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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / March 2005Books Versus Classroom Teaching As Source of Knowledge
Whether in government or in TV or radio talk show forums, there are always discussions about improving child education through improving the teachers' teaching skills and providing more funding for building and repairing more classroom facilities and replenishing book supplies. Which are all good of course! But the problem is that they are not much talking about improving the students' fluent learning or reading access to books! Which I think is the most essential part of child education that they are not including much in their discussions! Reading books and the one on one apprenticeship/tutoring are far better sources of knowledge or far more effective teaching medium than classroom teaching. We all know that the reason why those students who are so eager to always raise their hands to answer questions and solve problems on the blackboard are so confident in school and always seem to already know the answers to the subject is because they either read books frequently at home or already read the subject at home or their older relatives are tutoring them at home. So obviously, reading books and one on one tutoring are a much more effective teaching medium than classroom teaching. Teachers must also instruct their students to always everyday read the books of their taught subjects as homework and make reading English newspapers as everyday homework too. Therefore, having a genuine 100% fluent learning or reading access to books is very very important for all students! And still, even the student's older relatives tutoring them must also be genuinely 100% fluent in reading books to be competent tutors in the first place! The tutors need to use the book as starting reference on what and how to tutor their young student relatives. As I mentioned on other topic postings, the 60 years old and above Filipinos are still surprisingly fluent in English, but the below 60 years old adults are less and less fluent in English with each passing generation. Unfortunately the 60 years old and above who are fluent in English are dying of old age and obviously their numbers are dwindling. With that, less and less Filipino adults are competent to tutor their young student relatives because they themselves are not fluent in English or have no genuine 100% fluent learning or reading access to books that are mostly written in english. But still if in case there are no available tutors, then the more important it is for the students themselves to have fluent learning access to books! Again, even genius people need to take a peek on a book to review their knowledge or for reference from time to time what more for average majority of people? So it's very important that for the meantime while literally all latest books sold in all leading bookstores in the Philippines and all leading English written newspapers and the PSE are not yet 100% tagalized, we must for the meantime reinstate the round the clock mandatory English exercises in all school levels or permanent language imprint method on young minds or students. But once literally all latest books sold in all leading bookstores in the Philippines and all leading English written newspapers and the PSE are already 100% fully tagalized, then we can finally remove the round the clock mandatory English exercises in all school levels or permanent language imprint method on young minds or students. Again, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the proper way to do things is to tagalize all wealth of knowledge available on the world and PSE first before you remove the round the clock mandatory English exercises in all school levels or permanent language imprint method on young minds or students. So that once Filipinos are no longer fluent in English like today, then they will still have 100% fluent learning access to all wealth of knowledge available on the world and PSE which are by then already 100% tagalized. That's the proper way to do things. There's really no problem with tagalizing all wealth of knowledge available on the world and the PSE and phasing out the use of the English language. Similar with the French government sincerely does. The problem is poor planning and monumental mismanagement of the Philippine education system which really have severely contributed much to the present problems in the Philippines. Unplanned impulsive irresponsible policies kasi. Padalos dalos at malabo pang magplano. Hence, realistically and cautiously managing the education system in the Philippines will certainly help improve the future economy and productivity of the future workforce generation of the Philippines. When managed and done properly, the Philippines can then again afford to donate a submarine and revive its blue diamonds jet fighter aerial acrobatic team. We can then catch up with our asian neighbors. > When managed and done properly, the Philippines can then again afford > to donate a submarine and revive its blue diamonds jet fighter aerial > acrobatic team. We can then catch up with our asian neighbors. If English speaking skills equated to economic development, the Philippines would have long ago been far ahead of its "asian neighbors." No, what the Philippines needs to learn is how to start developing from within rather than concentrating so much on external factors. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com > > When managed and done properly, the Philippines can then again afford > > to donate a submarine and revive its blue diamonds jet fighter aerial [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com Like I said before, it's the decline of fluent access to knowledge not the decline of English proficiency which led the Philippines to lag behind its asian neighbors. Except for Japan, the Philippines was indeed long ago ahead of its asian neighbors. Because back then majority of Filipinos still have 100% fluent learning access to all knowledge available on the world which improves their productivity. If the transition from English to Tagalog language was done properly and responsibly, the Philippines would've maintained status of being one of the leaders in asia. Don't let selfish and irresponsible politics interfere with child education. Look what selfish and irresponsible politics did to the Philippines. >> Regards, >> Paul Kekai Manansala [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > responsibly, the Philippines would've maintained status of being one > of the leaders in asia. I don't understand how English comes into the equation. The Philippines has long been the leading English-speaking nation in Asia, so if there is any connection between English and economic development, no other East Asian nation should be ahead of the RP. If the Philippines was indeed the leading economic nation "except for Japan," which I strongly doubt, it was because of economic infrastructure left over from the colonial period. The Philippines hasn't yet learned that one starts building this infrastructure internally rather than waiting for others to come in and do the job. No matter how many Filipinos you send abroad, nothing will change unless you start building up this base. This means putting in money, resources and effort. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com Very true! But of course physical infrastructure is not the only essential ingredient to economic development but also having a mass base of highly educated citizen majority beginning from childhood is essential for economic development as well. > >> Regards, > >> Paul Kekai Manansala > >> http://sambali.blogspot.com > > > > Like I said before, it's the decline of fluent access to knowledge > > not the decline of English proficiency which led the Philippines to > lag > > behind its asian neighbors. Except for Japan, the Philippines was > > indeed long ago ahead of its asian neighbors. Because back then > > majority of Filipinos still have 100% fluent learning access to all > > knowledge available on the world which improves their productivity. > If > > the transition from English to Tagalog language was done properly and [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > If the Philippines was indeed the leading economic nation "except for > Japan," which I strongly doubt, it was because of economic > infrastructure left over from the colonial period. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com > If the Philippines was indeed the leading economic nation "except for > Japan," which I strongly doubt, it was because of economic > infrastructure left over from the colonial period. Leaving aside the question of causation, I'm curious as to why you "strongly doubt" the economic position of the Philippines ca. 1960. In all of the sources I've looked at - official and unofficial, contemporary and retrospective - it was ahead of Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand, etc., in per capita income, and way ahead of Malaya (which had a high p.c. income due to booming rubber prices) in industrialization. Puzzled Pig >> If the Philippines was indeed the leading economic nation "except for >> Japan," which I strongly doubt, it was because of economic [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > (which had a high p.c. income due to booming rubber prices) in > industrialization. Well, I remember that it used to be popular to show statistics that suggested that the Philippines was more "developed" than Japan after WWII. Maybe in some ways this was true, but of course, the Philippines was and is not fully-developed to this day. Japan, on the other hand, was fully- industrialized before WWII and had all the building blocks in place to recover after the war. Heck, they didn't even have a connecting road to my grandfather's town in Central Luzon less than an hour (with good roads) from Clark AB or Manila. I can just imagine how things were in the Bisayas or Mindanao. I don't think the Philippines could build a working WWII vintage Japanese aircraft carrier today -- more than 60 years later. We can't even build indigenous WWII style prop aircraft, nor did we ever have the technological base to so. They did have an indigenous propeller aircraft program at one time during the Marcos regime, but cancelled it after the test pilot died in an accident. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > cancelled it after the test pilot died in > an accident. Nakakalungkot pero sayang din ay hindi naipagpatuloy yung programa ni Marcos na yan. Ang mga aksidente ay dapat nagiging basehan para lalung mapabuti ang teknolohiya, hindi para mapigilan ang pag-unlad nito. :-( Physical infrastructures and industries are not the only ingredients to economic development but having a mass base of highly educated citizen majority beginning from childhood is essential to economic development as well. But of course if either one of those components is missing then it wouldn't work either. Even if you have a mass base of highly educated citizen majority beginning from childhood but if there's no physical infrastructures built then it still wouldn't work. Got to go hand in hand. Put in all ingredients to make it taste really good! > >> If the Philippines was indeed the leading economic nation "except for > >> Japan," which I strongly doubt, it was because of economic > >> infrastructure left over from the colonial period. > > > > Leaving aside the question of causation, I'm curious as to why you > > "strongly doubt" the economic position of the Philippines ca. 1960. > > In all of the sources I've looked at - official and unofficial, > > contemporary and retrospective - it was ahead of Taiwan, South Korea, [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Heck, they didn't even have a connecting road to my grandfather's town > in Central Luzon less than an hour (with good roads) from Clark AB or > Manila. I can just imagine how things were in the Bisayas or Mindanao. > > I don't think the Philippines could build a working WWII vintage > Japanese aircraft carrier today -- more than 60 years later. We can't > even build indigenous WWII style prop aircraft, nor did we ever have the > technological base to so. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > > If the Philippines was indeed the leading economic nation "except for > > Japan," which I strongly doubt, it was because of economic [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > per capita income, and way ahead of Malaya (which had a high p.c. income due > to booming rubber prices) in industrialization. Yup! Except for Japan, the Philippines was indeed ahead of its asian neighbors. More likely they were just all mostly the same agricultural based economies, maybe some mining too. And though they were just the same agricultural based economies, but the Philippines had the advantage of already having the US built it with infrastructure that most of its neighbors have not yet equaled in scale at that time. Hello Rajah Homaba, It's me again. > we must for the meantime reinstate the round > the clock mandatory English exercises in > all school levels When I was in Highschool, we used to have those fine the Filipino speaker programs until one of the high-ranking teachers opposed the fining of Filipino-speaking students. She argued that money should never be taken from students unless absolutely necessary. I couldn't agree with her more. Anyway, fining fees as punishment when caught not speaking English, received by the class treasurer for the class fund, is not always used by all teachers. Sometimes those who were caught not speaking english were either given more cleaning chores in the classroom, or more homework or class reports, assigned to recite and memorize more difficult poems, or assigned to read longer in front of the class. Which I agree is much better than fining or involving monetary fees because the latter punishments are more beneficial to the students. Punishing the student while simultaneously teaching the student English or in other subjects. It's for their own good! We have no choice! Or else students will have no fluent learning access to all wealth of knowledge or books which are still mostly written in English in the Philippines! Students will end up dumb or deprived of knowledge! Is that what you want? Blame the Philippine government! It's really the fault of the Philippine government! The RP government haven't yet tagalized most essential books in the Philippines! Like I said if all books in the Philippines are 100% fully tagalized, then we can get rid of the use of the English language! Hey, I have no problem with that! Again, child education is more important than selfish irresponsible politics. Do the transistion from English to Tagalog language properly and responsibly if you really want to get rid of the english language. Plan carefully and responsibly. Don't be impulsive. Again, Don't let selfish and irresponsible politics interfere with child education. Look what selfish and irresponsible politics did to the Philippines. > Hello Rajah Homaba, > It's me again. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > I couldn't agree with her more. Don't be > impulsive. Again, Don't let selfish and irresponsible politics > interfere with child education. > Your views are myopic. How do you think the other nations came to have science and other books in native languages? They had to have them written! There must be a need for them. Besides its a good excercise for the nation. It's something they have to do in every field. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > Don't be > > impulsive. Again, Don't let selfish and irresponsible politics > > interfere with child education. > > > Your views are myopic. How do you think the other nations came to have What I meant is that, Philippine politicians should've translated all knowledge first to Tagalog before they removed the intensive English teaching in schools. Look what happened, greater majority of Filipinos are no longer fluent in English but why are most essential books sold in Philippine bookstores still written in English? Why is the Philippine Stock exchange still done only in English? Why are leading Philippine newspapers are still written in English? Filipino politicians are aware that greater majority of Filipinos no longer know how to speak, read, and write English because they're the ones who removed the intensive English teaching in schools, then why haven't they yet tagalized all those books, leading Newspapers, and Stock market transactions so that greater majority of Filipinos can finally access them again? They rushed so fast! It's an unplanned impulsive irresponsible move of the politicians. They should've planned the transition from English to Tagalog carefully. They should've translated it all first. They wanted to be viewed immediately as nationalistic during their term without caring about the long term negative consequences of their unplanned impulsive irresponsible policies just to make them look good politically or look nationalistic during their short term of office. They don't sincerely care about child education because if they really do, they would've planned the transition from English to Tagalog language properly and responsibly without rushing it. > science and other books in native languages? They had to have them > written! [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com/ That's what I'm saying all this time! Other than making all Filipinos proficient in English again, the other option is to finally tagalize all wealth of knowledge in the Philippines! The Philippine government must translate all wealth of knowledge in the Philippines to Tagalog, immediately! Do it now! Get it over with already! In Japan, most essential books sold there are written in Japanese, the Japanese Stock market is done in Japanese, and leading newspapers in Japan are written in Japanese! All wealth of knowledge and opportunities in Japan are done and written in Japanese or in the native language of the Japanese people. Hence, that's why the Japanese people have 100% fluent learning access to all wealth of knowledge available on the world beginning from childhood! It's true that the Philippines used to be the leading English speaking nation in Asia but not anymore. Because the round the clock English exercises in school or permanent language imprint method on young students was removed prematurely before even all wealth of knowledge in the Philippines were even fully tagalized. Which is a sloppy management. As a result, today in the Philippines only the elite and the dwindling older generation knows how to speak, read, and write English. Greater majority of Filipinos today don't know how to speak, read, and write English at all. That's the present situation in the Philippines. The English language is becoming more restricted to the older dwindling generation and upper classes. And the problem is that greater majority of essential books sold in all Philippine bookstores are written in English, Philippine stock exchange transactions are done in English, and leading Philippine newspapers are written in English. All of it are not yet tagalized. So greater majority of the Filipino masses have no access to those books or knowledge and complex financial undertakings. It's not democratized. Officially the Philippines is a democracy but in reality it's an oligarchy because only the English speaking few in the Philippines can have unlimited access to all wealth of knowledge available in the world. Including the Philippine Stock exchange (PSE) wherein only the English speaking few upper class elite can have at least a basic understanding of it. It's like during medieval Europe wherein only the few who are educated to speak, read, and write latin or greek can have fluent learning access to all wealth of knowledge available at that time. The Philippine Stock exchange (PSE) is actually a tangible symbol or proof of the present oligarchic system in the Philippines. The English speaking oligarchs or elite while the masses are deprived access to most wealth of knowledge available on the world. So only when access to the PSE, majority of books, and leading newspapers are finally democratized (equality of learning access) will I believe that the Philippines is finally democratic not oligarchic. When all those are finally all Tagalized not just TV or radio shows, talk shows, and advertisements. >> Don't be >> > impulsive. Again, Don't let selfish and irresponsible politics >> > interfere with child education. > >> >> Your views are myopic. How do you think the other nations came to > have It's an unplanned impulsive > irresponsible move of the politicians. They should've planned the > transition from English to Tagalog carefully. This makes sense. They should've > translated it all first. I don't know if they could translate everything first, but they should have passed legal requirements requiring translation in certain key areas. They don't sincerely care about > child education because if they really do, they would've planned the > transition from English to Tagalog language properly and responsibly > without rushing it. I don't think you make such a comment on their motives. And I don't think they are rushing. There are benefits that will occur by promoting Tagalog. The simple fact is that many people are now familiar with Tagalog because of the television, film, music, comic and other industries. Tagalog is much more like other Filipino languages than English. Many of the words are the same and the grammar is similar. I think other regional languages should also be promoted such as Cebuano (Malaysian model). Poor people have always had problems with English in the Philippines, and this has been a burden. . Hence, that's why the Japanese people have 100% > fluent learning access to all wealth of knowledge available on the > world beginning from childhood! Ok, I see what you're saying now, and I agree with you. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > >> Don't be > >> > impulsive. Again, Don't let selfish and irresponsible politics [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > Tagalog is much more like other Filipino languages than English. Many > of the words are the same and the grammar is similar. So it means the best thing to do for them politicians to make up for their mistake is, they must now fully Tagalize the PSE, leading newspapers, and all books sold in Philippine bookstores, immediately! Not just the TV shows, movies, comics, and music! Because the Philippines can't continue to be a country wherein greater majority of its citizens can't even read its leading newspapers and most books sold in its bookstores! That's crazy! Weird! > I think other regional languages should also be promoted such as Cebuano > (Malaysian model). > > Poor people have always had problems with English in the Philippines, > and this has been a burden. Well of course, in any language, if you're not fluent in a certain language then you'll have a problem with it. > . Hence, that's why the Japanese people have 100% > > fluent learning access to all wealth of knowledge available on the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > So it means the best thing to do for them politicians to make up for > their mistake is, they must now fully Tagalize the PSE, leading > newspapers, and all books sold in Philippine bookstores, immediately! I don't think you can force private media to adopt English. Nor is it necessary. The stock exchange may be another matter. It will be impossible in any multi-lingual country to have "100% fluency" nor is it necessary. In fact, no country has 100% fluency allowing them access to all knowledge. Most scholars know this who have tried to conduct research but could not read an article in a foreign tongue. For example, most of the colonial history of the Philippines has still not been translated into English. >> Poor people have always had problems with English in the Philippines, > >> and this has been a burden. > > Well of course, in any language, if you're not fluent in a certain > language then you'll have a problem with it. And poor people have *never* been fluent in English as a whole, even if some poor individuals have acquired such fluency. That's why you must have a multi-lingual society. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > In fact, no country has 100% fluency allowing them access to all > knowledge. Most scholars know this who have tried to conduct research > but could not read an article in a foreign tongue. > > For example, most of the colonial history of the Philippines has still > not been translated into English. True, but far more of it has not yet been translated into Tagalog/Filipino. The documents - millions of them - are mostly in Spanish. Archivero Pig Hello Dr. Ngo, > The documents - millions of them - are mostly in Spanish. Sad eh. It's like the majority of today's Filipinos lost access to everything written about us from the time the Spanish came up until just a century ago. But I think it's a consequence of our country adopting Spanish as the primary language for written documents. Spanish died a natural death. Yes, I agree with multilingualism as I've said many times. But at least it's possible to have at least 95% to 99% fluency and it's necessary of course. Again it's urgent, because the Philippines can't continue to be a country wherein greater majority of its citizens can't even read its leading newspapers and most books sold in its bookstores! That's crazy! Weird! > > So it means the best thing to do for them politicians to make up for > > their mistake is, they must now fully Tagalize the PSE, leading > > newspapers, and all books sold in Philippine bookstores, immediately! > > I don't think you can force private media to adopt English. Nor is it > necessary. The stock exchange may be another matter. It will be > impossible in any multi-lingual country to have "100% fluency" nor is it > necessary. > > In fact, no country has 100% fluency allowing them access to all > knowledge. Most scholars know this who have tried to conduct research > but could not read an article in a foreign tongue. > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com/ Hello Rajah Homaba, You really hate the politicians, eh? ;-) > Not just the TV shows, movies, comics, and music! I don't think the government or your much hated politicians have anything to do with the Filipinization of TV shows, movies, comics and music, anyways. It's more like the market forces and the availability of talent. As long as there are still people who oppose the Filipinization of the Philippines (there are lots of them), it won't be an easy task. > Hello Rajah Homaba, > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > music, anyways. It's more like the market forces and the availability > of talent. Of course there's nothing wrong with tagalizing TV shows, movies, comics, music, and advertisements. In fact the reason why I hate politicians is because they're not yet tagalizing the really important medias like the PSE, leading newspapers, and most books sold in Philippine bookstores! Again it's urgent, because the Philippines can't continue to be a country wherein greater majority of its citizens can't even read its leading newspapers and most books sold in its bookstores! That's crazy! Weird! > As long as there are still people who oppose the Filipinization of the > Philippines (there are lots of them), it won't be an easy task. It can be done both ways. Manila will be promoting Tagalog to its residents while Cebu or maybe Davao too or Bacolod will promote english to its residents. Like Quebec and the rest of Canada. > Of course there's nothing wrong with > tagalizing TV shows, movies, comics, > music, and advertisements. What I was trying to say was that the Filipinization of media was done by media, not by politics. Definitely nothing wrong with it. > Manila will be promoting Tagalog to its > residents while Cebu or maybe Davao > too or Bacolod will promote english > to its residents. Oh, you're one of those. I don't think promoting different languages for different provinces will help at all. What language will a person learn to succeed on a national basis if Manila speaks Filipino while Cebu speaks English and/or Cebuano? What language will our national TV use? > Like Quebec and the rest of Canada. Canada is a lone case and while almost all Quebec people speak English, not all non-Quebec people speak French. Popular media is still basically English. Yes, I'm liberal for two languages but more than two I don't like either. The US is also contending with the possibility of ending up with two languages, Spanish and English. Like Canada. A lot of folks in the states are angry about that too. But you know, sometimes things like that can only be prevented by draconian means. And things are looking to be going that way in the Philippines too. But at least if that happens at least the Philippines will not have more than two national languages used. It would only be Tagalog and English. I think language promotion is not mainly at fault here, because it's quite natural for most Tagalogs to be so fierce to promote their language as the national language of the Philippines because they're the Tagalogs! And it's also natural for most non-tagalogs to ignore Tagalog and instead learn English because they're not Tagalogs! Tagalog is just another regular foreign language to them! That's just natural! So at the national stage, whether in government and popular media, will end up using translators like in the EU parliament. You shouldn't blame me or any individual for the non-tagalogs' refusal to voluntarily adopt Tagalog. Because it's a whole mass of people that are at work here. Again, because it's quite natural for most Tagalogs to be so fierce to promote their language as the national language of the Philippines because they're the Tagalogs! And it's also natural for most non-tagalogs to ignore Tagalog and instead learn English because they're not Tagalogs! Tagalog is just another regular foreign language to them! That's just natural! Again, you shouldn't blame me or any individual for the non-tagalogs' refusal to voluntarily adopt Tagalog. Because it's a whole mass of people that are at work here. > > Of course there's nothing wrong with > > tagalizing TV shows, movies, comics, [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > not all non-Quebec people speak French. Popular media is still > basically English. > Again, you shouldn't blame me or any > individual for the non-tagalogs' refusal > to voluntarily adopt Tagalog. It's becoming more and more involuntary. Unless they don't watch ABS-CBN and GMA and totally ignore Metro Manila as a destination, they will be learning Filipino. > > Again, you shouldn't blame me or any > > individual for the non-tagalogs' refusal [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > ABS-CBN and GMA and totally ignore Metro Manila as a destination, they > will be learning Filipino. Non-tagalogs watching ABS-CBN or GMA is just like a Tagalog watching an American TV show! Tagalogs may watch American TV, movies, and listen to American music but most Tagalogs still remain not fluent in English. So it's the same with non-tagalogs who watch GMA or ABS-CBN, they still remain not fluent in Tagalog. For average majority of people, only an everyday round the clock language usage throughout their younger years will make a person permanently fluent in any given language. And of course, non-tagalogs watch as much American shows, movies, and listen to American music just as much as they watch and listen to Tagalog entertainment. And in the present economic state of the Philippines, more likely, most non-tagalogs will never get to visit Metro Manila in their lifetime, anyway. A few may visit but only as visiting relatives accompanied by their non-tagalog speaking relatives permanently living in Metro Manila. And even once non-tagalog areas economically develop, thanks to education and reading books, they will visit Metro Manila as tourists who are more English speaking than Tagalog speaking. And of course we must not forget that there's a crisis in the Philippines, in that the Philippines can't continue to be a country wherein greater majority of its citizens can't even read its leading newspapers and most books sold in its bookstores! That's crazy! Weird! > Non-tagalogs watching ABS-CBN or GMA > is just like a Tagalog watching an American > TV show! The difference being ABS-CBN and GMA being so much closer to them. They see Vina Morales, Marilyn Reynes, Cesar Montano, Edu Manzano, Pilita Corales on Philippine TV. Philippine TV talks about the Philippines (not only the Tagalog region). American TV talks about America and maybe you forgot, the non-Tagalogs are not Americans. > > Non-tagalogs watching ABS-CBN or GMA > > is just like a Tagalog watching an American [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Philippines (not only the Tagalog region). American TV talks about > America and maybe you forgot, the non-Tagalogs are not Americans. That's still not enough to make them fluent in Tagalog or to even educate students. And their teachers and schools will still provide them with mostly English written books and instruct them or the students to read those books as homework! That's why the Cebuanos are concentrating more in English than Tagalog! I wanna see most books sold in Philippine bookstores leading Philippine newspapers tagalized! Not to see Vina Morales, Marilyn Reynes, Cesar Montano, Edu Manzano talk Tagalog on TV even if they talk about the Philippines! How much can Filipino students learn from them? That's why it's urgent, the Philippines can't continue to be a country wherein greater majority of its citizens can't even read its leading newspapers and most books sold in its bookstores! That's crazy! Weird! I'm pretty sure you know I agree with you about the Filipinization of the Philippines. Yes, including the PSE and the major broadsheets and the major books. But I also believe it has to be a gradual change. It may be cliche to say that right now, we are on a transitional stage but it's true. These kind of transitions do not occur overnight. It took around 80 years to finally remove 300 years of Spanish from our schools. I am willing to wait and I'm sure the wait wouldn't take that long because I know that no matter what the anti-Tagalogs say, Filipino is here to stay and is well on it's way to becoming the country's only primary language (with English or maybe Chinese or Japanese as secondary languages). It's already happening Rajah Homaba. Let's be patient. For now, I take it as my duty to inform the country that it's happening already and we should be ready for it. Even here in In Japan, there's a Filipino broadsheet called "Silangan-Shinbun" and surprise surprise, it's in Filipino. I would like to emphasize or maybe remind everyone that language is not the important thing in this discussion, it's the immediate and fast complete input of knowledge in the minds of students that is important here. Not the politics of whether what language is to be the national language or to promote the English language and so on. Anyway, so it means you're in a race with the Cebuanos, and I think with Davao and Bacolod as well, and with the rest of the non-tagalog speaking areas, when it comes to fast complete inputting knowledge in the minds of students. While you believe in gradual transition, the teachers in non-tagalog areas are already instructing their students to read leading newspapers everyday and mostly English written books of their taught subjects as homework for their students. In that gradual period you talk of, non-tagalog students will be more educated and have a more retentive privilege of reviewing their knowledge by peeking in their books from time to time. That's why if you're pro-tagalog group is too slow, whether you like it or not, they will proceed in educating non-tagalog students with more fluent access to knowledge and leave the Manila students behind the knowledge attainment race track. I'm sure this will test the sincerity of your pro-tagalog group's claimed objective of gradually tagalizing all wealth of knowledge in the Philippines which is in my impression is very very slow and insincere. But positively, I think this competitive race will benefit the Manila students and students in other tagalog areas because it will speed up the tagalization of all academic knowledge on those tagalog areas. If the pro-tagalogs are truly sincere, of course! But if not, then Manila and Tagalog area students will lag behind their non-tagalog student counterparts. Another generation of Manila and Tagalog students will get wasted or their minds get wasted full potential not achieved. And obviously, the non-tagalog students will be much smarter and have a brighter future than the Tagalog students. And it will help the development of non-tagalog areas even competing with Metro Manila which is also dominated by the English speaking elite. > I'm pretty sure you know I agree with you about the Filipinization of > the Philippines. Yes, including the PSE and the major broadsheets and [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Filipino broadsheet called "Silangan-Shinbun" and surprise surprise, > it's in Filipino. Thank you Rajah Homaba for your fearless forecast for what's going to happen in the Philippines. If I were one of the 13 million Metro Manilans, I'd be very afraid, or would I. Now, it's time for my fearless forecast. [My fearless forecast] The Philippines' English proficiency will continue to depreciate and Filipino will continue taking the role of English as the language of power in most of the Philippines. Mass media, including Television, Radio and Newspapers will all be in Filipino with occasional English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese to entertain the tourists and expats. Metro Manila, with it's 14 million-strong population, will continue being the biggest and most influential city of the Philippines followed by the 2 million-strong Cebu City. Then, Baguio City and Davao City. Mass media will still be mostly based in Metro Manila and will still be mostly in Filipino with occasional Cebuano telenovelas once in a while (to the likes of "Isabel" of the 90's). The Tagalog region, realizing the inability of English as a medium of instruction, will adopt and use Filipino to teach it's people. Along with this change will be the publication of a lot of Filipino books, translation of key foreign books (not only English but also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, German, French) and the increase of Filipino educational TV (to the likes of Batibot, Hiraya Manawari etc). The non-Tagalog region especially Cebu, will continue resisting the use of Filipino and will stick to concentrating on teaching English as a primary language. Cebu will also teach its people Japanese as a secondary language recognizing the increase in Japanese tourists and investors in Cebu. Cebu will become the Call Center Capital of the Philippines and a Software Development Powerhouse competing with Bangalore and a Tourist Center competing with Bali and Phuket. Most of the employers will be American and Japanese investors. Metro Manila and other major cities will move on to other key locally based industries and services competing with other non-English (proper English) speaking cities like Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul and even Tokyo. Most of the employers will be homegrown companies (to the likes of San Miguel, Jollibee, Smart, Globe, Ayala) and a few foreign investors here and there. Metro Manila will be exporting Telenovelas and Movies (dubbed to suit the receiving country) to Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations. It will have a healthy publications industry and book translations industry. OPM and Filipino movies will flourish and reach its Golden Age. The English-speaking elite of Metro Manila? They'll all be migrating to Australia, United States or maybe Cebu. Those who stay will have no choice but to learn Filipino. Like I said before, whatever language you use, as long as all wealth of knowledge available in the world are fully written in the particular language you know or using, that's the important thing. So for the meantime, while all wealth of knowledge are not yet fully tagalized and still mostly written in English. Then let's teach all Filipinos English for the meantime while all wealth of knowledge are not yet fully tagalized. But when all wealth of knowledge are finally fully tagalized, then we can stop teaching Filipinos English. That's what I'm saying. And in addition, what I'm just trying to say is that, the present generation of Cebuanos are very fortunate, because today they already have immediate fluent access to all knowledge available in the world and in the Philippines. Because today in the Philippines, most books sold in Philippine bookstores are written in English, leading Philippine newspapers are written in English, the Philippine Stock exchange is done in English. And because Cebuanos today are fluent in English, the Cebuanos today are fortunate to have immediate access to all those wealth of knowledge and opportunities anytime they want today. But the present Tagalog generation is unfortunate because they are not fluent in English, the Tagalogs will still have to wait for maybe several decades more before all those books sold in Philippine bookstores, PSE, and leading newspapers are fully tagalized before they can finally fluently access them. Only when those wealth of knowledge are fully tagalized will the Tagalogs finally have fluent access to those wealth of knowledge and opportunities unlike the Cebuanos today who can fluently access them now or anytime they want today. And of course, once all wealth of knowledge or most books sold in Philippine bookstores, PSE, and leading Philippine newspapers are finally tagalized, several decades in the future, that's only when Tagalogs will start to finally have fluent access to all those wealth of knowledge. And by that time when all wealth of knowledge are finally tagalized, the Cebuanos too will be encouraged to learn the Tagalog language as well. The Filipinos living and born abroad will also be encouraged to learn Tagalog. When all wealth of knowledge are finally fully tagalized, the Cebuanos too will learn and use Tagalog voluntarily. That's the advantage of the Cebuanos over the Tagalogs. The Cebuanos will not go through or put themselves through unnecessary several decades long of knowledge deprivation. And because today Cebuanos have a head start advantage of having fluent access to knowledge and to opportunities, hence more likely all your great predictions for Metro Manila will instead happen first to Cebu! Even if Cebu is small don't underestimate the power of knowledge! I heard that even some Binondo businesses are transferring to Cebu. Like I said, it's access to knowledge that's important, not whatever language you use. I mean, the Cebuanos will voluntarily learn and use Tagalog too anyway once all wealth of knowledge are fully Tagalized! > Thank you Rajah Homaba for your fearless forecast for what's going to > happen in the Philippines. If I were one of the 13 million Metro [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > Australia, United States or maybe Cebu. Those who stay will have no > choice but to learn Filipino. > Then let's teach all Filipinos English for the > meantime while all wealth of knowledge are > not yet fully tagalized. Mostly I agree with you Rajah Homaba except for your suggestion of punishing the Filipino speaker and an occasional impatience here and there. Do you have other suggestions on how to teach the current generation of Filipinos proper English that wouldn't require punishing the Filipinos for speaking Filipino? > > Then let's teach all Filipinos English for the > > meantime while all wealth of knowledge are [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Filipinos proper English that wouldn't require punishing the Filipinos > for speaking Filipino? Well, during the English subject, do it the way call centers teach their recruits! Typically reading aloud, practicing proper pronunciation, pretend conversations, memorizing new words each day. Depending on the subject taught, teachers must use English as the medium of instruction using only basic frequently used English vocabularies. When I say depending on the subject, I mean if the particular subject is mostly available in English written books then English should be the medium of instruction used during that subject using only basic frequently used English vocabularies. Make reading books and English written newspapers homework and on the next day have a test and discussion while they are speaking and writing in English about the things they've read. And because there's no more punishment involved, the students should be only asked to volunteer to speak English while outside the classroom but still inside school grounds. I'm sure most high school and college students will enjoy following that instruction but I'm not sure if most elementary kids will. With the above methods of teaching English, by the time the students graduate high school or college, by then they'll have a just enough fluency or ability of comprehension for PSE transactions, English written books, and leading Philippine newspapers. But of course they'll not be as fast an English speaker as the 60 years old and above Filipinos because they did not undergo an English teaching method as intense as that with involving punishment. But it doesn't matter, because again the important thing is they'll have a just enough fluency or ability of comprehension for PSE transactions, English written books, and leading Philippine newspapers. That's the important thing, to have enough fluent access to all wealth of knowledge available in the world! And if they want to go abroad to an English speaking country, no problem! Because of the above method of English teaching they're just several steps away to becoming 100% fluent as a native English speaker once they regularly use English there. But it doesn't > matter, because again the important thing is they'll have a just > enough fluency or ability of comprehension for PSE transactions, > English written books, and leading Philippine newspapers. That's the > important thing, to have enough fluent access to all wealth of > knowledge available in the world! Well again, it won't give them that type of access. It may be more important to think about what the people need in their practical lives. And if they want to go abroad to an > English speaking country, no problem! Again, I think you're thinking is idealistic terms but practically most people won't acquire such skills. Even at the height of Americanization, the majority of Filipinos only had the most rudimentary English ability. Also, people tend to get a great amount of information these days from broadcast media, and in the Philippines this is mostly in Tagalog. So how do you reconcile this with your "100% fluenct access" idea? Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > But it doesn't > > matter, because again the important thing is they'll have a just [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Americanization, the majority of Filipinos only had the most rudimentary > English ability. Basic english is enough. And you're correct to say that it's more important to think about what the people need in their practical lives. Because most people make a living working as a specialist whether blue collar or white collar or whether self-employed or working for others. So, as long as they concentrate all their effort in acquiring knowledge and skills only mostly to that particular job they want to work and specialize in, there's no need to access in detail other fields of knowledge at least just the basic. Acquiring knowledge and skills is not difficult if you specialize or concentrate on just one particular job. And if you want to transfer or specialize in a whole new totally different type of job than you have previously, no problem! Just do it one at a time. Specialize on that particular job. The above English teaching method although not very intensive can be a big help to them in their specialization training. And even if they've just learned basic English in school but during their specialization training that's when they will learn more technical jargons and lingo specific to that specialized field they're specializing. Including college courses that may look difficult, but as long as the student is interested, determined, and will concentrate to specialize in that field no matter how intimidating that college course is, they can become competent experts in it. > Also, people tend to get a great amount of information these days from > broadcast media, and in the Philippines this is mostly in Tagalog. So > how do you reconcile this with your "100% fluenct access" idea? The Tagalog tri-media only mostly contains bakya entertainment, political propagandas, and typical crime news. News like those are not too complicated to understand by non-tagalog Filipinos. More likely they already have those same news in their own tribal dialect. > Regards, > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com/ >> Also, people tend to get a great amount of information these days > from [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > too complicated to understand by non-tagalog Filipinos. More likely > they already have those same news in their own tribal dialect. Hmm, this is a bit disappointing. All of a sudden you're not worried about access to knowledge. Broadcast media is no less important than the "major newspapers" you keep mentioning. I doubt that many of the masa would even bother to read these papers, except maybe the comics. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > >> Also, people tend to get a great amount of information these days > > from [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > The Tagalog tri-media only mostly contains bakya entertainment, > > political propagandas, and typical crime news. News like those are > not > > too complicated to understand by non-tagalog Filipinos. More likely > > they already have those same news in their own tribal dialect. > > Hmm, this is a bit disappointing. All of a sudden you're not worried > about access to knowledge. > > Broadcast media is no less important than the "major newspapers" you > keep mentioning. I doubt that many of the masa would even bother to read > these papers, except maybe the comics. I'm sorry I was not clear. Yes, I was talking about a person's fluent access to specific knowledge only that he is really very interested to specialize in. So for that person to gain deeper knowledge of other fields, trained specialists of those other fields will have to explain their expertise to him in layman terms or in basic english. Or if the specialist knows how to speak ilokano for example and it just happens in front of him is an ilokano only audience, then he can explain his expertise in layman terms using ilokano language. That's one of the jobs of a specialist, to explain his/her expertise to the general public using layman terms. > Regards, > Paul Kekai Manansala > http://sambali.blogspot.com/ > trained specialists of those other fields > will have to explain their expertise to him > in layman terms This is a very good point you raised here. When experts explain to people, who are learning a skill, concepts should be explained in laymen's term in a language easily understandable by the majority. When explaining a new farming technology to a group of farmers from all over the country, concepts should be explained in layment's term using a language easily understandable by the majority of the audience. > > trained specialists of those other fields > > will have to explain their expertise to him [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > over the country, concepts should be explained in layment's term using > a language easily understandable by the majority of the audience. Even authors of elementary, high school, and beginner's books write with layman lingo or in basic english as well to teach complex technical concepts. But advance and senior college books and professional user manuals are very technical. Yearly latest edition book releases for professionals are very technical. White collar professionals need to upgrade their knowledge every six months nowadays to stay competitive and competent. That's why it's very important early on to prepare elementary and high school students to have fluent learning access to advance books and professional manuals later in their life. Professionals need to review their knowledge and upgrade. Produce a very competitive white-collar workforce population majority at the same time building physical infrastructures which are essential ingredients for economic development. Got to go hand in hand without either one it wouldn't work. > Even authors of elementary, high school, and beginner's books write > with layman lingo or in basic english as well to teach complex [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > ingredients for economic development. Got to go hand in hand without > either one it wouldn't work. Book reading/learning language barrier placement = Quality of Education Decline = Economic Sabotage Because the quality of student education affects the productivity of the future workforce hence affects the economy of the nation. Education is the foundation of a modern civilization. Weaken that foundation and any rich industrialized country will end up like the Philippines and like other 3rd world nations. Build physical infrastructures while at the same time improving the book reading fluency of students especially with books on the particular field they want to specialize in in their future careers. Again, build physical infrastructures while at the same time producing a very competitive white-collar workforce population majority which are essential ingredients for economic development. Got to go hand in hand, building physical infrastructures and improving students' book reading fluency, without either one it wouldn't work. Put in all ingredients to make it taste real good! > > Even authors of elementary, high school, and beginner's books write > > with layman lingo or in basic english as well to teach complex [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > foundation and any rich industrialized country will end up like the > Philippines and like other 3rd world nations. We all know that the reason why those students who are so eager to raise their hands and answer the questions on the blackboard is because they already have read those lessons on their books. That's why it's very important to give emphasis on improving the students' book reading fluency in order to prepare students early on to have fluent reading/learning access especially on advance books and professional technical manuals to review and upgrade their knowledge to stay competitive and competent in their future careers they will specialize in. Teachers must encourage and instruct their students to read the books of their taught subjects as homework because they will discuss or have a test about a particular chapter lesson on the next day or next week. Again, that's why improving students' book reading fluency on advance technical books is very important. Produce a very competitive white-collar workforce population majority by improving students' book reading fluency and at the same time build physical infrastructures which are essential ingredients for economic development. Got to go hand in hand without either one it wouldn't work. Put in all ingredients to make it taste real good! >Put in all ingredients to make it taste real good! Flavored K-Y. Works all the time, no language required. Slurping Pig > >Put in all ingredients to make it taste real good! > > Flavored K-Y. Works all the time, no language required. > > Slurping Pig Well, some foods have flavoring but lacking the essential ingredients. Or maybe some have the essential ingredients but lack flavoring. It's either due to a poorly skilled chef or by deliberate design of food manufacturers. And sadly some chefs mainly blame the actual ingredients for their bad cooking even though it's very clear that how can it be mainly the fault of the ingredients when the chefs are the ones who haven't even yet completely poured in all ingredients when they cook! If they poured in all ingredients with the right quantities and done all they can to cook it right and it still didn't work, then that's the time they can rightfully complain and blame the actual ingredients for their bad cooking. > > The English-speaking elite of Metro Manila? > > They'll all be migrating to Australia, United States > > or maybe Cebu. > I heard that even some Binondo businesses are transferring to Cebu. Omigod! It's happening already! ;-) > most non-tagalogs will never get to visit > Metro Manila in their lifetime, anyway. Just as most of Tagalogs and non-Tagalogs will never get to visit America in their lifetime, anyway. > they will visit Metro Manila as tourists who > are more English speaking than Tagalog speaking. And most likely belonging to a different country already. > > most non-tagalogs will never get to visit > > Metro Manila in their lifetime, anyway. > > Just as most of Tagalogs and non-Tagalogs will never get to visit > America in their lifetime, anyway. That's why if you want to prevent or limit the Filipinos' inclination or familiarity with America, then the more you ought to tagalize the leading newspapers and most of the books sold in bookstores in the Philippines! Or else, they will still continue to have unavoidable stronger inclination to America! A physical divide will not turn them away from English. Tagalog talk shows, music, advertisements, and Tagalog speaking celebrities will not do it either. Again, the Philippines can't continue to be a country wherein greater majority of its citizens can't even read its leading newspapers and most books sold in its bookstores! That's crazy! Weird! So it's your job to tagalize it all until you bleed because that's what you're fiercely fighting for! That's your objective! It's your job! > > they will visit Metro Manila as tourists who > > are more English speaking than Tagalog speaking. > > And most likely belonging to a different country already. Hello Rajah Homaba, > So it's your job to tagalize it all until you > bleed because that's what you're fiercely > fighting for! I was afraid you'd stoop to this level of argumentation. :-( > Hello Rajah Homaba, > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > I was afraid you'd stoop to this level of argumentation. :-( It's true! Trabaho nyo yan! But at least if > that happens at least the Philippines will not have more than two > national languages used. It would only be Tagalog and English. You can have two national languages and additional official languages. There are many examples around the world which have worked successfully. Indeed, the EU is now an multi-lingual entity. Many people in the EU can speak up to three languages or more. So at the national stage, whether in government and > popular media, will end up using translators like in the EU parliament. So. I think the problem with Filipinos is that they think they can emulate a U.S. model when it's totally inappropriate. It's not about Tagalog and non-Tagalog. I'm not that fond of Tagalog myself. If you're really interested in being "non-selfish" then its the practical thing to do. If you're interested in preserving your native language, promoting English won't do it! You should work instead on using the language as a medium of instruction as they do in Mountain Province. Regards, Paul Kekai Manansala http://sambali.blogspot.com/ |
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