Professor Dina Ocampo of UP’s College of Education says that the average Filipino is quadrilingual. This means a Pinoy can function in at least four languages. Nothing shows more the diversity of Philippine cultures as this quadrilinguality. What are these four languages?
For example: A Visayan in Metro Manila can function in 1) Bisaya, 2) Filipino, 3) Philippine English and 4) American English. While I may not completely agree that Philippine and American Englishes are separate languages, I may concede the fact that they may be dialects of English. Perhaps we can replace number 4 with Pinglish (which is fast becoming standardized, according to some linguists).
Another example: A member of the “Coño” class that you can easily spot in Rockwell, Bonifacio HIgh Street or at Greenbelt 4 and 5,may be functional in the following 1) American English, 2) Filipino, 3) a regional language, 4) Pinglish
And my last example: A member of the lower classes who has worked as an OFW may be functional in 1) the regional language, 2) Filipino, 3) Philippine English, 4) The language of the country where they worked as an OFW. Many domestic workers who have worked in Hong Kong for example are functional in Cantonese.
There are many examples in the provinces who may be functional in many languages. In Region 2, many people are functional in 1) Itawes, 2) Ibanag, 3) Ilocano, 4) Filipino and 5) Philippine English. People where there is a flux of trade and population movements between regions they may be even be penta or hexalingual.
I write this post since I was told that Bisaya rock and pop songs have started to become hits in the Ilocos region, Southern Tagalog, Cagayan aside from the Visayas and Mindanao. Also Kapampangans have followed suit and their pop songs have found acceptance beyond their region. This shows that Filipinos can appreciate linguistic diversity and even revel in it. This has been facilitated by ease of movement and travel between regions.
I believe this is a spin off of the Pinoy international diaspora. Pinoys overseas have learned to deal with culture and language diversity. It isn’t surprising that a generation of diaspora has resulted in a Filipino culture that likes Asian and Latin American telenovelas?
As for me the languages I am functional in are 1) Filipino, 2) Philippine English, 3) Australian English, 4) American English, 5) Japanese, 6) Spanish, 7) German, 8) Pinglish and 9) Latin. This isn’t to brag but to say that like many other Pinoys I picked up these languages while being in diaspora. As for Latin, I had to learn a reading knowledge of it for my PhD. For Spanish, It was then required in college (But even it were not, I would still have taken it. It has served me well in Spain, Texas, Mexico,Costa Rica, Panama and at the Ayala Museum!) And German? The “pila” for French 10 registration was kilometric, the German enlistment had only 5 people in queue. That turned out to be a grievous mistake. The exams were all in “diktat” . Heil!
BTW it wasn’t that bad. I managed to learn enough German to find out where our revered Dr Jose Rizal made “tambay” in Heidelberg! (and to have mistaken the CR in the Opthalmic Hospital for Rizal’s clinic!)
But do our language gods who make the policy aware of all of these?
Popularity: 4% [?]
I had a similar reaction to listening to some lectures on socialism at UP. :-)
Looks like @joma above is just a spammer promoting his site.
I’ll ask Nick to delete it.
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Blackshama,
I’ve likewise found out how easy it is for Filipinos to pick up languages and perhaps it *is* a benefit our diaspora has brought us.
Again, it turns into a question of value, however. How do we translate this into something beneficial to society? Can we tap this into, say, expanding our BPO industry beyond English speaking countries and foray into other regions?
I hope someone can look into this.
we do have spanish speaking call center agents.
as to all the other languages;
We do translations too, for brochures,magazines,etc.
we are said to be the fastest growing translations hub.
Karl Garcia,
I am very, very pleased to hear that. :)
hey nick, thanks for deleting my remark. i regretted right after i push the submit button.
Jon,
i am glad too.
We should keep our chins up,no matter how many get realism blasts we get. :)
Karl Garcia,
I would argue that the best response to what you term as “get realism blasts” are actions by those who do not need to be fed get realisms and, well, you know, just do ittm. ;)
Oops, that’s supposed to be just do it™ :D
Going back to the topic I mentioned, I had a chance to reflect on that talk show on ANC concerning translators.
He(the guest) said the translators are all freelance and the database (I Think the database is also used by competitors) have a rich pool of Filipinos and they can be based anywhere.
Another way to optimize our overseas pinoys.
Somehow I’d like to see these services tapping Pinoys who have already gone home from abroad and retired for various reasons. For example, there are a lot of former, errr… japayukis… who are very adept at Japanese, and quite familiar with Japanese culture.
I wonder if there is an effort to attract them into local training positions?
I wrote a piece back in 2003: The wasted collective intellect of Philippine society where I make the following observation:
Take a moment to wonder: What happens to all the collective experience, skills, insights, and philosophies accumulated by our countrymen from the work they did overseas?
You’d think with all that knowledge, some of it is bound to be properly applied to the Philippine setting. This glaring lack of a nation’s capability to tap the vast knowledgebase residing in the minds of its returning overseas workers further re-enforces the issue of our country not being an environment that rewards innovation and doing things properly.
Further testament to our society and its utter intellectual bankruptcy. :D
“Further testament to our society and its utter intellectual bankruptcy” – by benign0
Not exactly, but you have to understand that many OFW went overseas for the work and the money. And many remain so for as long as their body and mind allow it.
Most of these OFW are not equipped (trained) with proper managerial and business sense. So when they repatriated, terminated, resigned and sent back to the Philippines, they are practically the same as when they left – only they have more years of doing the same thing experience.
Moreover, these individual has been used up. They are way past their dreaming stage – house built up and kids are now off school and on their own.
Of course, a few of them excelled when they come back, but again, they are negligible when compared to overall – who are WORKer.
I like the idea by JonLimjap who ‘wonder if there is an effort to attract them into local training positions?’
But OFW are seen as commodities; profits from medical test, recruitment fee, yearly POEA fee, his remittances, his yearly splurge, etc.
Once he is back home he is seen as depleted commodity. So why train them? Isnt it more profitable to train future Japayukis?
Jon,
Yeah John,and benign0
wala pa ding matinong programa sa atin para sa mga returnees. Benigs your observations may remain true for years to come,but if it still not being done it does not mean that it can’t be done.(duly noted na nawala ka namang sinasabing never)
speaking of japayukis,madami nga sila,sayang nga kung hindi nila maimpart ang japanese culture,at language dito.
maybe that jpepa thing maybe an opportunity for them to give crash courses to our nurses and other workers na papunta dun pati na din sa mga businessmen na first time makipag deal sa mga hapon.
well kung ano mang gusot ang natitira sa jpepa sana maplantsa na ito.
di ko nabasa yung tinype ni Joma kanina, yun sa akin yung mga bumalik dito ang magtrain ng mga future japayukis para di na tayo maghire ng expat na consultant,unless pang consultant din ang singil ng mga returnees.
But i believe in continuous training, kung wala na sila dito pag balik nila o depleted commodities na sila bakit pababayaan silang mabulok.Sorry kung mali pagkaintindi ko Joma.
No need to be sorry for expressing how and what you understand.
I understand that we are here to express our thoughts and emotion (voices).
Very nice thanks a sharing and realy good website..