English is cool,
Filipino English is 'kulang'
By Raul C. Pangalangan

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THE latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) research group shows that Filipinos' self-assessed proficiency in English has declined. The March 2006 survey shows a decline in all aspects of English proficiency, compared to earlier SWS surveys done in 1993 and 2000. The latest nationwide survey was commissioned by the Promoting English Proficiency Project, a joint initiative by the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila and the Makati Business Club, and was also supported by several foreign chambers of commerce involved in an English-is-Cool campaign.

Before I pontificate on speaking the universal language of the 21st century, allow me a little confession. When my parents enrolled me in first grade in Lourdes School of Mandaluyong City, I struggled with the entrance test because, all things considered, I didn't speak a word of English.

I grew up in a purely Tagalog-speaking home, and during the exam, when the teachers asked me basic yes-or-no questions, I had to keep telling my six-year-old brain that "yes" meant "oo" and "no" meant "hindi." Mercifully, the school principal, Mr. Patricio Soliman, took pity on the hapless Tagalog-speaking kid, and I spent my next 10 happy and well-rewarded years on the sprawling campus on what was then a still bucolic Shaw Boulevard.

Many years later, when I was at Harvard Law School and I won coveted writing prizes, someone asked casually where I learned to write in English, expecting perhaps that I would answer, "In Massachusetts." I proudly told him, "In Mandaluyong." (The urban legend has the legendary Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson being similarly queried as he was getting off his ship, and shouting back, "In the boat!")

In the SWS survey, I was most interested in the findings on "personal use" of English, which I took to mean those who spoke English often in their daily lives, without being compelled by a teacher or a boss. Given a range of options, 5 percent said they made "full use" of English, 35 percent "fair use," 27 percent "partial use," 19 percent "no use" and 14 percent "no competence" in any way in English.

The results also show that personal usage was higher in Metro Manila and in the Visayas than in other areas, in the cities more than the provinces, among the wealthier rather than poorer and, a pleasant surprise, more among the youth than their elders. The combined "full use-fair use" group thus brings to 40 percent the Filipinos who speak English on their own, lower than the 47 percent that registered in the September 2000 survey-disappointing though not disheartening.

Other Asian countries send their youth to the Philippines to learn English. English-wise, we are way ahead of our Asian neighbors, but they are swiftly catching up. When I have foreign guests, they ask how they can give instructions to their Manila cab driver, and I say nonchalantly that they can speak in English to any cab driver and they will manage. Try doing that in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur.

As Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov famously asked: "What Is To Be Done?" The most basic is to improve the English competency of the teachers themselves.

For my generation, all subjects were taught in English, and Filipino was used only in one subject called "Filipino" and the subject called "Language" was actually taught in English! We have since reformed. Today, we acknowledge that teaching the basic subjects to primary school children in a foreign language makes no sense. The child has enough problems with math, and then we compound his problems by teaching it in a language he doesn't understand. The young ones today learn many of their subjects in Filipino, and that is only wise.

The old approach bordered on some sort of "immersion," but it only resulted in all the subjects being taught in equally poor English. Since the goal is, for instance, to make math understandable, whatever that takes -- and it is then left to the English teacher to undo the damage.

What I insist on is that the few times that English is taught, it must be taught well. Indeed, that is the reason Asian parents send their children to Manila; their teaching methods are so exam-oriented, so traditionally Asian, that they produce students who score 100 percent in vocabulary and grammar exams but can't order a Super Champ with fries at Jollibee.

The threshold problem of a back-to-English program is Taglish [Tagalog-English mix]. It feels so natural and easy, a practical Filipino solution when one fumbles around for words and intuitively strings together the best words to convey the exact thought from one mind to another. But, we must realize, that is true only if we will be talking just to one another all our lives, and in this globalized world, that will not happen.

What shouldn't be done is for schools to create a language police and penalize those who say "Aray" instead of "Ouch." I realize that this resembles the usual "language tables" used in schools abroad. But given our history with the English language, the "English-only zones" might seem too contrived and will turn away otherwise enthusiastic or sympathetic students.

Finally, I have elsewhere argued that the real bane of language teaching in our country is our colonial attitude toward foreign tongues, and our tendency to be embarrassed and to feel inferior that we do not speak it like their natives. Hey, it's just a way of talking and writing. Our inner selves, our dignity, are not diminished by not sounding or writing like them. But it is certainly imperative that we learn their tongue because we want to open the door to a new universe and, in the case of English, we desperately need it to compete for jobs and investments in increasingly competitive markets.

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