Did that catch your attention? Like while your eyes are rolling through the title, you are transformed into your alter-ego as the ultimate grammar police? (If you analyze it, the title has 3 grammatical and composition errors) Haha! If it did (obviously it did since you are now reading it...yes sweetie, it did), you are somehow saved from the alarming statistics.

Disclaimer: Don't continue reading if you have problems with people not speaking in their native tongue. Don't bother to tell the author that it is the problem of the government (blame the government for making English aside from Filipino as our official language)and that I am part of the intellectual elite (haha! I remember somebody after losing in a debate told me that thing...looking back being considered as such was a compliment and a curse rolled into one,…)..blah blah blah..(For goodness sake it is my space..ooops my multiply). Don't feel bad if you can relate to the scenario presented below...you know, life can't be always good. You can ink a letter to the Editor in chief of any major broadsheets..they might read and publish your sentiments (make sure it is interesting enough to compete with the 1,500+ letters they receive everyday).

According to the news-feature that I've read few weeks ago, only around 40% of the 2006 Pinoy population (SWS survey) would say that they understand and speak the English language and 70% would say that they can understand only but could not speak the language. Alarming figure indeed if compared to the 1994 statistics, (the time when FVR is aiming for a tiger economy and when the peso dollar exchange rate was still P 24: $1, when we can still watch an English primetime newscast aired on free TV like the World Tonight? It is extinct now unless you can afford ANC channel) 70-80% of the national population would say that they can speak one of the official languages of the United Nations and the language of globalization, making the Philippines as the 3rd nation to have the largest English speaking populace (Did I say Ripley's?).

Language is now a skill, (I will give you an option to agree with it or disagree). A skill is an ability, usually learned and acquired through training, to perform actions which achieve desired outcome, that is according to a reputable dictionary that I won't mention for-the-sake-of-not-advertising-it (no reason to be that technical-"teach"-nical since I'm not writing my graduate studies thesis..not yet..goodness! Life you love me really!).

The word language on the other hand is a system used for communication comprising a finite set of arbitrary symbols and a set of rules (or grammar) by which the manipulation of these symbols is governed. These symbols can be combined productively to convey new information, distinguishing languages from other forms of communication. The word language (without an article) can also refer to the use of such systems as a phenomenon. (ibid)- (hehe I know someone with a high position in the academe who doesn't know what ibid means, don't get me wrong, it's just that, the person could not just, not know what that ibid thing should mean- again going back to language as a problem)...

If language is a skill then it is in the league of those skills that can be learned from school- (excluding Professor Charles Xavier's school for the gifted youngsters- wish I can enroll in his Mutant Skills 202: telekinesis and telepathy..cool!) from the level of Barangay Day Care Center, Matute Institute up to the Ivy League schools in the US: cooking, baking, masonry, carpentry, goat-raising, liposuction and facial services, "palitaw"-making, parol-making, manicure, pedicure, reflexology, typing (yup with matching sound: takatakatak), drawing, painting, film making, butcher(y), skinless longganisa-making, scented candles making, “super maids” skills training and seminar, forensic pathology, microbiology and biotechnology, architectural engineering, hairdressing, tocino and ham making, home-made suka, patis and toyo making, and the list goes on..

I would always remember that back in college (I mean undergraduate since I’m back to being student…hehe!) when me and my thesis-mate would walk and talk our way to school, we tend to label people around us as our “audience” because people tend to sneak, peek, eavesdrop, listen, laugh with us…literally, thus calling our chit chat sessions as the “morning boys show”…Is it because the things they hear from us are plain interesting? Or funny? Or they think we are smart stupid bananas? I wouldn’t know what they might be thinking of but definitely that’s a proof that Filipinos can comprehend English (conversation wise in this case - my classmate would only talk to me in English -about 80% of our conversation- because that is how he was raised). As a personal rule: If somebody would speak to me in English I would answer back in English, If you talk to me the way Andres Bonifacio does, then I’ll answer back the Marcelo del Pilar way.

I just observed also that most that would tend to “overhear” our conversations, as if they were possessed by either Cristy Fermin or Boy Abunda, much more Kris Aquino, would not be so accommodating to the fact that me and my classmate are talking in straight English(not Tag-lish- which most often is not pleasing to the senses..hehe). Like you would hear comments like: “Nasa Pilipinas sila, bat nag-iinglish pa sila?”, “Conyo (another controversial word) yata tong mga toh..” (nostalgia it is, but I just heard the very same comment when I was talking also to a friend just this weekend- yes we are using English) like they don’t need to cover their mouth since its so loud that I could actually remember even their intonation hehe. As if you were some kind of weird bananas dumped in the urban jungle and speak differently from other species- I mean people that you encounter, stand, sit beside with- MRT, LRT, Bus, in food stalls, fast-food chain, or restaurants whether inside the mall or outside school…

If language is now a skill, no wonder why the Philippines is dubbed as a “call-center capital” next to India. If it is a skill, then it is to be developed and be used to our advantage, to uplift our current state of life- we cannot distort reality, the reality in this country dictates that learning English is an advantage, a portal of opportunity, an investment for future success.

Now will try to write the whole thing in Filipino….:D