Words

I have always stood amazed at outstanding students who hailed from remote barangay schools and made it well in their careers especially when they moved into the private set up as they grew their school years. 

In my years of teaching, there were only a few I could pick who I could say excelled in class who came from far flung barangay schools. I could also almost touch the palpable frustration of my good students in speech as they struggled to keep their tongues in line with the required diction of a word. I call them good because I saw the effort and the metamorphosis of a disciplined tongue. How can one get used to a manner of speaking which was not his mother’s tongue when there was no support at home, let alone the neighborhood. So the introduction of learning through the mother tongue is a breather for our students today.  

Almost three years ago I made a request through this column for dictionaries that could be given to the elementary school in Darong, Sta. Cruz, Davao Sur. The books have helped the students in their comprehension of the English language. However, since they were translations from English to English, it needed a lot of teacher supervision to further the knowledge.

So this time my request would be for English-Visayan Dictionaries that we could share with remote barangay schools so that the children there would be able to comprehend faster as they translate English words in the vernacular.

It is still necessary for them to at least learn English as an international language that can get them by when they enter the world of competition. Reality is that English is what most of our textbooks use so we still have to continue to equip the young with enough comprehension tools to make them survive the “rivalry of the twangs”.

I have had many students who were articulate but did not deliver much sense in their prose. They tried to drown me with the vocabulary and run-on sentences that came superfluous with hifalutin jargon. Making me grope some more for what they really want to convey. Those of my students who had simpler words, got their message across better.

I have seen brilliance among some of my less outspoken students who hesitate in their construction because they fear ridicule, either for the pronunciation or the simplicity of the word used. A good base of understanding and being able to enunciate words properly would be a great help to our growing professionals.  

San Miguel Brewery Inc. has addressed this call with their WORD Program which is the Words for Opening Reading Dimension Program. In Mandaue City, the elementary schools in Tipolo, Cabancalan and Casuntingan are being trained to read and understand English better with the use of a Visayan-English Dictionary.

There are still more schools to reach, and if you care to help, please do and send your English-Visayan Dictionaries through this column or through the Office of The Freeman.

Let’s get the word going.