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FILIPINOS may sometimes take jocular pride in their mastery of
“Taglish”—the home bred version of the Queen’s English (as
the Brit’s would define their native tongue). But it is in their
fluency of the unexpurgated version of the undisputed international
language of global business that Filipinos are slowly but steadily
conquering the Business Process Outsourcing industry and doing the
country proud—while at the same time keeping the coffers of the
Treasury rattling nicely.
The novelist Oscar Wilde famously quipped
that Britain and the United States were separated by a common
language. But it would seem that Filipinos have very cleverly been
ben able to use any discrepancies between “American” and
“British” English to their solid advantage.
Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas, a noted educator to
boot, tells us that ample government spending and strong support
from the country’s booming information technology-enabled BPO
industry have in recent times helped in a big way to build up the
English language skills of many Filipinos.
The lawmaker was reacting to the results of a
new Social Weather Stations survey showing a marked improvement in
the self-assessed English competence of Filipinos over the last two
years.
“The survey results indicate that, at the very
least, we have averted a further deterioration in our English
proficiency. The results imply that in terms of English mastery, we
are basically back to same levels as 1993 and 2000, which are much
better compared to 2006 levels,” Gullas pointed out.
As it happens Gullas is author of House Bill
305, which seeks to reinforce the English skills of Filipinos by
reinstating the language as medium of instruction in all school
levels. The bill has already been endorsed by 207 of the 240 members
of the House of the Representatives.
In the March 2008 SWS survey, about of 76
percent of 1,200 voting-age Filipinos polled said they could
understand spoken English. This is 11 percentage points higher the
65 percent who said they could understand spoken English, in a
similar SWS survey in March 2006.
Gullas credits “timely interventions” by the
Arroyo administration as well as the aggressive fortification
campaigns by the BPO industry for the initial gains in restoring the
English skills of Filipinos.
“Over the last three years, the administration
has wisely invested hundreds of millions of pesos to support the
in-service English retooling of public school teachers. This year
alone, the education department is spending P500 million for this
purpose,” Gullas said.
He also said that the Technical Education and
Skills Development Authority is investing the bulk of its P2-billion
training fund this year to sustain short courses that would advance
the English skills of the country’s labor force.
The Cebu lawmaker—who has been warning that
Filipinos who fail to master English risk getting marginalized in
the lucrative job markets of the futureboth here and abroad—said
the BPO industry also deserves much credit for devoting considerable
resources to hone the English skills of undergraduates, college
graduates and young professionals.
Gullas points out that the offices of BPO
providers here, led by world-class call centers, have been bustling
with English augmentation seminars. The sponsors employ some of the
trainees. Some of the trainees move on to other firms or industries
but they still gain from the crash courses.
He noted: “What is really positive is that we
have heightened public awareness of the importance of adequate
English skills in obtaining high-paying jobs and other gainful
economic opportunities.”
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bizzfizz_98@yahoo.com
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