Panic time

A student in a public high school in my part of town told me that all their classes are now taught in English, except the study of the national language of course.

I’ve heard that the same thing is happening in many other public schools. The move is obviously in response to the deterioration of Filipinos’ grasp of English. The slide has been so bad that even foreign investors have publicly expressed concern about the English proficiency of Filipino employees.

Naturally, the student has no way of knowing if her teachers’ English is correct. The language used in class bears some resemblance to what students in the school hear in Hollywood movies so it must be English.

When the going gets tough, teacher and student alike have the usual convenient fallback: Taglish. This is so much easier to understand; it is the language of noontime entertainment shows and sitcoms on Philippine TV.

You don’t know which is worse in this new policy: teaching the wrong English, or no English at all.

* * *

There are those who believe the widespread use of Taglish has been one of the biggest drawbacks to the development of true bilingualism in this country. The result is a hybrid language that Filipinos can understand but is largely useless in effective international communication.

The result: Filipinos with a poor grasp of both English and Filipino. The deterioration is evident not just in verbal but also in written communication. Text messaging has aggravated the problem, making people even more careless about spelling, punctuation and language rules.

Even those who have a passable grasp of spoken English often have trouble getting themselves understood, since pronunciation in this country is so markedly different that to native English speakers, our English sometimes sounds like another foreign language.

A study showed that the nation now has such an acute shortage of people with a working grasp of English that we can’t even fill thousands of job opportunities for call centers.

Foreigners complain that they have trouble finding an all-English local news program in this country; too many Filipino words and phrases are inserted into what is supposed to be all-English reporting. For breaking news the foreigners simply give up and call an interpreter.

* * *

Of course we can tell bellyaching foreigners to just pack their bags and go home where they won’t have to endure communication problems. But if we are genuinely interested in national progress, we better get used to the idea that the world does not stop at the water’s edge, that we have to interact with the rest of the globe. And whether we like it or not, English has emerged as the language of international communication.

Other developing countries, including our Asian neighbors, realized this a long time ago and launched aggressive programs to improve their citizens’ proficiency in English. Governments have invested in hiring native English speakers to teach their citizens correct use of the language.

People learn English out of necessity; they know proficiency in the language can improve their employment or business prospects. In China, some store clerks unabashedly repeat every English word you say as they practice conversing in the language of foreign visitors.

The result: a workforce that is proficient in both English and the native language, ready to compete in the global job market.

* * *

Meanwhile, how are we faring? We go about our usual merry, lazy way, thinking that the English we know is the English spoken and written all over the world.

The few remaining teachers who are competent in teaching English are leaving for better-paying jobs abroad.

Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce told us last week that during a recent visit to the provinces, a school principal lamented that several of their teachers had left the country to teach English in Texas. The principal was worried that her school would have no one left to teach the language with competence. The salaries offered by the recruiters were simply too high to resist, the principal told Pearce. One day the principal herself might end up in the home state of US President George W. Bush.

That’s right — Filipinos are teaching English in the United States, and more are leaving for other countries. We can console ourselves with the thought that the teachers aren’t ending up as maids, but this is a brain drain we can’t afford.

A few months back there was a report that the American Chamber of Commerce had launched a program to train students at the Philippine Normal University in teaching English. This initial batch will then train other teachers, who in turn will spread the training across the country.

I presume the concept will be similar to the introduction of English in public schools at the start of the American occupation of the Philippines a century ago.

That time American teachers themselves arrived by the shipload to spread their language and culture in these islands. This time I don’t think that would be a good idea, security-wise; just ask former Abu Sayyaf hostage Gracia Burnham. The American chamber’s project is a safer alternative, but progress will naturally be slower.

This time, there is also the influence of television and show business to retard progress. If local entertainment stars can get by on Taglish, why bother learning correct English?

* * *

In an age where information is power, we have lost one of our biggest competitive edges. Sometimes you wonder if even our ranking public officials are losing their English proficiency. In official communication with other governments, nuances and subtle messages are lost on us. Something seems to keep getting lost in translation.

There have been several reports of our workers being bypassed for jobs overseas in favor of other migrant workers with a better grasp of English. That should alarm our national leaders, who are fully aware of how much our overseas workers are contributing to the national economy.

Someone should have pressed the panic button a long time ago. Instead what we see is official indifference.