw “+Ikaw” and the rest of the page in Tagalog (“Palagi Akong Balitaan”, etc). As John Malkovich’s character said in the latest Transformers movie, WTF to that! And then it gives me an option to translate it to English like it’s an afterthought. Also, is there anything more awkward than “+Ikaw”? How do you read that anyway? “Dagdag ikaw”? “Karagdagang ikaw”? I generally mislike Tagalog on the web but I just hate this stupid behavior of Google’s. I expect it to be smarter. And before anybody starts preaching about loving your own, Tagalog is my third language. My first and second are either of English and Cebuano. So there.