Like clockwork it goes, the never-ending battle for what language to use, to teach Filipino children, Math and Science and whatever. The debate on language is as volatile as the debate on Religion. What’s your opinion?

Once upon a time, I would have said, go English— simply because I learn better using English and simply because just about every reference material and new discovery in the world is in English. There are expressions from English that lose itself in the translation, the same goes for Filipino to English and just about every other language in the world.

On one hand, Math is a language unto itself. It has its own expressions and it is the language that Science use. Mathematics does not care whether or not you speak English, Filipino, Japanese, French, Yiddish or l33t, or if you know all of those languages like a native does. For example, PI is still 3.14 yada yada no matter what spoken language you use.

Perhaps, the questions worth considering is how does a teacher convey the lesson and how well does the student learns it. Does it matter if the teacher expresses herself in a combination of English and Tagalog? Does it matter if the teacher expresses herself in Cebuano or gibberish?

Whatever works, you know?

E=mc^2 is still mass-energy equivalence in any language and understanding that still would depend on the teacher’s understanding of Einstein before he or she can properly convey it to the student.

Then again, as @lord_dracula on twitter pointed out, like English v. Filipino, people have been debating computer languages for like forever. There are even song parodies about it, as Julia Ecklar’s song goes:

“For God wrote in Lisp code
When he filled the leaves with green.
The fractal flowers and recursive roots:
The most lovely hack I’ve seen.
And when I ponder snowflakes, never finding two the same,
I know God likes a language with its own four-letter name.”

The debate on the never-ending battle for language continues and will continue on and on. Like many before and would continue to persist. I join others in saying, “Cocoa is awesome,” but should ‘hello, world’ be written twice, I think I know enough of “Python,” to say that it is also great and would suffice. The same goes for English, which I prefer, but Filipino works too or vice-versa. “Whatever works,” you know?

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