Learning from ‘Little Lessons, Little Lectures’

We Filipinos have always been proud of the fact that English is our second language. This has been the edge of our nurses and domestic helpers over those sent by other third world countries in Asia to satisfy the human power needs of developed nations. In whatever major city of the world today is a Filipino engineer, teacher, chef, scientist, etc.

However, for the past decade, it seems that we are slowly losing our grasp of the language. Teachers are bemoaning the difficulty of college students today in constructing decent, simple English sentences. Several suppositions have been submitted to explain the deterioration. One is that we have become overconfident of our ability to communicate in English that we have taken it for granted and stopped caring whether the sentences we utter and write are grammatically correct or not. Even our teachers do not correct us anymore when we make a mistake.

Another reason is that hearing somebody mispronouncing English words or committing grammatical slips is now considered a laughing matter. Remember those Erap jokes? Even national TV and media advertisers capitalize on the entertainment value of "carabao English." Taglish is also promoted by labeling one who speaks it with the accompanying twang as sosyal or coño.

Then there is the campaign to be more nationalistic and to patronize what is Filipino over what is foreign (language included). No offense intended to patriotic linguists, but the trend today is towards globalization and if, for example, we retain Filipino as medium of instruction and a way of showing our sense of patriotism, it could be more detrimental than helpful in our efforts to compete with our Asian neighbors. If our ability to speak English has been our edge, we should continue to capitalize on that and shift our fervor to be patriotic elsewhere other than in the language.

To regain our reputation as the most eloquent Asians when it comes to the English language, let us polish our communication skills. We need to read books like Leoncio Deriada’s Little Lessons, Little Lectures.

I had trouble looking for it the first time I heard about its publication. It may have been because the book was published by a small printing house outside Manila and the big bookstores never heard about it until a demand for the book made them pick it up. Nevertheless, am I just glad to finally get hold of a copy a year after its release and after I have scoured all branches of National Book Store in Manila and Cebu.

Little Lessons is a little gem of a grammar book. For years my English grammar bible has been that canonical work referred to by major editors and writers when it comes to proper usage and principles of the English language: Strunk and White’s Style Book. I found a better substitute in Little Lessons. For one, the latter is more engrossing and interesting to read with its blend of serious lessons and humorous asides and anecdotes. It shows how grammar lessons can also be fun.

Another of the book’s charm is that it is addressed to Filipinos. It focuses on common grammatical booboos committed by Filipino speakers of the English language with special emphasis on Filipinos from western Visayas since the writer hails from there and according to him, the contents of the book first appeared in a newspaper weekly published in Iloilo. However, the Filipino errors he mentions are so common that even the Tagalog-speaking are guilty of committing the same mistakes.

I am not patronizing the book because it was written and published by a Filipino and that I can identify with Deriada’s target readers being from Visayas myself. I recommend it because its author knows more than any American expert on how Filipinos have been misusing the English language, being an English teacher himself in several universities throughout the country for decades now. There are hundreds of books out there about correct grammar and usage but none of the local flavor and humor of this one.

Finally, this book is good for those who slept through English in college because the professor was as boring as the textbook, but would like to learn what they have missed having realized the necessity of a good grasp of English especially after school.

For a sampler, here are little lessons and lectures on the common mistakes Filipinos commit:

• The right spelling is all right, not alright and in spite not inspite. Beware: Popularity does not always mean correctness.

• Pieces of apparel worn by the use of two legs and united around the waist are always in the plural form. Therefore, one wears panties and not a panty, and shorts, not a short.

• You do not open or close electric lights, fans, television sets and faucets. You turn them on and off.

• The celebrator not the celebrant celebrates his/her birthday.

• Wrong: Please accept my condolence. Correct: Please accept my condolences. Your friend would be happier if the expression of your sympathy is correctly said.

• The verb cope does not need "up" to make itself respectable. Wrong: I cannot cope up with my studies. Right: I cannot cope with my studies.

• Viand does not only refer to the ulam but also to rice.

• Hiligaynon, Cebuano and Iloko are not dialects. They are Philippine languages.

Little Lessons has made me more conscious of my English. Now I carry the book wherever I go. It is hard to be grammatically perfect especially in complex language and one that does not comply with the rules every time. I am quite sure everyone commits grammatical faux pas every now and then, even when using the native tongue. It is all right to make mistakes but to make them habitually is embarrassing.

Sometimes a slip makes for a good laugh but that, though funny, is still embarrassing.