ENGLISH PROFICIENCY: HOW MUCH OF A PROBLEM IS IT?

[tonybau]

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY: HOW MUCH OF A PROBLEM IS IT?

For many of us, the state of education in a country speaks volumes. Where English is spoken and taught as a second language, fluency is deemed a basic requirement for proper communication and propagation of ideas and connotes success. Does this fluency actually translate to a country's economic success and overall standing in the world of nations?

Back when American influence on teachers was still strong in the 1950s, I recall instances where all of us, pupils then, were required to speak English in English class or be fined five centavos per instance of speaking in Ilocano, a major dialect of northern Philippines. Five centavos then was a hefty sum. Tagalog, now Filipino, was not commonly in use at the time. Each one of us would try to catch anyone who committed the "sin" and report it to a classmate assigned to collect the fines who, in turn, would submit the list of offenders to the teacher. We never asked where those collections went. Teachers were the bosses and their word was law. No one questioned them. They stood on pedestals and we looked up to them with much respect. Teaching was a very respectable profession.

Looking back, I now realize that our teachers in elementary and high school, then spoke or at least taught us proper English and with much enthusiasm. Perhaps my siblings and I had the added advantage of being raised by parents who happened to be teachers. Several of their brothers and sisters were graduates of the Philippine Normal School. Books we used were brought in by the American teachers and ministers--from readers, to hymnals, to almanacs. There were practically no Filipino authors that we knew of. American influence gave us a decided advantage over our Asian neighbors. The country enjoyed a privileged status in the region as a consequence of this.

In Silliman University in Dumaguete city, a school founded by the Americans in 1901, English was the lingua franca on campus and maybe of the country at the time. Our English teachers and those who handled other subjects, spoke English well, taught us well, to say the least, and  I am personally grateful to all of those dedicated teachers who had touched my life and left their lasting legacy.

An instance in medical school showed a glaring example of English deterioration. An instructor, while lecturing, got distracted by some classmates who were giggling. Irate at the distraction, he called their attention and gave a stern admonition, "I don't want to happen it again!" You can imagine how much more eyebrow-raising and giggles ensued after the incident.

For a while, a short teaching stint in two medical schools, one after the other, in the early 80s, further  showed how much English usage had deteriorated. This was where I noticed that our students were severely English-challenged. Grammar was often mangled and students could hardly express themselves or write their ideas down in a manner deserving of a medical professional-to-be. Initially, I exercised diligence in correcting grammatical errors in the hope that they would, at least, learn correct English from me. Soon, I gave up in frustration.

Post-graduate trainees and other medical professionals showed similar problems. I wondered where things were going. If even supposedly well-known lecturers, medical and non-medical, and many other professionals, including teachers and media people, were suffering from the malady, could the students they taught or the people they communicated with, be far behind? I believe that the disease has gone beyond control and has become an epidemic of worrying proportions, a national problem.

Should it be a problem? Many from our neighboring ASEAN countries could hardly speak English and yet, economically, they have surpassed us. Koreans realize this and they send their students over to the Philippines hoping to learn the language, or the kind of English that is being taught over here. Korea's economy is way beyond ours. The same is true with Japan. What this seems to tells us is that good English is not necessary for success or economic upliftment. As long as one can communicate what he or she intends to and is understood, correct English or not, then the job is done. Why worry about English?

Is this where we are going? Is this what we want? How much of a problem or a headache has this become, or should we even consider this a problem? Will our success as a country depend on how we speak English?

Your thoughts, please.

tonybau

[Joe Carillo]

You said in your posting, tonybau:

“Many from our neighboring ASEAN countries could hardly speak English and yet, economically, they have surpassed us. Koreans realize this and they send their students over to the Philippines hoping to learn the language, or the kind of English that is being taught over here. Korea’s economy is way beyond ours. The same is true with Japan. What this seems to tell us is that good English is not necessary for success or economic upliftment. As long as one can communicate what he or she intends to and is understood, correct English or not, then the job is done. Why worry about English?

“How much of a problem or a headache has this become, or should we even consider this a problem? Will our success as a country depend on how we speak English?”

Tonybau, your posting reminded me of a letter I received way back in 2003 from a US Air Force officer of Filipino ancestry who chided me for expressing concern about Filipinos not being able to write better English.

“Why?” he asked from the United States. “The Philippines has its own unique language in Tagalog. It must be studied and learned. Filipinos should be proud and be proficient in it… Take a look at the Japanese or the Germans. Their economies are thriving not because of English, but because of their exceptional personal discipline and their relentless focus on technological innovation…”

Since I find strong parallelism between your thoughts and his, I would like to just quote here what I told him over seven years ago regarding our need to improve our English:

“Let me sketch the big picture. Nearly 50 years of American colonization had deeply Anglicized the way we Filipinos think and run our lives—the way we name ourselves and our institutions, the way we consume, the way we educate ourselves, the way we inform and entertain ourselves, the way we do business, and the way we muddle through with our politics. English is in our soul, in our tongue, in our stomachs, in our scent, in our clothes, in our shoes, in our printed word, in our airwaves and bandwidths, in the very air we inhale and exhale. We can argue to death that this may not be exactly a good thing, but that is precisely what we have become—Asian by geography, skin, and temperament but decidedly American by taste, inclination, and aspiration.

“If it were possible right now to successfully strip our Filipino-ness of its American veneer and its English trappings so we can build a new nation anchored on Tagalog, I would be among the first to enlist for the effort. But you and I know that this will be madness. We have gone too far in the day to entertain that simplistic notion. It will require reprogramming our minds or lobotomizing our brains, and disowning our very own culture—the moral and physical equivalent of national suicide.

“To me, language is just a tool, and I really couldn’t care less if we replaced English with Tagalog, so long as we could express ourselves clearly and conduct our day-to-day business effectively. But of what good would that be? In the global order of things, we are fortunate to be already 100 years ahead in the quest for the one attribute that many other nations are now breaking their necks to have: English proficiency. English has become today’s global language, one that over 7,000,000 of our countrymen are already using to earn a living abroad. Why sacrifice this one competitive advantage in the name of romance and nationalism?

“And now for the small picture. Our business sector demands good English from those who want to join the white-collar workforce. But you and I know that thousands upon thousands of our college graduates can’t even write a good English sentence, much less a credible job application letter. Because of that, they will never get the jobs they had trained for; they will not even make it to the shortlist of qualified applicants. That’s a lot of money down the drain educating them, and a terrible and monumental waste of our country’s human resources. Yet all we have to do to correct the situation is to think wiser and equip Filipinos with the basic tool that our own society and the world demand of them.

“That tool is the English language—something we already have and need only polish to a good shine.”

[Arvin Ortiz]

You said in your posting, tonybau:

“Many from our neighboring ASEAN countries could hardly speak English and yet, economically, they have surpassed us. Koreans realize this and they send their students over to the Philippines hoping to learn the language, or the kind of English that is being taught over here. Korea’s economy is way beyond ours. The same is true with Japan. What this seems to tell us is that good English is not necessary for success or economic upliftment. As long as one can communicate what he or she intends to and is understood, correct English or not, then the job is done. Why worry about English?

“How much of a problem or a headache has this become, or should we even consider this a problem? Will our success as a country depend on how we speak English?”

Tonybau, your posting reminded me of a letter I received way back in 2003 from a US Air Force officer of Filipino ancestry who chided me for expressing concern about Filipinos not being able to write better English.

“Why?” he asked from the United States. “The Philippines has its own unique language in Tagalog. It must be studied and learned. Filipinos should be proud and be proficient in it… Take a look at the Japanese or the Germans. Their economies are thriving not because of English, but because of their exceptional personal discipline and their relentless focus on technological innovation…”

Since I find strong parallelism between your thoughts and his, I would like to just quote here what I told him over seven years ago regarding our need to improve our English:

“Let me sketch the big picture. Nearly 50 years of American colonization had deeply Anglicized the way we Filipinos think and run our lives—the way we name ourselves and our institutions, the way we consume, the way we educate ourselves, the way we inform and entertain ourselves, the way we do business, and the way we muddle through with our politics. English is in our soul, in our tongue, in our stomachs, in our scent, in our clothes, in our shoes, in our printed word, in our airwaves and bandwidths, in the very air we inhale and exhale. We can argue to death that this may not be exactly a good thing, but that is precisely what we have become—Asian by geography, skin, and temperament but decidedly American by taste, inclination, and aspiration.

“If it were possible right now to successfully strip our Filipino-ness of its American veneer and its English trappings so we can build a new nation anchored on Tagalog, I would be among the first to enlist for the effort. But you and I know that this will be madness. We have gone too far in the day to entertain that simplistic notion. It will require reprogramming our minds or lobotomizing our brains, and disowning our very own culture—the moral and physical equivalent of national suicide.

“To me, language is just a tool, and I really couldn’t care less if we replaced English with Tagalog, so long as we could express ourselves clearly and conduct our day-to-day business effectively. But of what good would that be? In the global order of things, we are fortunate to be already 100 years ahead in the quest for the one attribute that many other nations are now breaking their necks to have: English proficiency. English has become today’s global language, one that over 7,000,000 of our countrymen are already using to earn a living abroad. Why sacrifice this one competitive advantage in the name of romance and nationalism?

“And now for the small picture. Our business sector demands good English from those who want to join the white-collar workforce. But you and I know that thousands upon thousands of our college graduates can’t even write a good English sentence, much less a credible job application letter. Because of that, they will never get the jobs they had trained for; they will not even make it to the shortlist of qualified applicants. That’s a lot of money down the drain educating them, and a terrible and monumental waste of our country’s human resources. Yet all we have to do to correct the situation is to think wiser and equip Filipinos with the basic tool that our own society and the world demand of them.

“That tool is the English language—something we already have and need only polish to a good shine.”

Sir Joe, I'll re-post this in my blog: http://arvinantoniospeaks.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/the-case-for-english-proficiency/

[Joe Carillo]

That would be great, Arvin! Go right ahead!

[renzphotography]

Going beyond jingoism I think it is only prudent to harness any advantage we may have over others to become more competitive globally, in this case capacity in the English language.

However, bear in mind that there are other assets, skills, resources, expertise, etc. that need developing in order to become trully competitive.

I am in favor of promoting the study of English but this should never result in the deterioration of our capacity in our very own language because this is tied to our identity. If some people think we should reduce the emphasis on English education in order for Filipino language education to catch up, then I think that is the wrong prescription to give.

The last thing we want to see are kids who are not fluent in either Filipino or English. That is why my friends and I are trying to teach kids Filipino vocabulary words we took for granted when we were growing up. We were even contemplating on reviving folk tales (alamat) and riddles (bugtungan) but it is so difficult with all the electronic games available.

[maxsims]

"...If some people think we should reduce the emphasis on English education in order for Filipino language education to catch up, then I think that is the wrong prescription to give...."

Renz, this is precisely what happened under Corey Aquino.   

And look what happened...!

 

[Joe Carillo]

Going beyond jingoism I think it is only prudent to harness any advantage we may have over others to become more competitive globally, in this case capacity in the English language.

However, bear in mind that there are other assets, skills, resources, expertise, etc. that need developing in order to become trully competitive.

I am in favor of promoting the study of English but this should never result in the deterioration of our capacity in our very own language because this is tied to our identity. If some people think we should reduce the emphasis on English education in order for Filipino language education to catch up, then I think that is the wrong prescription to give.

The last thing we want to see are kids who are not fluent in either Filipino or English. That is why my friends and I are trying to teach kids Filipino vocabulary words we took for granted when we were growing up. We were even contemplating on reviving folk tales (alamat) and riddles (bugtungan) but it is so difficult with all the electronic games available.

Since I have no pretensions whatsoever of being a nationalist, the word “rhetoric” rather than “jingoism” may be a better word for the kind of English I used in urging Filipinos to continuously improve their English. You see, when plain and simple English fails, it sometimes becomes necessary to use rhetoric to get through the brick wall of prejudice, ideology, religious belief, or plain ignorance. It has been used through the ages to call an indifferent audience to action, and I would rather that people used more of civilized rhetoric rather than violent diatribe and—yes—jingoism in getting their point across.

I agree that Filipinos should be fluent in both their native language and English, but we should be specific what native language we are prescribing. There are so many native languages in the Philippines, but what has been prescribed as the national language is today a misshapen Tagalog-based mix groaning under the weight of strange, synthetic, and decidedly unpalatable words like “departamento,” “kawanihan,” “komento,” “kalakalan,” “skrin,” “kompyuter,” “eksport,” and “isports.” Can you imagine anyone writing a job application letter, doing a graduate thesis in science, or introducing a piece of legislation in a language like that and getting understood? It’s so far detached from, say, the lovely language I used for declamation contests in my youth—Tagalog. Indeed, I would recite the tula (Tagalog poetry) with stagy fire and passion, brandishing a Katipunero’s bolo, swearing fealty to the flag, or ruing the tragedy that was Bataan. “Marahang iladlad, bandila sa tagdan / Tambuli’y hipan na sa bukang liwayway” ("Gently unfurl the flag now on the pole / Blow the shell-horn at daybreak"). Oh how I loved the texture and tonality of Tagalog words gliding on my tongue! But alas, Tagalog isn’t the Philippine national language! It’s the synthetic, mechanical language that has lately been labeled “Filipino,” which I must say sounds more like Esperanto than Filipino to me. Frankly, I’d rather use Tagalog or English—or even my own regional language, Bicol—anytime! Their words are more genuinely reflective of my thoughts and feelings than those of Filipino.

[renzphotography]

Well Maxim, I say improve both English and Filipino language education, no excuses..no compromise.

Mr. Carillo, the best way to iron out differences is through dialog. However, in any country there are still policies that reveal the government's (if not the people's) ultra-rightist tendencies to preserve national interests such as economic status, culture, religion, etc. In fact, present day Europe is no exception just read about European border and immigration policies. Just see how the French treat their hyphenated citizens.

I would like to emulate the mastery of Tagalog or Filipino as in the old black and white movies where thespians spoke Tagalog in a breathless manner. Of course, I would like to give credit to the script writers of old as well. 

As for your broad definition of language, in my opinion it is best if one masters his mother's tongue, his national language or lingua franca, and the English language which truly bridges communication gaps the world over.

And if you think the task is daunting don't worry most Filipinos know at least four languages: their mother's tongue, the language of a nearby region/province, Filipino, and English. Yes, we are polyglots by nature.

[tonybau]

Born in the Philippines and born to Ilocano parents, I will be the first to admit that I cannot fluently speak "true" Ilocano nor the Tagalog-based "Filipino". The latter is my Waterloo.  This inability or deficiency, however you call it, does not lessen my being a Filipino.

The global means of communication is now English, whether distorted or not. Being facile in its proper use and understanding of its nuances gives a decided advantage to anyone who exerts the extra effort to study it and use it. I marvel at the ease of delivery and confidence of anyone who fluently speaks this language and who can express themselves in writing or speak their ideas with clarity and simplicity.

My comfort zone, including that of my youngest son, who, incidentally is also Filipino-challenged, lies in English. I would never attempt to express myself in Filipino or Ilocano, orally or in written form, for fear that I may corrupt them further. I also fear that I will not be able to get my point across because of poor proficiency. When my son needs assistance with English, I help him. When its Filipino, I back off and send him over to my Manila-born wife.

That being the case, I have no problem with English and I'll settle for it. I will not forget "Filipino" even if most of what I use is "Tag-lish", a combination of Tagalog and English, which everyone really uses in their everyday lives.

I am certain even the Filipino advocates do the same.

tonybau

[silverlokk]

The last thing we want to see are kids who are not fluent in either Filipino or English.

Unfortunately, we already have that.

[Joe Carillo]

I am posting this feedback from Mr. Fred Natividad of Livonia, Michigan, in the United States to the ongoing discussions on the English proficiency of Filipinos :

Expecting bricks and bats I advocate the abandonment of English in Philippine basic education and official government affairs in order that Filipinos in general will not be tempted to use Taglish. Those who NEED and LOVE English may study it in college.
 
Those who need and love English, because of their high motivation, would likely try their best to speak, read, and write correct English. I think that's the way it is in non-speaking countries like Japan, China and in Europe like France and Germany...

In those countries English is a tool for international relations BUT NOT AS A NATIONAL LANGUAGE! Their government and their media conduct their affairs in their native languages and those of their citizens who need English (teachers, tour guides, hotel clerks, diplomats, etc.) study English.
 
After all, the lowly grave digger does not need English to buy his shot of nipa wine from the corner sari-sari store. Nor does the crooked cop need to say "laysens mo plis" and then continues, "pero pwede ring wan handrid pisos only."
 
It is such a shame to hear an international Filipino sports celebrity say, "mastudyhan ang technique ng kabila..."
 
Nagtagalog na lang siya sana...

[renzphotography]

Well, I say just keep the language. It is already there for everyone to use and besides it has its clear benefits to the people and the economy.

One prime savior of present-day Philippine economy is the call center industry. In a span of 10 years the industry has grown in such proportions that over 200,000 Filipinos are directly employed by it.  I say this to dispel any notion that learning English is not essential in finding work in the country.

Unfortunately, there are so many vacancies despite the global financial meltdown and yet companies are facing difficulties finding qualified recruits. As we speak the hiring rate is one out of 50 applicants--although some say it is as low as one out of 100 applicants. The low hiring rate could be attributed only to poor English language skills, nothing else.

In fact, there is such a term as "near hire" among call centers. Companies lower the recruitment criteria and hire people whose English could be worked on and then subject them to two weeks of extensive training before elevating them to the standard training program given to qualified recruits.

In order to expand, many call centers move to urban centers in provinces in order to tap the labor pools in those locations. This dispels another notion that facility in the English language is needed only when you seek employment in Manila.

The need for better English education is dire and the government knows it too. In fact, the government has stepped up its English language training outside the formal school system and now even TESDA, the vocational program institute of the government, is offering a call center training program.

As for professionals who want to work abroad the knowledge of English is crucial especially when these professionals undertake exams like the IELTS and TOEFL.

To retrogress in the study of English in this time and age is quite unrealistic.

[maxsims]

Dear Renz,

I recently had cause to ask some questions of TESDA.

Over a period of two weeks, I sent fourteen (count 'em, fourteen!) emails to nine TESDA officials, from the director-general down.

I received not one reply!

The best I could do was eight or so "mailbox full" messages.

Perhaps if I had written in Tagalog.....?

[Joe Carillo]

I have more or less the same experience with TESDA, Max. Its e-mail addresses bump off e-mail with "mailbox full" messages with disturbing regularity. I think its managers and staff simply are too busy doing technical training or some other distracting activity that they don't bother to open their e-mailboxes at all.

When a public technical-education institution lists its e-mail addresses on its official website, I think the least its managers and staff can do is to check their e-mailboxes regularly. They need not even answer the incoming messages if they don't feel like answering; just plain checking or purging their e-mailboxes of junk mail would be enough. Otherwise, people might begin to doubt that the supposedly technical institution is technologically capable at all. 

[renzphotography]

Hi Maxims,

I took a course in TESDA several years ago. The best way to contact TESDA is via telephone. To view the courses offered you can buy a copy of the Manila Bulletin every Sunday and you will find the TESDA ad usually along the world news section.

Sorry for the plug in Mr. Carillo 

TESDA is actually expanding at break-neck speed nowadays.