We beg to differ.
It suddenly occurred to me why Marian Rivera has so many frothing fans. It’s because she looks sosyal but sounds palengkera. The psychology there being that there is some sort of perverted appeal to seeing a person who looks like she comes from the colonial elite speaking the language of the masa. Yeah, I get…
Read More “What Marian Rivera’s fan base reveals about Philippine society” »
I have always been fluent in English. You can say I grew up with the language. When I was in high school, people around me seemed to be so enchanted by the English language. There were those who seemed impressed by the way I spoke English while there were those who hated me for the…
Okay, here’s a sequel (of sorts) to my other article A Talk Between Mothers which is, in turn, inspired by the articles Minsan May Isang Puta and Putak Ng Anak Ng Puta by Mike Portes. Again, I would like to state that “Minsan May Isang Puta” and “Ang Putak Ng Anak Ng Puta” both belong to…
One thing I learned in language education is that, given time, geography and human development, a language would eventually change to suit the needs of communication. That is why I have ultimately very little problems with Tagalog speakers embellishing English into the former, creating a (current) form of portmanteau popularly known as “Taglish.” The premise…
Read More “Fluency in Regional Languages Can Improve the So-Called “Filipino Language”” »
While the Constitution (Article XIV, section 7) declares English as an official language of the country, there are still smart-alecks who believe Filipinos should not speak English. For example, there was this troll in a group that tries to say he is more “Filipino” because he doesn’t know English much. Such things are really stupid….
Don’t look now but Marian Rivera’s come out swinging at her detractors, presumably over the subject of her famous English language skills (or lack of it). I’ve always found Marian fascinating. Her face and physical stature does not match her style of speech. Perhaps this is what endears her to her fans — she physically…
Read More “Is diskarte more important than good English as Marian Rivera says?” »
A study jointly conducted by the University of the Philippines’ Assessment Curriculum Technology Research Center-College of Education (ACTRC) and the University of Melbourne on the effectiveness of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines has confirmed something many Filipinos have known for some time — that English remains a highly-prized skill that most…
The Philippines is imprisoned by a deep systemic inability in its people to extricate themselves from poverty. It is a problem that is an outcome of (1) the sheer number of Filipinos that inhabit the planet, (2) the average productive output of each warm Filipino body earning (or seeking to earn) a living, and (3)…
Read More “Philippine employment dilemma: Dumb down the jobs? Or smarten up the workforce?” »