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    Filipino Language Importance

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    Celine Garin Colada
    Bienvenido Lumbera, a renowned Filipino writer and advocate for the Filipino language, has died at age 89. As a poet, playwright, critic, translator and teacher, Lumbera championed the use of Filipino in literature and everyday language. He believed using Filipino rather than English was important for Philippine literature and culture to be judged on their own terms rather than through Western standards. Lumbera received awards including the Ramon Magsaysay for his efforts to restore vernacular Filipino writings and challenge the colonial perspective still present in Philippine society.

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    Filipino Language Importance

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    Celine Garin Colada
    161 views3 pages
    Bienvenido Lumbera, a renowned Filipino writer and advocate for the Filipino language, has died at age 89. As a poet, playwright, critic, translator and teacher, Lumbera championed the use of Filipino in literature and everyday language. He believed using Filipino rather than English was important for Philippine literature and culture to be judged on their own terms rather than through Western standards. Lumbera received awards including the Ramon Magsaysay for his efforts to restore vernacular Filipino writings and challenge the colonial perspective still present in Philippine society.

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    Bienvenido Lumbera, a renowned Filipino writer and advocate for the Filipino language, has died at age 89. As a poet, playwright, critic, translator and teacher, Lumbera championed the use of Filipino in literature and everyday language. He believed using Filipino rather than English was important for Philippine literature and culture to be judged on their own terms rather than through Western standards. Lumbera received awards including the Ramon Magsaysay for his efforts to restore vernacular Filipino writings and challenge the colonial perspective still present in Philippine society.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    161 views3 pages

    Filipino Language Importance

    Uploaded by

    Celine Garin Colada
    Bienvenido Lumbera, a renowned Filipino writer and advocate for the Filipino language, has died at age 89. As a poet, playwright, critic, translator and teacher, Lumbera championed the use of Filipino in literature and everyday language. He believed using Filipino rather than English was important for Philippine literature and culture to be judged on their own terms rather than through Western standards. Lumbera received awards including the Ramon Magsaysay for his efforts to restore vernacular Filipino writings and challenge the colonial perspective still present in Philippine society.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    “Bienvenido ‘Bien’ Lumbera, National Artist for Literature and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for

    Journalism, Literature and Creative Communications, has died, leaving a mark as a champion
    of the Filipino language and a believer in the artist as activist. The poet, playwright, critic,
    translator, and teacher died due to complications from a stroke at 9.14 a.m. on Tuesday
    (September 29) at his home in Quezon City. He was 89.”

    The Wednesday morning headline coincided with the day Ms. Cho assigned my Blog #2.
    Curious and sad, I read the article since he was the author of my favorite Filipino musical
    adaptation of the highly acclaimed novel Noli Me Tangere. Lumbera was a champion of
    Philippine literature, pushing for the use of the Filipino language in everyday language. After
    reading this news article, Ms. Cho provided the class with non-literary texts to study later that
    afternoon during class. I chose the non-literary text, “Can Filipinos Speak Their Own
    Language?” by Asian Boss. Besides my interest in the Filipino language, I felt emotionally
    attached to Bienvenido Lumbera's death and legacy.

    Asian Boss is a media company that delivers the latest social news and cultural trends from all
    over Asia. The shooting for the interview took place in Manila, the center of cultural, economic,
    and social activity. The host in the video interviews Filipinos to explain why they speak the way
    they do and challenges them whether they can answer specific questions fully in Tagalog.
    Filipino students ages 17-23 were interviewed why and how do Filipinos speak Taglish. Other
    than challenging their Filipino fluency, it also shows their knowledge regarding social issues,
    such as the controversy around the Divorce Bill. From 1:46 - 3:22 of the video, the interviewees’
    answers were clearly shallow and based on a general opinion (like “that Philippines is a
    Christian country that’s why they won’t allow it”). The challenge would be difficult if one was not
    clearly informed about these issues, and it is evident that they struggled more in this part of the
    challenge rather than speaking completely in Tagalog. They all failed, and their responses were
    initially Tagalog, but English words such as "so," or "and," etc., were involuntarily said. The
    respondents (and the interviewer) were incapable of expressing themselves fluently in Tagalog.

    Initially, I expected the content of the video to stay true to its title, referring to the idea that
    Filipinos speaking their 'own' language is a challenge. I found it ridiculous and disappointing that
    most Filipinos cannot talk in Tagalog very well. The sense of nationalism is fading away as the
    white mentality becomes more prominent in the new generation. Why is speaking "Tagalog" a
    challenge? Isn't it the country's national language? Julie, Elizabeth, and I tackled this vital
    question in our group discussion. Julie said that she is too challenged when speaking Filipino
    since she was brought up in an English - dominated environment. In contrast, Elizabeth said
    that talking in English and Tagalog decently allowed her to interact with people in and outside
    the Philippines without any hindrance. We then pointed out how age and location affect the
    responses of the interviewees. After the forum, I became a bit annoyed and curious. Did Asian
    Boss unknowingly or knowingly manipulate the reactions of their interviewees' by choosing who
    to interview? Is it for clout? Views and likes? or is it the notorious Youtube method of Pinoy
    Baiting? The video further reinforced the idea that Filipinos are not very good at speaking their
    own language in the minds of Filipinos and Asians and at a global level speaking their own
    language.
    The identity of Filipinos is shown strongly through their responses in "Taglish." In the American
    colonization era, it was believed that English was the better language than Filipino, and those
    who could speak English were mainly the upper class. As a result, it involuntarily became a
    status symbol since the upper class had access to quality education to learn English. Asian
    Boss presents the Filipinos' identity through this and through how culture influences the
    Filipinos' perception of the Filipino language. Powerful institutions and individuals use language
    as both a means to construct their power and as a way to maintain it. It was stated in the video
    that English was the primary language used as the mode of instruction in most Philippine
    schools. From a young age, children gain the impression that those who speak English are their
    superiors or powerful individuals.

    In provincial urban areas, the English language is praised and commended to the extent that an
    individual's merits are significantly correlated to their English fluency. But in provincial rural
    areas where both young and old speak fluent Tagalog and several other Filipino dialects,
    individuals who talk in English or attempt to converse in "conyo" are perceived to be social
    climbers since it is a well-known notion that speaking English is a status symbol in the province.
    It is 'unnatural' to talk in Tagalog with a hint of English. However, in the capital, Taglish is
    normalized to the point wherein even teachers and priests speak in this way.

    Even though this interview lacks metaphors, similes, and other literary techniques used in
    academic writing that add layers of meaning and flair to the text, the answers from the
    interviewees are enough to understand their identity and worldview. One concept that stands
    out and overlaps with identity is culture. The Philippines was previously a colonized country by
    the US. It mostly shaped the interviewees' answers since their perspective of Tagalog is just a
    language spoken by Filipino majors in college, people at home, or by probinsyanos. The 7 IB
    concepts assist me in examining and criticizing the use of language, which is often influenced
    by identity and culture, regardless of its diversity and approach. For example, it may be evident
    that this video involves culture. Still, it is interesting to consider how this concept of culture act
    relates with the respondents' answers involved in language choices, text types, literary forms,
    and contextual elements all affect meaning.

    In 1993, Bienvenido Lumbera received the Ramon Magsaysay Award. According to the citation,
    “an esteemed writer who challenged Philippine society’s colonial point of view and restored the
    poems and stories of vernacular writers to an esteemed place in the Philippine literary canon.”
    He emphasized the need to use Filipino as the main language because “as long as we (the
    Filipinos) continue to use English, our scholars and academics will be dependent on other
    thinkers and Filipino literature will be judged by Western standards and not, as it should be, by
    the standards of the indigenous tradition itself.”

    If there is one thing I would take away from this lesson, it's the fact that language is the key to
    national identity.
    “Until Filipino becomes the true lingua franca of the Philippines, he believes, the gap between
    the well-educated classes and the vast majority of Filipinos cannot be bridged."

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