the philippine daily inquirer recently reported that spain and the philippines signed an agreement on the spanish language:
Spain will help the Philippines reintroduce Spanish language instruction at public schools in the southeastern Asian country under an agreement signed Tuesday between the two nations.
The study of the language is currently voluntary at public high schools in the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, but the government plans to make its availability widespread from 2012.
Under the agreement signed Tuesday, Madrid will help train Spanish language teachers in the Philippines, help develop the curriculum and provide electronic teaching aids as well as technical advice, the Spanish foreign ministry said…
while the strenuous attempt to make the filipino youth trilingual (filipino, english and spanish) in this era of rapid globalization and rampant immigration to foreign soil is in itself commendable, i have personal concerns on re-introducing the spanish language as a mandatory subject in high school.
for one, the quality of education in the philippines is already declining as it is. adding another subject to the curriculum may do more harm than good at this point in time. the government should first focus on cultivating the learning abilities of the students in the core areas. they should prioritize on improving math, science, history and english in the elementary level before implementing spanish as a subject in high school. they should also develop the cognitive abilities of the students at an early age because by so doing, it becomes easier for the latter to learn and understand spanish in a relatively more rapid pace.
second, although the spanish government has pledged assistance to training teachers of the language, learning the language per se is also a pressing issue at hand. how long will the training last before the teachers reach the required competence level? how many teachers can be trained with the allotted budget? will there be enough language instructors to supply all high schools in the entire country? or, is this going to be another cause of disparity between private and public high schools with the former getting all the benefits because they are able to offer enough remuneration to the well-trained spanish teachers? will the government have enough budget to pay the wages of these instructors? is this an equitable program for both urban and rural, even far-flung areas? learning spanish like every other subject in school should be a right, and not a mere privilege for the few.
third, will a daily use of the language supplement the classroom training ? i studied intensive spanish, grammar and all that, in college for one semester. i got high marks in the class but eventually, i forgot everything i learned because it had no use after finishing the course. learning a language isn’t just about memorizing the vocabulary or knowing how to conjugate the verbs; comprehension also involves communication in all facets including listening and speaking. an hour class will not suffice. the whole environment should be conducive to learning. i remember back in my elementary and high school days when speaking english even outside of the classrooms was compulsory as part of the learning process. but it wasn’t just this that contributed to enhancing my skills as an english speaker, it was the fact that english was used daily in most of our core subjects, in mass media that were readily accessible and in the proliferation of everything western that was for public consumption. are such tools available to augment the learning process?
fourth, is there a practical use to being a fluent spanish speaker? the agreement should encompass more than just learning the language in schools. it should bring about direct incentive in order to motivate students to pursue learning. learning english in the philippines, that i very much understand its significance. after all, english is the medium of instruction and communication in the country. it is a universal language and being fluent in english enables the filipinos to become truly global citizens and to compete along side people of other nationalities with the same level of proficiency, or whose native tongue is english. it allows them to seek better educational and work opportunities elsewhere in the world. arguably, spanish is also a widely spoken language across the globe but where the opportunities to benefit from spanish are available should also be taken into account in the agreement. in simpler and more direct terms, the spanish government should also promise employment, more white collar jobs for filipinos who can speak fluent language. ultimately, we want to see positive results from learning spanish.
lastly, requiring to learn spanish can lead to the deterioration of our filipino language even more. the national language is already corrupted as it is with the widespread use of taglish or the mix of tagalog and english words in daily conversations, made even worse by the birth of text language which for the record, i totally hate. i admit to be a perpetrator of this taglish code switching at least in casual conversations because it is more convenient and it comes more naturally than using lengthy and profound tagalog terms. when i learned japanese, i also infused japanese words into my taglish habit of conversing to anyone who understands the three languages. it wouldn’t be surprising to hear spantaglish or the blend of spanish-tagalog-english therefore if it’ll make the conversations simpler, easier and more fun. on the other hand, filipino is already peppered with many spanish words that we borrowed from the language and that we use on a daily basis that the effects would probably be minimal compared to what taglish has done.
to sum up, i am all for teaching multilingualism among students but the government should focus on improving first the overall quality of education. the program should be accessible to every student in the country. classroom training should be supplemented and knowledge should be complemented with practical use. language proficiency should translate into better work opportunities in the future. and, the preservation of our national language should be kept in mind even while we strive to learn another language.
