MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

When speaking in English could be a problem
By Miss Mae, Forum member

At first it didn’t occur to me that speaking in English could be a problem.

I can speak in English whenever necessary. But that was before. Before my first brain operation. The last time I was heard speaking English fluently was when my grade-school assistant principal visited me in the ICU (I wasn’t fully conscious then so I learned about this only later). Then again after my embolization. Then again after another medical procedure. Then again after another…

So I ended up talking in Taglish. It is Tagalog and American English combined, and I didn’t think it an issue until I went to college. Fusing them could be a way to colonize the Philippines' former colonizers , a friend had said. I didn’t have a better argument so I went along with the idea halfheartedly.

I then would speak in Tagalog only when the situation called for it, and would speak straight English the best I can when talking to non-Filipinos. Still, I couldn’t wave off the thought that I was disrespecting the two languages. English did not originate from America, and Tagalog is a language the Filipinos had fought for. Yet, if there are right and noble reasons for mixing them, why then do some Filipinos themselves disfavor speaking in Taglish?

I discovered the answer to that recently.

About 140 kilometers away from the city where I live is Dubai. It is the “tourist paradise” of the United Arab Emirates, what with its attractive buildings, beaches, and gardens. Our first stop was Ikea, a furniture shop offering Swedish breakfast on its upper level at a fraction of its usual cost in other restaurants.

Tired and hungry, my two friends and I took a minute before realizing that the elevator we took was not moving. “You have to push the button,” the lady behind me said. She had blond hair and was wearing staff uniform.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” my friend said. “We’re just so excited after our two-hour ride from Al Ain. How about you? Where are you from?” 

“Batangas,” the lady answered in the familiar diction of people who hail from that province. She covered her mouth immediately afterwards, though, and hurriedly walked out of the elevator that had opened up just then.

I really have nothing against Filipinos from Batangas. It was only much later, in fact, that I I realized how uncouth that lady in the elevator had behaved despite being a member of the shop’s staff. But that incident made me conscious of a divide between Filipinos who prefer speaking in English and those who prefer speaking in Tagalog. It made me realize that English has become a medium to discriminate against Filipinos who can’t speak it, and that Taglish has become the tool for some Filipinos to level the playing field, so to speak. Speaking in Taglish, after all, could give them a chance to still communicate with their English-speaking countrymen. 

For that reason, I have decided to discontinue using English when talking with my fellow Filipinos verbally. I will do so until such time that most of my countrymen can properly use English as the global language that it is—a means to make themselves understood wherever they might be in the world. (October 27, 2013)

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