Comments on: UNESCO on Mother Tongues As Media of Instruction

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:35:51 +0000

Funnt how the English-Tagalog policy of the Philippines is akin to the English-Spanish policy of California: it puts the ‘other’ minorities into disadvantage(in the case of California, people other than Hispanics) especially Asians. A lot of Hispanic immigrants now don’t care about learning English for the sake of communication with non-Spanish speakers. In a similar way, the culture of the other ethnic groups particularly the ‘smaller’ minorities(Igorots, Aetas, Pangasineses) are sacrificed for the promostion of the Tagalog culture as “the” Filipino culture.

By: DJB

DJB — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:30:21 +0000

Mike,
Surely not Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Pampango, Bicolano, Hiligaynon or even Tausug! It may be Arabic or Sanskrit in origin. But all the modern Philippine languages have romanized written forms dating from Spanish and American times.

Wikipedia has this article on alibata or baybayin, saying it is Javanese…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baybayin

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:37:50 +0000

Hi DJB,

What spoken language is related to the Alibata? Do you think our linguists should’ve reverted to the Alibata?

By: DJB

DJB — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:17:53 +0000

What I mean is, the written Tagalog (okay, okay, Pilipino) that we were all taught is all rendered in an alphabet that could not have been in existence in this archipelago before 1521.

By: DJB

DJB — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:16:28 +0000

GabbyD:
Don’t you find it at all strange that the Filipino language you were using all those years are in a Graeco-Roman Alphabet??

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:40:20 +0000

@DJB

Filipino is not a written language… i wonder what language i used in filipino class all those years :)

but i largely agree. i think we need to shift to english as medium/mode of instruction as soon as possible. Grade 4 might be the time for transition.

But the kids need to learn english first before that can happen. thats the first 4 or five years of elementary.

but nga, mas maaga ang transition natin kaysa sa mga koreano.

they move to english at the highest levels of math and science. we can/should do so much earlier.

By: DJB

DJB — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:00:52 +0000

GabbyD,
Korean is a written language that is even older than English. That’s the whole key. The Mother Tongue hypothesis is all wet because it is not just the speaking part that is important, but the writing part. None of our languages, even Tagalog is a true written language. I claim these were invented during the colonial period and that is why they do not “take” they way Korean, Japanese or Chinese do.

The Medium of Instruction must be a Written Language, otherwise you cannot teach Reading, Writing and ‘Rightmetic!

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:40:07 +0000

i was speaking w a korean friend today…

he told me that for early math education, its conducted in korean, until college calculus. (they have a korean word for derivative!). But the more advanced it is, the more they use english phrases mixed with korean…

the way we can do it would be the same, except we would do the switch over earlier, in grade school

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:33:10 +0000

@khalim concepcion on February 10th, 2009 7:34 am

this i think is the practical issue that DJB identified.

what if in a locality, there are kids whose mother tongue is different?

what if in a locality, there are no obvious candidates for mother tongue?

which one will be used? in MM, what happens to immigrants from the north, visayas, mindanao?

one response might be english as the common language. or pilipino.

another would be segregation at the grade school level. honestly, khalim, because there are no details yet from the deped as to the implementation, we don’t know what’ll happen.

By: GabbyD

GabbyD — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:28:06 +0000

@iinodoro ni emilie on January 30th, 2009 11:33 pm

indeed, i concur that the japanese and germans can do this. they have a developed language where they have translated the relevant concepts into their own language (japanese, written and spoken, or german) and have had technical intellectual traditions in their own languages.

we do not have this tradition.

but in filipino/tagalog, its difficult. admittedly, its not impossible. its just impractical.

i’m not convinced that filipino can be used for applied or theoretical math, written or spoken as it is now.

if we borrow to make up for the deficit, might as well learn english, as we will borrow most of it anyway.

your example is 1+1=?. i am with you on this one. for basic stuff, lets teach it in whatever language the child already knows best.

but beyond basics, HS algebra and beyond, then its too impractical to borrow all the technical terms.

@inodoro ni emilie on January 31st, 2009 12:37 am

lets say we borrow the words, as you suggest.

most of the words will be in english (or whatever foreign language).

the prof you cite uses english text, and the test is written in english.

the reason he uses cebuano-english mix while lecturing, is that this is the easy way to teach coz the students didn’t know enough english talk in english.

the goal of school is to get the kids to be proficient in a language… ANY language. To speak in straight sentences.

the fact that the prof uses cebuano-english mix is that the students didn’t learn enough english before graduating HS.

the prof is FORCED to do this. this is a second best solution…