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A United States-based reader, Frank A. Tucker, sent
me an online newspaper clipping in mid-June that carried this
provocative title: “Who’s afraid of Philippine English?”
(“Educators Speak,” Manila Bulletin, June 15, 2008). The article
by Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista, professor emeritus of the De La Salle
University-Manila, discussed Philippine English pronunciation and
vocabulary in the context of a monograph published by Dr. Teodoro
Llamzon in 1969. The monograph considered the English spoken in the
Philippines as a distinct dialect of English and gave it the name
“Standard Filipino English.” It also provided a list of what Dr.
Llamzon called “Filipinisms,” which he defined as “English
expressions [that] are neither American nor British, [that] are
acceptable and used in Filipino educated circles, and [that] are
similar to expression patterns in Tagalog.”
Then Mr. Tucker posed this
question to me: “What is your opinion of Philippine English?”
Here’s my open reply to that
question:
Dear Frank,
I don’t normally allow myself
to be drawn into an academic discussion of English grammar and
usage, for I always try to go for the jugular when it comes to the
subject of good English. After all, I have always believed that a
no-nonsense, no-frills approach is the most effective way of
teaching it.
As to your question, however, I
am willing to say this much: I’m not very sure if categorizing
certain ways of saying things in English as “Filipino English”
and legitimizing them by academic fiat is conducive to teaching and
learning good English. My feeling is that regardless of nationality,
all nonnative English speakers will begin to learn English by
attempting to translate their native-language thoughts into English
using the expression patterns of their respective languages. Such a
learning process will, of course, inevitably give rise to some of
the stilted and unidiomatic constructions that Dr. Llamzon had
listed in his monograph.
Still, I must point out that
there’s really nothing functionally wrong or intrinsically
objectionable with, say, the expressions “I will go ahead of
you” (instead of the American English “I’m going ahead”),
“I was the one who called the ice-cream vendor” (instead of “I
called the ice-cream vendor”), and “My head is painful”
(instead of “I have a headache”). Although unidiomatic, all
three are grammatically, semantically, and structurally correct
English in much the same way as their indicated idiomatic English
counterparts. And they are not necessarily “Filipino English”
either; they are very likely simply transient forms of expression
that many nonnative English speakers—regardless of
nationality—will initially use while learning to speak and write
English.
My feeling then is that these
expressions are not something that Filipino learners of English
should be embarrassed about, and that there’s also no compelling
need to academically validate such expressions for posterity as
acceptable English. Indeed, we don’t have to tell people that,
“Hey! Your English is not Standard American English, but since
almost 50 percent of you are using that kind of English anyway, we
might as well legitimize it as acceptable Filipino English.” This
looks to me like a self-defeating prescription for learning English
the way it’s spoken or written by its native speakers.
Instead of legitimizing
“Filipino English,” I would rather that we encourage Filipino
learners of English to make a stronger effort to transcend their
non-idiomatic ways of speaking or writing in English. They can do
this by taking every opportunity to read excellent writing by native
English writers and to talk with excellent English speakers and to
listen to them more often; after all, there is no dearth of media or
occasions providing such learning opportunities. By doing this, the
conscientious Filipino learner of English should be able to outgrow
his or her “Filipino English,” which is likely only the groping,
tentative English of a nonnative English speaker on the sometimes
long and rocky road to learning idiomatic English.
With my best wishes,
Joe Carillo
j8carillo@yahoo.com
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