About the effect of learning a second language on the proficiency in the first language, I should say I’m one of those victims of “L1 declination”. I grew up in Manila, and everyone speaks Filipino or English or often both. The ability to speak both languages is a must in a Manileño community, but as one reaches the higher levels of education, the importance of one’s proficiency in Filipino somehow diminishes. I feel embarrassed when I ask people the meaning of certain Filipino words that they use, even those that are very simple. It also feels weird correcting each other when we make grammatical errors in spoken Filipino. I think Filipinos are now more concerned about being an Anglophone. It saddens me.

And it’s not exactly just the “status symbol” that forces us to be good at speaking English. It’s more of the “social dictate”. It’s tough, but that’s how our nation is. I don’t regret being part of it, and I don’t blame anybody for causing this thing to happen. I guess that’s just how nations grow.

MARTIN: Yes, it’s true that it’s not really possible to have an intelligent discussion about English education in the Philippines without commenting on the history of the region. It makes sense that colonization by an English speaking country would lead to wider adoption of the language. There are certainly countries in which this is not the case, however. I’d be very interested in reading such a discussion, but I don’t have enough background knowledge on the topic to comment on it now. Anyone?

Alyssa: You’re right about the widespread adoption of loan words threatening the authenticity of languages. This becomes especially problematic when two languages are shared by the same group (country) of speakers. I’m not sure that this is avoidable, however, if we are going to allow the any language to become the international standard. Also, I’m no authority, but it seems to me that Tagalog (or Filipino, as my EFL/ESL colleagues call it) lost its authenticity long before English became widely adopted. While staying with Tagalog speaking families I was able to follow conversation topics just by listening for the (little) Spanish that I know! As my host told me, “The Philippines has been invaded by all of our neighbors, but they never succeed in controlling the archipelago, and they always leave new elements of culture and language behind.”

wilmarc: My friends in the Philippines voiced many similar concerns. I don’t think the maid-race stereotype is as prevalent as it once was, though it really depends on where you go. Recently, the Philippines has gained wide attention as a hotbed for dental and medical training. Unfortunately, in the media, this attention is muffled by stories of the booming call center industry. I’m afraid that some care will have to be taken to avoid the long-term image that the Philippines is a destination for low-level telecommunications jobs. I suppose that’s a step up from the ‘maid-race’ brand of prejudice, but it certainly doesn’t do justice to the skill and education level of the Filipino work force.

Thanks again for all your comments.
Steve

MARTIN // November 27, 2007 at 9:11 am (edit)

The topic seems so interesting, the Philippines adopt the english as second language during the colonization of america. Filipinos adopted it easily making them master of their skills. Japan had many things to offer in terms of technology and innovation but not in english as their second language.
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Alyssa // November 29, 2007 at 8:56 am (edit)

Indeed it is true that the Philippines adopt English as a second language and are using it more and more frequently as the years go by.

However as a fellow Filipina, I noticed the development of “Taglish” (the combo. of Tagolog, the true national language & English). Nobody speaks true Tagalog anymore. Slowly but surely Tagalog will disappear along with Filipino’s unique culture because of the overusage of English.
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wilmarc // November 30, 2007 at 7:19 pm (edit)

just a thought. i think that us filipinos being able to adapt english as our second language shows how dependent we are on english-speaking powers, e.g. u.s.a.

don’t get me wrong, in any way. i have never been to other countries, but i can see how they flourish using their own language.

i just hope that the image of filipinos being a maid-race may soon be vanished together with other stupid racist stereotypes and generalizations.
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I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I can relate to your experiences. When I was growing up, I didn’t think much of the knee-jerk reaction that many Americans have to situations involving immigrants with low-English ability: “Learn to speak English!”

It’s pretty harsh when you think about it, and not something I’ve experienced in any other culture (though the French have a bit of a reputation along these lines). While it’s convenient that English has become the lingua franca of our era, this fact alone has discouraged Americans (young and old) from learning foreign languages. How many Americans do you know who have learned a second language of their own accord? I don’t know many at all.

Having only recently acquired relative fluency in Japanese, I can say without question that learning a second language brings only benefits to your life. There is no negative side to it. Furthermore, it broadens your perspective and your capacity to see that there is not only one way of understanding the world, even grammatically.

Moving on to your question, ‘Yes.’ I definitely think it’s a good thing that ballots are now printed in multiple languages, and ‘Yes,’ I think it would be a step in the right direction if Spanish were to become a second national language in the U.S., though I suspect that it would only be adopted at state levels and primarily on the coasts. Think of it this way: the first language of 80-90% of Central and South America is Spanish and yet the vast majority of U.S. citizens can’t communicate with them, nor can we understand their news, spoken or written. Given the economic state of most countries in those regions, we can hardly expect their masses to learn English and participate in _our_ dialog in _our_ native language. Increased cooperation with Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas may seem unimportant now, but if Asia ever gets its act together, the US isn’t going to be quite the dominant economic position we are in now, and will certainly help if we’ve established closer cultural ties with our neighbors.

But, I’m not really an authority on the topic:-)

Thanks again for stopping by. Hope to see your comments again.

Cheers,
Steve

It’s true that the average Mexican citizen could probably benefit greatly from increased English fluency, especially with greater internet access becoming a reality in developing countries. Having said that, I have major doubts about whether the Mexican government would be willing to spend its precious resources on improved English education. Admittedly, I am not terribly knowledgeable on Mexico’s education policies, but they seem to have much bigger fish to fry.

Filipino’s who become functional English speakers are indeed able to keep their Tagolog fluency. The idea that learning a second/foreign language impairs L1 is a widely held myth–and a prevalent one here in Japan. Looking to countries like Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, we see that learning 3+ languages is the rule rather than the exception.

Steve