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    Filipino Underrated in Its Own Country

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    Jan Geoffrey Francisco
    The document discusses the underutilization of Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, especially within the country's education system. It notes that most subjects are taught in English even when discussing Philippine culture, society and governance. This promotes a colonial mentality where English is seen as superior. The author argues that Filipino should be the primary language of instruction for subjects related to the Philippines to better teach students about their country and culture. Using more Filipino could help intellectualize the language and encourage greater appreciation and patriotism among Filipinos. The document calls on government agencies to promote Filipino more within the education system.

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    Filipino Underrated in Its Own Country

    Uploaded by

    Jan Geoffrey Francisco
    82 views2 pages
    The document discusses the underutilization of Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, especially within the country's education system. It notes that most subjects are taught in English even when discussing Philippine culture, society and governance. This promotes a colonial mentality where English is seen as superior. The author argues that Filipino should be the primary language of instruction for subjects related to the Philippines to better teach students about their country and culture. Using more Filipino could help intellectualize the language and encourage greater appreciation and patriotism among Filipinos. The document calls on government agencies to promote Filipino more within the education system.

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    Filipino Underrated in its Own Country

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    The document discusses the underutilization of Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, especially within the country's education system. It notes that most subjects are taught in English even when discussing Philippine culture, society and governance. This promotes a colonial mentality where English is seen as superior. The author argues that Filipino should be the primary language of instruction for subjects related to the Philippines to better teach students about their country and culture. Using more Filipino could help intellectualize the language and encourage greater appreciation and patriotism among Filipinos. The document calls on government agencies to promote Filipino more within the education system.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    82 views2 pages

    Filipino Underrated in Its Own Country

    Uploaded by

    Jan Geoffrey Francisco
    The document discusses the underutilization of Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, especially within the country's education system. It notes that most subjects are taught in English even when discussing Philippine culture, society and governance. This promotes a colonial mentality where English is seen as superior. The author argues that Filipino should be the primary language of instruction for subjects related to the Philippines to better teach students about their country and culture. Using more Filipino could help intellectualize the language and encourage greater appreciation and patriotism among Filipinos. The document calls on government agencies to promote Filipino more within the education system.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Filipino Language; Underrated in its own Country

    Jan Geoffrey I. Francisco

    Have you heard the plan of the Commission on Higher Education to


    remove the Filipino subject in the college curriculum? Have you observed that
    most of the subjects in our education are in English form? Filipino is the national
    language in the Philippines. But why does it seem to be the second fiddle here in
    the country especially in the education system?

    Presumably, our national language should be the primary medium used in


    our everyday conversation, events, and education curriculum. As a senior high
    school student taking up Humanities and Social and Sciences strand, I observed
    that our subjects are all in English medium except Filipino subjects. Most of it talks
    about the Philippines' governance, culture, and society, yet its’ medium is
    English. What I’m pointing out is, why can we not use the Filipino language in
    subjects that talk about the country? Are we not being hypocrites while learning
    about our country and our society using a foreign language?

    Our national language is the soul of our nation. It certainly defines our
    culture and our country. So why don’t we use Filipino as the primary medium in
    learning social sciences regarding the country? I know that our national
    language is not yet intellectualized. There are English terms that don’t have an
    exact translation in Filipino especially in Mathematics and Science. But how can
    our national language be fully intellectualized if we don’t even try to use it even
    in the subjects that talk about the country itself? Examples are (1) Philippine
    Politics and Governance, (2) Understanding Culture, Society and Politics and (3)
    Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship. These are some of the
    subjects that the Filipino language can be used rather than the English. It
    teaches us to love our country more, become a responsible citizen of this nation,
    and be fully informed on what is happening around our society, yet its medium is
    in English language. Even our writing subjects, like Creative Writing and Creative
    Nonfiction, don’t have an equivalent in Filipino. These are basically teaching us
    the fundamentals and different types of writing and of course how to write
    creatively in English. How about in Filipino? As Filipinos, aren’t we required to
    know and learn how to write creatively in Filipino? Yes, we do have three
    subjects in Filipino namely (1) Pagbasa at Pagsuri ng Iba’t ibang Teksto Tungo sa
    Pananaliksik,(2) Komunikasyon qt Pananaliksik sa Wika at Kulturang Filipino and
    (3) Filipino sa Piling Larangan but as I said, these Filipino subjects are not
    equivalent in our specialized subjects that mainly talks about writing creatively.
    Our education system is somehow teaching us to continue our colonial
    mentality thinking. English will always be the best and the Filipino language is just
    for a chit-chat on the street. If you’re not good at English, you are not good at
    all. Indeed, many of us make the English language a standard of intelligence
    and progress. We might forget that many countries out there don’t give much
    importance in the English language yet they are very progressive like China,
    Japan, and South Korea. Perhaps their secret of progress is loving and being
    proud of their country, including their national language, while our country
    continues to entail us that English will always be supreme. That English language
    will bring the Philippines to a higher level. The government is now working to
    teach foreign languages such as Korean, Japanese, French, and Mandarin, not
    just English.

    I know that it is truly an advantage if Filipinos learn how to speak foreign


    languages, especially English. It will make us flexible and more welcoming that
    whoever comes into our country, we can talk to them. However, do not put
    ourselves behind the other countries and foreign languages; let us put the
    Philippines and the Filipino language ahead of them.

    I hope that the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino¸the Department of Education


    and other related-government agencies will work hard to show people the inner
    beauty and beyond the Filipino language. There is much more than we know
    about our national language. There are more hidden information about it that
    will help us more to be Filipino-oriented and show our love and patriotism to our
    country. And these will just be done if we put our national language in the
    center of our basic foundation – education.

    I can say today that Filipino is underrated in its own country. Perhaps, if
    they are a human, they are crying right now and begging for more importance
    and love. As Filipinos, let us challenge ourselves on what we can do more for our
    language and for our country. If you’re wondering why I am using English
    language in writing my article that promotes our national language, go back to
    what I have said in the third paragraph and let us pray that in the very near
    future, it will be changed in favor of the soul of our nation.

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