English, Pinoy Style
By Ronald S. Lim, Manila Bulletin

MANILA—When our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal declared that “those who do not love their mother tongue stink worse than fish,’’ he probably never thought of how much of an impact the English language would have on contemporary Philippine life.

Our proficiency in English has been credited with the influx of call centers in the country, which in turn have been credited with propping up our economy. Its use as the medium of instruction in our schools is constantly being debated, and writers and academics constantly argue as to whether the future of our literature lies in English or in our native tongue.

But is the English that we use today really a colonial legacy best discarded? Or is it something that has become uniquely Filipino through the passing years?

This was the focus of discussion at the recent Second Access Philippine English Language Conference, organized by the British Council and the University of the Philippines (UP), and held alongside the recent Manila International Book Fair.

“We Filipinos take our English very seriously. English incites such passions in these parts,” remarks UP professor Judy Ick, one of the three speakers at the conference.

“But despite seemingly random differences, both sides rest on a single assumption: That the English that arrived was the English that stayed.”

Aside from Ick, the two other speakers in the conference included Palanca-winning authors Jose “Butch” Dalisay and Jessica Zafra.

Full story...

“Ma’amsir” to “major major”: How English is a Philippine language
By Sam L. Marcelo, BusinessWorld

Venus Raj snatched defeat from the jaws of victory during the Miss Universe pageant when she flubbed the interview portion. Her answer to judge William Baldwin’s question “What was the one big mistake that you did in your life? And what did you do to make it right?” was so bizarre that it launched a thousand (and more) tweets and became a trending topic on Twitter.

Her 20-second reply became an international news item. It was dissected and analyzed, quoted and re-quoted until people on the street could repeat parts of it from memory: “In my 22 years of existence, I can say there is nothing major major problem that I have done in my life.”

A month later, “major major” is still a catch-phrase. And Ms. Raj, a journalism graduate who works as an information assistant, was still relevant enough to be a recurring topic at a forum held during the recent Second Access Philippine English Language Conference, which ran concurrently with the Manila International Book Fair.

“I don’t personally think that [Ms. Raj] made a mistake,” said a University of Santo Tomas (UST) professor who attended the conference. In fact, she added, “major major” has made it easier for her to teach lessons on the varieties of English.

Full story...

Education at Crossroads
By Aleck Francis “Koy-koy” T. Lim, The Bohol Standard

We’ve read many reports saying that quality of Philippine education is declining.

Depending on where you want to attack the issue, there are varied causes of this decline. And as what we had tackled before in this corner, the exodus of brilliant Filipino teachers who seek better pay abroad can be one of the relative causes of the problem. When we lose one inspiring, genius teacher, we lose thousands of opportunities for that teacher to make a difference in the lives of his/her students.

Another cause of the decline is the irrelevance of subjects being taught in high school and colleges. Some of the subjects in high school – like Filipino, Algebra, or Trigonometry – are still being taught in college when in fact they have basically the same teaching approach and coverage. A college student is supposed to be concentrating on his/her special field of interest, assuming that he/she had studied all the minor subjects in high school, but is distracted by many unimportant subjects.

On the other hand, there are those who claim that our problem in Philippine education starts in the formative years of the child. These Filipino educators argue that the use of English and Filipino in early childhood education can be damaging to a child’s mental framework.

Full story...

Ok, Hello, Goodbye: Diaries of an Emotional Miscreant
By Zach Davis, Journal-News.net

No matter the native tongue, the English word “ok” is almost universally understood. Even if the person to whom you are speaking does not speak English or can even speak the word properly, he or she will likely understand what you mean by “ok.” The same is true of “hello,” or its variant “hi,” and with “goodbye” or “bye.” These are the most commonly used words in English-speaking countries and are widely understood worldwide.

Here’s a question: why do non-native speakers grasp the concepts of “ok,” “hello,” and “goodbye” but people who speak English as their first language, people who have gone to school since they were very young to learn to speak it properly, have no idea what these words mean?

An example: suppose someone asks you how you’re feeling, and you reply with “ok.” Has it ever happened to you that a person says “Ok is not an answer.” Don’t you just want to slap someone when they say that? No, you don’t? Well, me neither. That would be wrong, wouldn’t it? You know, I was going to ask “Don’t you just want to kill someone that asks you that?” I had no idea I was addressing such true humanitarians. Anyway, has that response to your perfectly fine answer of “ok” ever ruffled your feathers, so to speak? (I assume, of course, that your feathers are strictly an illustrative device, much like the buttons that so many people are trying to push all the time, or the pot that some people just cannot help stirring.)

Full story...

Fighting to save the English language from text-speak
By Jennifer Samuels, CollegiateTimes.com

While it might not have the beauty of French or the intricacy of Mandarin Chinese, the English language is a complex thing. It can draw tears from its beauty, move mountains with its power or even incite a riot.

It draws 600 million people together from around the world. Yet now, more than ever, it struggles to stay alive. Its rapid decay has been documented in eighth grade English papers all across the globe as text-speak infiltrates the classroom, in the diminishing vocabulary of adults glued to their smart phones and even the student in West End’s interesting use of the word “you’s.”

I’m proud to say I am a strong supporter of the English language, but I am sad to report I am one of the few. I appreciate a good strong sense of diction, of word choice that breathes like a lyric. I long to hear eloquent speech, and I try my best to punctuate correctly. I even refrain from abbreviations, yet my work may not be enough.

I catch myself slipping more and more frequently, and perhaps it is the inevitable demise I have feared. English as we once knew it, in the worlds of Dickens and Wordsworth, is dead. It is buried six feet below, along with my mother’s fifth-grade time capsule. Its sense of wonder and mystery, its safety blanket of truth and clarity, is no longer there.

Full story...

Going beyond our mother tongue
By Park Sang-ik, Joongang Daily

We should ditch the rhetoric about the greatness of our language and create an intellectual infrastructure in Hangul.

Up until the 18th century, Latin reigned as the lingua franca among intellectuals in England. English was regarded as a dialect, good enough for popular novels and plays, but incapable of imparting great and complex concepts and thoughts. Few thought English could replace Latin’s prestige.

But there were pioneers who thought differently. Richard Mulcaster (1530-1611), revolutionary educator and headmaster of the country’s largest school, Merchant Taylors’ School in London, was an avid advocate of the English language.

“I love Rome, but London better. I favor Italy, but England more. I honor Latin, but worship English,” he said.

He campaigned for the propagation and greater use of the English language, emphasizing the richness and vitality of it. “I do not think any language is better able to utter all arguments, in more pith or great plainness, than the English tongue,” he wrote in “The Elementary,” published in 1582. And his prophesy was realized in the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

Despite passion and devotion to the language, Mulcaster knew English could not rival Latin on other soil. He predicted the English tongue would remain in the realms of the English islets, as his country had no ambitions to go out and conquer the world. Little did he know that 300 years later, his country would turn into a colonial empire on which the sun never set.

Full story...

The “Khul ja sim sim” tongue of the world
By Rashmee Roshan Lall, Times of India

The discovery of Arunachal Pradesh’s Koro brings the number of documented languages in the world to 6,910. English is just one of them but it is the only one that one-sixth of the planet knows at least a smattering of. This translates into a powerful economic reason to know enough English to get by in the world's bazaars.

Forget “the Queen’s English,” a term that dates back to 1592 and is starchily defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the English language as regarded as under the guardianship of the Queen; hence, standard or correct English.” It’s “Streetsmart English” or perhaps more accurately, “Self-reliance English” that is increasingly the need in India and a world that is speaking — and subduing — English in a way unheard of before. It is just another way to describe a “Khul ja sim sim” tongue that enables self-reliance and provides the magic words to open up hitherto off-limits treasures — information, opportunity, salaries, upward mobility.

It becomes easier to imagine the contours of the thrusting new English (language) empire by looking at the findings of a recent survey. Eurostat, the 27-member European Union’s statistics body, found that English has become Europe’s second language of choice. Two thirds of everyone on the continent is now able to speak English, it said. More than 300 million Europeans use English as their first foreign language.

Full story...

In Czech Republic, English is the language of tourism and travel
By Eric Begoun, The Guide

If you go to any klubu (club) in the Czech Republic, you are sure to hear one of the most popular songs right now “We No Speak Americano” by Yolanda Be Cool. While this catchy dance tune may get your groove started during a night out on the town, it has a message that is more than just a call to the dance floor.

In almost all of Europe, including the Czech Republic, English has become the international language of tourism and travel. More than just a convenience for American study abroad students, English creates much discussion and debate on the continent across the pond.

Walk into any store in Prague and rest assured that at least one of the employees has a general knowledge of the English language. Working at the register at a fast food chain like McDonald’s requires a basic mastery of it, whereas in the United States it is an accomplishment just to become passable at a foreign language. American exchange students are clearly spoiled when it comes to traveling in a foreign country, and most of us take full advantage of this situation of English as the universal second language.

It is also important to keep in mind that it is not just Americans, Australians and Brits who are using English as their communicative language of choice in the Czech Republic. With more than 23 official languages in the European Union and dozens more regional and smaller tongues, Europeans from Finland to France, Poland to Portugal learn English at a very early age to be able to communicate outside of their own national borders.

Full story...

Don’t touch me on my Zulu
By Fred Khumalo, TimesLive.co.za

I hate the sound of English in the morning. Especially over the weekend. I mean, I spend the bulk of the week twisting my tongue and honking my nose in my earnest attempt at speaking English as she is spake by my white colleagues.

All my flends call me Fled over the weekend because I have told them I don't want to hear the letter “r” then

I hate it when white people keep saying: “I beg your pardon?” simply because a darkie has mispronounced an English word, so I try my best to be as close to the real pronunciation as possible.

But much as I love the English language, I hate the sound of it on a Saturday or Sunday morning. I want to dream and wake up in Zulu over the weekend.

So, when my children come to my bedroom on a Saturday morning and speak English to me, I want to run out of the house, down the street and, like Wesley Snipes in the closing segments of the movie Jungle Fever scream: "Nooooooooo!"

Full story...

How far do we push the language envelope?
By Hau Boon Lai, The Star.my

To describe or to prescribe, that is the question linguists and users have to face when dealing with language.

Have you ever felt like you are the only one left in the world who thinks the phrasal verb “impact on” should not be used? Do you cringe each time you hear someone say: “this action impacts (on) the bottom line negatively” instead of “this action has a negative impact on the bottom line”?

If so, welcome to the club of English language users on the more prescriptive side fighting a losing battle against the more descriptive users who believe that it is the job of linguists to document the language and not to dictate what people say or write in a language.

In other words, if large numbers of people began to use “impact on” as a phrasal verb frequently enough, descriptive linguists will include the meaning of the verb impact as “having a strong effect” in the dictionary, acknowledging that common usage is the rule of thumb.

This is on top of the usual meanings of the word as a verb of “coming into forcible contact with another object”, as in “the shell impacted only metres away from him”, and of “pressing something firmly”, as in “human feet impact and damage the soil less than the hooves of horses and cows do”.

Full story...