While it is true that CHED and DepEd taught us to use the English language, our values and perspective on things are decided by the self alone. We can speak english, french, or german.. or do karate or cook the most delicious foods in the international scene, or be famous in singing or whatever talent and skills,.. but boastfulness, just like in the case of Soriano, is a shame.
By this time, I think we all read the Manila Bulletin (MB) article written by James Soriano. And sorry for those saying that it was an attempt on satire. Year 2008, he also wrote a similar essay lambasting the use of Filipino language. Actually, the piece for the MB was a rehash of that 2008 blog post.
Here is the essay of Mr. Soriano, "Language, Learning, Identity, Privelege" but was removed from MB's website. I am not sure if it saw print. After the article is his year 2008's blog post, "Filipino as a Second Language".
Language, learning, identity, privilege
By JAMES SORIANO
August 24, 2011, 4:06am
MANILA, Philippines
English is the language of learning. I’ve known this since before I could go to school. As a toddler, my first study materials were a set of flash cards that my mother used to teach me the English alphabet.
My mother made home conducive to learning English: all my storybooks and coloring books were in English, and so were the cartoons I watched and the music I listened to. She required me to speak English at home. She even hired tutors to help me learn to read and write in English.
In school I learned to think in English. We used English to learn about numbers, equations and variables. With it we learned about observation and inference, the moon and the stars, monsoons and photosynthesis. With it we learned about shapes and colors, about meter and rhythm. I learned about God in English, and I prayed to Him in English.
Filipino, on the other hand, was always the ‘other’ subject — almost a special subject like PE or Home Economics, except that it was graded the same way as Science, Math, Religion, and English. My classmates and I used to complain about Filipino all the time. Filipino was a chore, like washing the dishes; it was not the language of learning. It was the language we used to speak to the people who washed our dishes.
