English and the Philippines
“GlobalEnglish Corporation…announced the results of its
annual Business English Index, the only index that measures the Business
English Proficiency (of non-native English speakers) in the workplace.”
"Only
the Philippines attained a score above 7.0, a BEI level within range of a high proficiency
that indicates an ability to take an active role in business discussions and
perform relatively complex task.”
The sentences quoted above are actually excerpts of a
news article that circulated a few days ago. Yes, with a total of 108,000 test
takers from 76 countries, the Philippines, with a score of 7.11, topped the
exam and was thus declared as the best country in terms of Business English
Proficiency. (The test, I would like to clarify, was given only to non-native
English speakers.)
One might wonder how the Philippines, a small Southeast
Asian country often pictured as a dangerous and poor country, emerged as the
champion in this field.
It is common for
anybody to ask himself the following questions: Where in the world is the Philippines? How did
the Filipinos learn to speak English? Do they speak standard English? If the Filipinos
speak English well, can they teach the language, too?
It is understandable why people get skeptical at
times. After all, the Philippines has always been presented by foreign media as
nothing but a country plagued by poverty and violent crimes, often stricken by
earthquakes, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions, landslides and the like. Well,
these disasters don’t happen every day, and it is a fact that even in most
advanced countries, crimes do happen. This article then shows the other side of
this beautiful nation which is often regarded as The Pearl of the Orient Seas.
The Philippines is an archipelago made up of more than
7,000 islands and it lies south of the beautiful island Okinawa. The Philippine
oceans are crystal blue, the islands are captivating. The sunsets are lovely and the beauty of the tropical trees gives relaxation to the weary traveler. The Philippine cities,
like other cities in the world, boast of skyscrapers and bustling business
areas. The Filipinos are a hospitable
and inviting people who love to sing, dance and laugh.
However, to understand the present, it is important to learn
and analyze the series of past events.
Our history books vividly describe the events back when the Philippines was conquered by the mighty United States of America many decades ago. The Philippines was a colony of The United States of
America from December 10, 1898 to July 4, 1946. In August 1901, a group of
about 500 pioneer American teachers were sent by the US government to the
Philippines. These men and women were later called Thomasites, and the term was
from the name USS Thomas, the ship that transported those noble and selfless
men and women from America to the Philippines. Hundreds of American teachers followed
the Thomasites in 1902, and they were later assigned in various
Philippine provinces. The Thomasites were sent to the Philippines to establish school
systems, and to train Filipino teachers the fundamentals of teaching English. Those American teachers
taught Filipinos not only English but also agriculture, reading, grammar,
geography, mathematics and even domestic tasks such as sewing and
crocheting. Sports and many other
matters were taught using English as the only medium of instruction. Of course
this doesn’t mean that Filipinos back then didn’t know those subjects; the
American teachers were simply teaching them the English language.
Interestingly, prior to the arrival of the Thomasites, American soldiers were
already teaching the Filipinos English. Needless to say, the everyday
association of Filipinos with the Americans for almost half a century made them
acquire the language naturally. This brief history explains why the Philippines
has two official languages, Filipino (standardized Tagalog) and English. The English
language and English ways thus became enmeshed in the Philippine culture.
Now, English is the language used in business, religious affairs,
print and broadcast media. In highly complicated subjects such as medicine, calculus, algebra, physics, chemistry, philosophy, psychology, sociology, biology and all branches of science, English is the
only medium of instruction used. English is the only language of our computers. English movies and English TV programs have no
subtitles. Because English is part of the training courses from primary to tertiary
education, most Filipinos can speak and understand spoken and written English.
It may be surprising to learn that there are many social
classes or levels of people in the Philippines. The common people such as taxi
drivers, sales clerks, house helpers and sidewalk vendors speak English but
with strong Spanish or regional accent and pronunciation. Even beggars can
understand English. In the mountainous provinces of Northern Luzon, the biggest
island in the Philippines, it is common to see barefooted and half-naked children
playing in the dirt, but if you ask them to give you some directions, they will give
you directions in English. The highly
trained people, like English teachers and other professionals speak English
fluently with a neutral accent and pronunciation. Affluent families, or those families who
belong to the upper class, speak only English. Even their house helpers speak
English fluently. Yes, English plays an important role in the everyday lives of
Filipinos, and English is very much a part of every Filipino.

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English is the hardest language to be fluent in, in the world. However, it is not the hardest language to learn on the basic level.
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