The
celebration of the “Linggo ng Wika” has
been an annual tradition filled with Balagtas
and Quezon wannabes digging deep into the
shallow Filipino language to mesmerize,
if not confuse, their audience with seldom
heard poems and parables. Students
are usually delighted with this celebration
because of the festive mood and, of course,
the cancellation of academic subjects that
somehow the significance and relevance of
the event is clouded. What is the significance
of this celebration? What are we celebrating?
Do we have a right to celebrate it or is
it just another holiday to enjoy and get
reprieve from the usual academic routines?
In
a country considered as a melting pot of
cultures, its language is its best
source of identification. The Malay origins
of the Filipinos blended harmoniously with
Chinese, Spanish, American and Japanese
blood through centuries of colonization
and imperialism. Furthermore, other races
and cultures have been injected into our
blood streams as a result of the Juan’s
quest for greener pasture. But through this
seeming divergence of culture and appearance,
it is the words that come out of our mouths
that say we are Filipinos, we are kababayans.
Very much like the way Cebuanos are differentiated
from the Ilocanos and the Bicolanos. And
though the foundation of the Filipino language
is composed mostly of Spanish and English
words, it is nonetheless a good identifier
of our nation.
Lately,
however, the language situation in the country
has gone from bad to worst. The vernacular
that was supposed to bridge the gap between
our archipelago has stagnated. Leaving us
stranded in our journey to development.
Our
A-Ba-Ka-Da is looking a more and more
like the ABC and the Filipino language is
fast becoming a trying hard copycat of the
English language. The only difference is
that the Filipino words are “spelled as
read”. Filipino words like titser, kompyuter
and telebisyon are the funnier counterparts
of the English words. Architects of the
current Filipino language probably feel
that we are not capable of reading
and pronouncing words like rendezvous, boutique,
fuchsia and Mississippi.
Filipino
words have lost their identity. They have
failed to evolve. As we, as a people, have
failed to evolve. What our language represents
now is not our identity but our dependence
on Uncle Sam and the indolence of the Filipinos.
If
we can not create our own vocabulary and
invent our own words, who would believe
that we can create cars that ran on water,
a karaoke system or even a fluorescent light?
We can just content ourselves mastering
the English language so we can fortify our
niche as the world’s greatest Overseas Filipino
Investors (***Overseas Filipino Investors
is the newest and funniest Filipino term
coined by Ate Glo which when translated
in English would mean anything from skilled
worker to entertainer to domestic
helper and even to prostitutes).
If
we want to get out of our third class citizenship,
we need a dynamic language. One that will
represent us as nation. One that adopts
to the changing technology. We need it so
our literature will flourish and not be
dependent on the foreign media which is
the source of our dreaded colonial
mentality. Only through an intellectualized
language can our people develop the Nationalist
Filipino First Ideology. The ideology necessary
to push this country forward in our quest
for progress.
It
will be a hard struggle but we have to start
somewhere, in our homes and in our schools.
We have to slowly phase out the Bilingual
Policy adopted for the Academe since the
Marcos era. This policy is the reason why
our promdi brothers learn English better
than they learn their own language, Filipino.
We
need to prove that we can create Filipino
textbooks before we start dreaming of creating
our own airplanes, cars and computers. We
need to develop our own culture before we
can compete in an industrialized or globalized
environment. The Influence of the English
language and the culture it brings to our
academic institutions should eventually
be phased out. Anyway, Filipinos will continue
to learn the American language and not lose
their comparative advantage against non-English
speaking employees because of our
fascination for Hollywood movies and American
sports spectacles.
We
also need to tap our doctors, lawyers, scientists
and other professionals to create terms
and words specific to their fields. The
Filipino professionals should be the primary
authority in choosing the Filipino terms
in their specialization. Unless they choose
to leave it to the gay community to
come up with the terms and be contented
with chuk-chak-kandum as the Filipino term
for Subpoena Ad Testificandum or “boso-papa-rey”
for x-ray.
We
have a long way to go before our native
tongues become capable of speaking from
its own mouth. We need more than the support
of the chubas and the standbys if we want
more than the tsuk-tsak-tienes and the pakakangs
to fill our updated dictionaries. We need
the time of these busy professionals and
the support of the academe and media to
resuscitate our dying national identity.
Otherwise, we can look forward to artificial
"Buwan ng Wika" celebrations with
Balagtas-looking students trying to Filipinize
their English poems and posing for snap
shots they will send their parents who are
working as Overseas Foreign Investors.
|
