James Soriano: a name that has been trending over the Internet among Filipinos. In just a day or two, James Soriano was famous. Almost every Filipino, with an access to the Internet, now know his name. His essay was published in Manila Bulletin’s iThink column on August 24. Entitled Language, learning, identity, privilege, his essay was understood to be how English is the languages of the learned and privilege while Filipino is for the manongs and the katulong.
It may be a failure on his part in conveying his real message, if he has one beside the statement above. I think his original point was the importance of the Filipino language and how he is ashamed on his view on the language. If it is the case, then it may be his failure to grab on that concept for his essay and revolve around it.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
He went toppling down on the wrong side of the point. English, as he stated, was for the learned and privilege. Filipino, in his point of view, was used only for practicality to actually get by in the Philippines. It is truly sad to hear this from our generation. Although many of us Filipinos do not feel the same way, we can not ignore the fact that there are people out there with the same perception as Soriano’s. It was indeed, a wake up call.
A point that I saw in his essay was how the Filipino view English in the past and up to now. You are educated when you can fluently speak English. You are globally competitive. You will go places. But they have left out a great part of the other side.
Yes, one point of teaching English to our people was to be globally competitive. And yes, English is an official language in our country. But the other side of the coin was not seen by these people. Filipino is our national language. The government and language planners out there wanted to unify the people to have one identity as Filipinos through our language. It was not the plan to plant in our heads that English is the higher and prestigious language. As I see it, English was taught as an instrument for us to show our skills and talents as Filipinos to the foreign world.
We should be proud that Philippines is one of the most diverse home for languages in the world. In just a small island, we actually have more than a hundred Philippine languages that we can call our own. And Filipino was made as a lingua franca for the whole country. It signifies our unity as one nation. It was not designed to be the language of the manongs and katulongs.
I am not enraged with James Soriano’s essay. I am actually sad that the view on Filipino is still construed by the idea that English is a higher language. All languages are equal. It was only due to society that a language’s status is lifted up and viewed as prestigious. And his essay was actually an eye-opener. It shows that we have so many shortcomings in terms of teaching Filipino to our younger generation and in making them understand the status and importance of languages: not only on Filipino but other Philippine languages as well.
PS.
The article was taken down in Manila Bulletin’s website. If you wish to see the copy of the article, I read it here: http://www.pinoymoneytalk.com/james-soriano-column-filipino-language/
