Ed and I exchange quick updates on common writer-friends as we gulp down our coffee. Then we join the rush amid a holidaying crowd, out of the station to the Tube, making our way to Kilburn, hopping on a bus, and eventually finding 54 Ashford Road where the pianist and Ilonggo wunderkind Bobi Rodero waits to host me for the week.
It’s a quick luggage drop-off. I’d had the pleasure of partying at Bobi’s flat last November, together with poets Rio Almario and Beni Santos. We had conducted a literary lecture and reading tour sponsored by the NCCA, with London as the last stop after Italy and Belgium. During our stay then, we had visited Dartmouth House together with Amb. Bautista, and it was at that courtesy call on ESU director-general Mrs. Valerie Mitchell, OBE, when we promised to form an ESU-Philippines applicant chapter. Now, as chair of the Steering Committee, I had to present a Country Report as part of the agenda of delegates’ meetings in the four-day program.
But the activities wouldn’t start until the next day, and this Sunday of warm, gorgeous sunshine couldn’t be wasted indoors. Off we went to Greenwich Park where Joey Ayala, Grace Nono, Bob Aves and a few other Pinoy musicians were winding up their participation at the Diaspora Music festival that afternoon.
They had performed all over London in the last fortnight. Their final gig would be from 5 to 6 p.m., or so Ed had been informed by mobile phone. We just had to catch our compatriots regaling an open-air crowd at the park, in the metaphoric shadow of the Royal Observatory.
But it took us some time to gain our bearings upon ascending from the Tube. The park, close to the meridian line that served as Ground Zero for GMT or Greenwich Mean Time (usually eight hours behind Manila, but only seven hours on summer on account of DST – Daylight Saving Time), typified London’s vast green swards where droves of locals and tourists congregated in all manner of deshabille, offering their bodies to the unaccustomed sun. It seemed humongous, and by the time Joey’s unmistakable strains of "Ani, Ana" drifted to our ears, we realized that we still had to cross a large open field to get to a green hollow where the music came from.
Halfway across, we heard the whoops of an ovation signaling the end of Joey’s signature number. Oh, no, we had missed him on-stage. True enough, by the time we got to the mini-Woodstock scene of laid-back human forms surrounding a makeshift stage, we only managed to catch seeing our friend, undoubtedly one of our best musical ambassadors, being escorted off with residual applause.
We went straight inside the performers’ tent, high-fived with Joey A., waited till Grace N. could change behind a cloth curtain held high by devoted husband Bob A. Brief reunion time of hugs and congrats, before we all went out to be deluged by kababayan fans seeking autographs and photo-opping with the enviable folk-pop stars. We clicked along.
Out in the crowd too were Edna and Alex Aquino, activist organizers, whom we had failed to meet up with last year. Upon learning of the purpose of my visit this time, Edna quickly briefed me on the relatively fresh situation that had incoming Pinoy nurses being subjected to a more rigorous test of their English-language abilities. Surely our newly-formed ESU-Philippines can weigh in soon on the matter, perhaps in coordination with The British Council. Yes, by all means, we said, while mentioning what little we knew of ACELT, the Ateneo Center for English Language Training directed by chair Dr. Marlu Vilches, one of our ESU-Philippines co-members.
The topic brought up by Edna would crop up now and again during our five-day stay in London. Brian Cooper, MSC (Master of Science in Educational Research), one of Bobi’s flatmates, served at Trinity College London, which I soon understood to be synonymous with English language examinations for foreigners. He, too, would engage us in discussion over the possibility of introducing their modules or training programs in Manila, especially when we apprised him of the gathering, consensual alarm over the deterioration of English-language skills back home.
"Creating global understanding through English" stands as the signal motto of The English-Speaking Union, which was established in 1918, and has since gained over 50 country chapters and nearly a hundred branch chapters in the United Kingdom and the United States.
ESU-Philippines was one of several new country chapters yet a-forming that were represented in the annual gathering of chapter chairpersons and delegates. Like our six-month-old committee that still subsisted exclusively on Manila membership, steering committees had been formed in the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Madagascar and Mongolia. We all hoped to be processed eventually, and gain formal acceptance as a country chapter by ESU.
On the first day of sessions, each of the delegates stood up to render a Country Report. Ours partly read thus:
"It was barely six months ago when efforts were initiated in our country, the Philippines, to gain membership in The English-Speaking Union.
"Two months prior to the formation of a Steering Committee for this purpose, I was privileged to be part of a group of Filipino poets and writers that conducted a literary lecture and reading tour of three European countries in November 2001. During our six-day visit in London, we had the good fortune of being brought along by His Excellency Cesar Bautista, Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James, to these hallowed premises, on a courtesy call on ESU director-general Mrs. Valerie Mitchell, OBE.
"We expressed surprise, if not dismay, over the absence of the Philippines in the roster of ESU country chapters, especially since our country has long been reputed to be – a claim at least that is often made back home – the third-largest English-speaking country in the world. Yes, we have a very large population, a great part of which is English-literate, albeit in varying degrees.
"Mrs. Mitchell graciously urged us to convene a Steering Committee for an ESU-Philippines applicant chapter. I assured Mrs. Mitchell and Ambassador Bautista that this would be done once I apprised fellow writers and academics in Manila of the prospects of eventual acceptance as a country chapter of ESU.
"Last January I managed to convene equally interested parties among literary and academic circles in Manila, and we were joined by two representatives of the foreign diplomatic and cultural service, namely Ms. Gill Westaway, director of The British Council, and Dr. Thomas Kral, cultural affairs counselor of the United States embassy in Manila.
"In February 2002, our rather hastily-formed Steering Committee agreed to conduct efforts to field two student representatives from the Philippines in the ESU International Public Speaking Competition held here last May. Intra-university contests were held in Metro Manila’s top five educational institutions, resulting in the selection of three winners each in the Public Speaking contests. These university winners then competed in an inter-university finals held at the University of the Philippines in March 2002. Two winners were selected by a panel of judges. These two college-student winners, Mr. Ryan Buenafe of Far Eastern University and Mr. Mahar Mangahas of Ateneo de Manila University, managed to compete in London, thanks to the support gained from Ayala Corporation and Far Eastern University.
"We also had a delegate to the international Britain Summer Conference held at Oriel College early last month. And now, my participation in this historic event marks our third representation in ESU activities.
"We look forward to our eventual acceptance as a country chapter. We are optimistic that we can carry on the momentum of our efforts to become an official part of this large and very happy family. In the near future, or the far future, perhaps we may be able to invite you all to visit our exciting capital, Metro Manila, so that you may have a taste of our celebrated Filipino hospitality. I assure everyone that you will be heartily welcomed, in English. Thank you very much."
During the subsequent discussion on that first day, it was repeatedly stressed that the ESU was non-political and had no intention of engaging in colonization through language promotion. It was not out to do damage to any other language, in fact hoped that all countries could promote and preserve their national languages in happy complementation with what has become the global lingua franca.
I believe it was Mr. Grant Carson of Glasgow, one of the two delegates from Scotland, who was seated farther down a long table from our seat, who best capsulized the acceptance the English language had gained all over the world. Kibitzing during another speaker’s presentation, he offered not so sotto voce: "Yes, indeed. We might say it in this manner: English – my kind of town."
That was how we felt in London over our four-day participation in the ESU’s international meeting. Indeed it was our kind of town, both the place and its native, now universally adopted, speech.
(To be continued)