Her video clip viewed 2.1 million times as I write this, Janina San Miguel can easily be crowned Binibining Pilipinas – You Tube as well, hands down, rising from being a tuff (top) ten to tuff one in no time. Owe it to the instant metastasizing of her pageant night question-and-answer performance from being a subject of criticism and ridicule to that of an entertainment fare. It beat Miss International and once supermodel finalist Melnie Marquez’s melanisms — the don’t judge me I’m not a book kind –perhaps primarily because there was yet no internet in her time.
But San MIguel is more than this caricature of brainless beauty queen as she is being portrayed by most. She is the epitome of what is wrong with our culture in many ways, chief among them being our tired insistence to use English when Tagalog is preferably the easier and more sensible one. Note Janina’s confused cha-cha of the P and F (which is rather common among the lower social strata ), or persons and people and even the more confused usage of they, there and they’re or their. Add to this her Mass Com majoring in college. And finally, her not answering the question. There you get a disaster but entertaining (for the others) act in what should have otherwise been a night of beauty, brains and culture.
San Miguel is not a tragedy by herself, but the mirror of our own. She is at the very least the proof of what is wrong with us and how we refuse and fail to see our own shortcomings as a people. We use English as our medium of instruction and as the official language in government when all studies point that the best way for children to learn is to teach them in the language they best understand. Our collective psyche gauge intelligence, beauty and social standing by the knowledge and use of the English language. Never mind that it is ungrammatical and senseless as long as it sounds “slang” ( which we take to mean having an American accent.)
We claim to be the second or third largest English-speaking nation in the world and yet majority of us do not understand basic grammar and syntax. Take a quick peek at you tube comments and you’ll see that most of them are written in English — the horrible and ridiculous type. Watch your variety shows and you’lll be amazed at those pa-sosyal Inggliseras entertaining the audience with mindless chatter. Talk to your kababayans abroad in Tagalog and they will reply in English, in their funny Americanized accent and bad grammar.
Filipinos think they look smart if they talk to each other in English when they actually look fake and stupid.
Which brings us back to Janina. She could have answered the question in Tagalog (the host apparently reminded her so) but instead chose not to — in a futile attempt to impress everybody and regain composure. What could have been a shining moment of glory in a not-so glorious event turned out to be a comedic yet humiliating act of tragedy (but figuratively only because she won the title anyway.)
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of our country, whose tragedy is both literal and figurative, having been left way behind by the rest of our non-English speaking neighbors even as we continue to ape our western masters.
Next time there is beauty pageant, whether of the Barangay, the Gay or the Binibining Pilipinas type, it is best to ask the questions in Tagalog and let them answer in the language they truly understand and are comfortable with.
It is high time that we make these queens promote the beauty of our native language as well, no matter how miniscule it would be in representing our cultural integrity.
5 April 2008 at 2:36 am |
What’s ridiculous is that people cheered when it was announced that English would no longer be the required medium of instruction in schools, yet they still use it as a bar for educational attainment.
I firmly believe we should have english as the medium of instruction and all schools to teach whatever dialect they want as a secondary language, be it tagalog, bisaya, ilocano, kapampangan, etc.
9 April 2008 at 2:54 am |
You assume that everyone is comfortable speaking in Tagalog, which in fact they are not. For many people in various provinces all over the archipelago, Tagalog is more of a foreign language than English. Our national language, Filipino, is based on Tagalog, because the Tagalogs were the largest ethnic group at the time. The Philippines has as many as 75 languages, of of those languages there are numerous dialects.
I agree with Ryan about English being used as the medium of instruction. A lot of Filipinos may not be comfortable speaking it now, but over time instruction and sheer exposure will improve their competency. It isn’t an issue of identity or standing up to our former colonial master or whatever. Learning English is sheer practicality.
Let’s face it, we’re enmeshed in a global society and whether we like it or not the language of that society is English. Even ethnocentric societies like Japan and China recognize the necessity and are now struggling to learn the language, often to the amusement of the rest of the world (hello, engrish.com). We make fun of the Filipinos command of the English language but if you travel around the developing world, you’ll see that everyone is trying to learn it, and if it were a race the Filipinos would be far ahead of most.
22 May 2008 at 1:22 pm |
Ryan and Aissa,
I’m an American of Filipino descent, whose vernacular lineage is Ilokano. May I agree with you 100%.
In addition, those Filipinos -Ilokanos, Cebuanos and other non-Tagalog dialects,- who are 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation American, whose Filipino forefathers endured discrimination, cultural barriers, and vulgar stereotyping, speak English and “maybe” speak and understand thier provincial tongues.
THEN, you have FOB’s from Manila, who come to the U.S., and have the AUDACITY to ask us, “why didn’t we learn tagalog? We answer, WHAT THE FUCK are you talking about? That is a FOB! A TRUE, TRUE fuckin’ FOB! Pardon my “French”.
They assume, Filipino’s whose forefathers arrived in the United States 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s have an obligation to speak Tagalog, while they are either visiting or just arrived like “yesterday.” They know nothing about us, yet THEY ARE MAKING THE RULES of what a Filipino should be like.
Two words, FUCK THEM and FUCK TAGALOG!
Then, that leaves the door wide open, for us, to start mimicking their accent-infested embarassing English! Then, we are the bad guys, of course. Go figure.
11 January 2009 at 8:49 pm |
Meron kayang another Janina San Miguel this coming Bb. Pilipinas? lol
6 May 2009 at 2:27 pm |
Studies have shown that second language (L2) acquisition is most effectively facilitated if the learner’s medium of instruction during the early years of education is his/her first/native language (L1). Volumes have already been written regarding this matter, should any of you be inclined to research on principles of second language acquisition.
With this in mind, some words of caution: Reducing the complexity of the issue at hand by not factoring in the country’s dismal state of basic education and the repressive dynamics of cultural hegemony in our neo-colonial environment would be misleadingly uncritical, to say the least.
Just to illustrate one concern, what good would achieving mastery over a language be if it would most likely threaten to facilitate our transition into just better consumers of information and technologies that come from industrialized countries? The difference between Japan, China and the Philippines is that the first two don’t currently boast of a cheap,”English-speaking,” servile workforce as their main industrial output. Besides, their respective histories of development also attest to the importance of having a responsive education curriculum anchored on the use of L1 as medium of instruction.
Globalization favors only the already globally competitive, and history has proven since whenever that powerful nations who possess significant advantages over others in matters that have a profound bearing on world influence and dominance will always look for ways to undermine the efforts of those who’ll try to take these advantages away. True industrialization is the means towards becoming genuinely globally competitive – not the (mere illusion of) advantage that others look forward to obtaining by simply mastering and co-opting the English language.
It’s the proper use of Filipino as a base for a critical, relevant, and responsive national basic education curriculum that should ultimately pave the way for true national development. At kapag okey na ito, matatangay na rin pati yung ambisyong ma-master ang English, French, German, o kung anupamang wika ang mapag-tripang aralin ng sambayanang Pilipino, kahit lumabas na Pig Latin pa siya. =)