On English and Esperanto as bridging languages in multilingual countries

[Joe Carillo]

I would like to share with the members of the Forum the very interesting thread of discussions in my blogspot, Jose Carillo on the English Language, that followed the formal launching of my third book on English usage, Give Your English the Winning Edge.

The first response, which I presented in my weekly column in The Manila Times last August 8, was a posting by a Briton, Brian Barker, last July 25:

Dear Mr. Carillo:

Please do not overestimate the position of English.

I live in London and if anyone says to me “everyone speaks English” my answer is “Listen and look around you”. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.

The promulgation of English as the world’s “lingua franca” is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker!

Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment.

Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is essential. As a native English speaker, my vote is for Esperanto

Your readers may be interested in seeing http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU. Professor Piron was a former translator with the United Nations

A glimpse of the global language, Esperanto, can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

I posted this reply to Brian that same day:

Dear Brian,

Yes, I agree with you that we shouldn’t overestimate the position of English, but I think that we shouldn’t underestimate it either. In the Philippines, in particular, English is very important to us because it’s our second language next to Filipino, our national language; it’s also a major language of instruction in our schools, it’s the official language of our government bureaucracy, and it’s a dominant language in our mass media. Just in case you didn’t know it, our nation has an English-language heritage of over a hundred years, having been colonized for 48 years by the United States, gaining independence from it in 1946 but absorbing and adopting for keeps many of its values and institutional underpinnings—including a democratic tradition and, of course, the English language. It’s therefore no surprise that we value English in our country more than most countries in Asia and elsewhere in the world do.

There’s one other very important reason why we put a premium to English in our land. You see, unlike Britain and the rest of the United Kingdom that use only English or a few dialects or variants of it, the Philippines has a total of 160 regional dialects—many of them different languages in themselves. Indeed, our official national language—Filipino—is simply one of our regional languages—Tagalog—that we are still in the process of transforming into a true national language. Indeed, Filipino is still very much a national language in the making, and I must point out that one or two of the country’s regions are fiercely opposed to it, each claiming that its regional language has more speakers than Tagalog and should therefore be the national language instead—or else be left alone and be allowed to use its own regional language as its official language of instruction.

Given such a situation, the Philippines needs a language to bridge the various linguistic aspirations and needs of its regions. Whether we like it or not, this is the role being ably played by English in our country today, and the foundations for English being already strong and sinewy in our country, I really don’t see any reason why we should add Esperanto to the babel of regional languages and dialects that our country has to contend with at this time. Moreover, the fight between the English-language proponents and the Filipino-language proponents in the Philippines is fierce and contentious enough, so I’m afraid that the entrance of Esperanto and any other new language to the fray may just befuddle us and lead the country to linguistic disaster.

A Filipino writer from Davao City, Arvin Antonio Ortiz, posted the rejoinder below on July 26:

And if I may add, if English is our linguistic bridge, we may be better off if we use that bridge deftly, not clumsily.

A reader of my blogspot, Betty Chatterjee, posted on August 3 this belated response to my reply to Brian (but I happened to read her posting only this morning of August 13):

Dear Joe,

As an English-born Esperanto speaker I have reaped the benefits from using both languages. Although I would be delighted if Esperanto could play a greater role in promoting international communication I can see your point of view.

In my opinion at the present time the region that would benefit most of all from the adoption of Esperanto as an auxiliary language would be the European Union. Non English speaking member countries of the Union are spending a great deal of their resources on English language learning. Much as I love my mother-tongue it is difficult to learn sufficiently well for effective communication. Travelling around Eastern Europe you can be hard put to find English speakers. Esperanto is easier to learn. Choosing a ‘neutral’ language would also solve the problem of language rivalry in the European Union.

A global world needs an auxiliary language. It could be that it English is THE language, but it could also be worth while seriously investigating the potential advantages of introducing Esperanto.

Yours sincerely

Betty Chatterjee

Here’s my belated reply to Betty, which I posted in my blogspot only today (August 13):

Dear Betty,

I’m very sorry for this belated reply. I had to attend to some very pressing matters and had overlooked checking belated responses to my previous postings in my blogspot.

I never doubted the value of Esperanto as an auxiliary language. In fact, if only I didn’t have to contend with two regional languages of my own apart from Filipino—the emerging variant of Tagalog—and English as well, I would have wanted to learn another foreign language. That foreign language could very well have been Esperanto, but I must admit that there are practical limits to my absoption of a new language now, particularly the availability of discretionary time for learning it.

When I was much younger, of course, I wanted to learn as many foreign languages as I could. I tried learning Chinese for what I thought was its commercial value, but somehow my efforts didn’t prosper. I also tried learning Russian for what I felt was its strange, bewitching allure, but I never got far because there was no one in my hometown I could practice the language with in those days—that time when, mind you, the Internet and the World Wide Web weren’t even a pipe dream yet. And finally I tried learning French, but never got beyond learning a few of its terms of endearment.

So you see, Betty, my language repertoire has by force of circumstance been limited to English, Tagalog (not even the emerging Filipino language with its mind-numbing strange borrowings from Spanish and English), two Bicol languages (some linguistic experts call them dialects but, from my first-hand experience in using these two very different tongues, I know their assessment to be incorrect), and a smattering of a few other Philippine regional tongues—that’s all. And sadly, I must admit, there’s no more room in my brain for Esperanto even if I fervently desired to learn it at this time.

Still, I agree with you that Esperanto would be perfect for multilingual countries with no bridging language yet. As for me and for many of my countrymen, though, we have already found that bridging language in English.

On August 9, I received the e-mail below from a Filipino reader, Mauro Dionisio, in response to my earlier rejoinder to Brian:

You contradicted yourself when you said that ...“the Philippines has a total of 160 regional dialects—many of them different languages in themselves.” A dialect is a variation of a particular language. Therefore our regional languages cannot be dialects. Actually, the government brainwashed students in the 1950s and 1960s into believing that our regional languages are dialects to make it appear that they all emanated from the national language, then known as Pilipino. One example of a dialect is the Tagalog spoken in Metro Manila, as compared to those in Bulacan and Batangas.

Thank you.

My reply to Mauro on August 9:

Thanks for the feedback!
 
You're right, the term "regional dialects" is semantically inappropriate in that sentence of mine. Now that you've pointed it out, I realize that I should have used the more all-encompassing term "regional tongues" instead to avoid the apparent contradiction.
 
As to your point that the government had "brainwashed" students to make them think that the regional languages are dialects, I must admit that it's the first time I'm hearing about it. I will therefore need to look more deeply into that point before I can make a response.

On August 10, Mauro then sent me the e-mail below elaborating on his comment about Philippine dialects:

Dear Mr. Carillo:

When I was in the elementary grades in the 1960s, our teachers taught us that Filipinos speak various dialects, and that the national language is Pilipino. I was born and grew up in Manila speaking Tagalog (or Pilipino as our teachers pointed out), and it was ingrained in my mind that Bisaya, Bicol and other regional languages were just variations of Pilipino or Tagalog.

It was only later as an adult that I learned through books that the tongues in the various regions are languages compeletely different from Tagalog. Some Filipinos of my age still refer to our regional languages as “dialects.” I guess the brainwashing they went through in the elementary grades had not been undone.

[kanajlo]

I am an American whose native language is English. I am fifty-eight years old and have been fascinated by English grammar for decades. I have bought usage books and grammar books. I think I read and speak the language almost as well as anyone can, but I confess with sadness that you, Jose, make distinctions in your forum here that most Americans are usually unaware of, and I applaud you for your studies in this, possibly the most difficult of all languages to learn.

You say English is a valuable bridge in the Philippines. Perhaps it is. Perhaps it helps bring people together who would otherwise be linguistically separated. But looking at English from a broader perspective, I must ask whether English is a language that will solve all the world's language barriers. When I was working in a certain hospital, one of our newly hired workers was from Canada, and had originally lived in the Philippines. His English was very hard to understand. He was at last fired and sent back to Canada because he could not understand what others wanted him to do. My wife once sought computer help from a Filipino over the phone. They were unable to understand each other very well, although both spoke English. My wife, in frustration, finally said, "Is there anyone there who speaks English better than you?" The Filipino lady said, "I try harder. I try harder." But it did not work. My wife finally had to speak to someone else in the network.
It is not just a matter of the English of the Philippines. I have worked with Nigerian immigrants. In Nigeria, English is the "official" language, as you know. It is rare, however, that I can easily understand them. The ones I can understand best have lived in many countries and have been exposed to other speakers outside Nigeria, it seems. This is also the case with some immigrants from Mexico, a neighboring country. This is not as big a problem, simply because I have learned to understand and speak some Spanish! I could tell you stories about people from other countries as well who have studied English in university: Japanese, Chinese, and others.
The problem is this: English is an extremely difficult second language for everyone. I'm sure you already know the reasons: difficult spelling, difficult grammar, thousands of slang words, and so on.
Let me tell you a simple story.
When I find an English speaker in Europe, we just speak, conduct our business, and that is that.
When I find an Esperanto speaker in Europe or anywhere else, he is likely to say, "Have you had lunch?"
There is a bond between Esperantists that is hard to understand, a bond of the spirit. You can learn the language from a book or two. You don't have to hear it before you learn to speak it, if you are familiar with phonetics, because there are no complicated vowel sounds. You don't have to spend four years in a university taking courses. Usually, four months by yourself is enough. The spelling is easy. All the verbs are regular verbs. All the rules have almost no exceptions.
Please do not dismiss Esperanto. It has its place in the world. 

[Joe Carillo]

No, Kanajlo, I'm not dismissing Esperanto at all as an easier language than English or as a bridging language for people who speak different languages. As I told Esperanto advocate Betty Chatterjee in a response to her posting August of last year, “Esperanto would be perfect for multilingual countries with no bridging language yet. As for me and for many of my countrymen, though, we have already found that bridging language in English.” It's just that having been exposed to English for over 100 years, and having  to contend with no less than 160 native languages and dialects ourselves in our 7,100 islands, we find no compelling need to add Esperanto to our language acquisitions and to make ourselves understood outside our shores.

You do have a point when you say that many Filipinos speak English in a way that native English speakers find bewildering, but I think it's because they are still in the very early stages of their learning curve. As with other nonnative English speakers elsewhere in the world, they need more time and practice to acquire a decent mastery of English as a second or third language, and it's actually one of the major objectives of this Forum to hasten that process.

[kanajlo]

Well, keep up the good work, Jose, and good luck...to everyone learning English.