MARITINA ROMULO, Ballet Philippines trustee and performing artist: I would choose Portuguese because I’ve always wanted to learn it. It sounds beautiful and some of my favorite songs and quotes are in Portuguese. It’s frustrating when I can only capture the essence (at best) when I read or hear something in Portuguese.
CAMILLE PRATS, actress: I’ve always thought that the Latin American languages sound interesting. Spanish, Portuguese, etc. In fact, listening to all those Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa nova and samba songs in Portuguese is a very sensual experience in itself.
RACHY CUNA, stylist: Spanish, because it’s our ancestral tongue.
Architect RAMON ANTONIO: I would certainly choose French, as my favorite destination is Paris, and to fully appreciate French culture and tradition.
BAK RAMOS LICAUCO, VP for purchasing, National Book Store: I would love to be fluent in French because the language is so beautiful. How wonderful it would be to enjoy the French countryside than to be able to speak with the locals. But if I must be practical, I would love to speak Mandarin fluently. It is the language of the most important business center of the world.
GEMINIANO L. SANDOVAL JR., lawyer: I hope I could wake up fluent in Chinese, including the Mandarin and Fookien dialects, for the following reasons: for social reasons – overnight, I would be able to converse with at least a billion more people. I could rival Friendster and MySpace with all my contacts; for academic reasons – knowing the language of a people is an ideal starting point in understanding and appreciating their history and culture. China has a very historic and complex civilization that piques my interest; for economic reasons – China has the fastest growing economy in the world (it even has more dollar reserves than the US) and speaking their language would be key to attracting investors to the Philippines; and for practical reasons – haggling with storekeepers at 168, Binondo or Hong Kong would be a lot easier. I would also be able to read subtitles on pirated DVDs and the instruction manuals of pirated iPods.
DR. ORLY MERCADO, president, Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko: If only to survive working here in Japan, I am studying Japanese. But if some fairy casts a spell on me and I could wake up and speak and read in another language it definitely would be Mandarin. I count myself among one of every five people on earth who can speak English with some level of competence. This century will be the Asian century, and a rapidly globalizing world economy demands that we speak the language of some 1.3 billion Chinese. I always tell my grandchildren to improve their English, learn Chinese, and don’t forget Filipino.
CILETTE LIBORO-CO, of ANC business development, anchor of Stock Market Live, Mornings: Mandarin, the language of an emerging superpower, to give me a competitive edge in the global marketplace.
MARCO ALCARAZ, actor: When we did Regal Film’s Aishite Imasu 1941 some years back, I couldn’t help but be captivated by the Japanese language. And considering how the country has advanced so much in terms of technology nowadays, I think it would be a great help to learn the language.