James Soriano's Language, Learning, Identity, Privilege

James Soriano Article

James Soriano, currently a student of Ateneo de manila University and a columnist at Manila Bulletin Online had became famous in a pace that I'm sure he didn't expect to be.

After Manila Bulletin Online published his article entitled "Language, learning, identity, privilege" that talks about his view about Filipino language, Filipino community rampaged as they reacted after reading the artcile.

As expected, many had found offended, most especially knowing that he published it here in the Philippines. He said on the article on how he and his classmates had used to complain on their Filipino subject. I myself found it really very offensive, here are some of the striking extracts from the article.

"Filipino was a chore, like washing the dishes; it was not the language of learning. It was the language we used to speak to the people who washed our dishes."

"Filipino, on the other hand, was always the ‘other’ subject — almost a special subject like PE or Home Economics"

"Filipino was the language of the world outside the classroom. It was the language of the streets: it was how you spoke to the tindera when you went to the tindahan, what you used to tell your katulong that you had an utos, and how you texted manong when you needed 'sundo na.'"

He even said that he is using Filipino to avoid being mugged by those who speak Filipino.

"..because we are forced to relate with the tinderas and the manongs and the katulongs of this world. If we wanted to communicate to these people — or otherwise avoid being mugged on the jeepney — we needed to learn Filipino."

As expected, offended Filipino had reacted to him in a crispy negative way. However, some people had agreed to what he wrote.

We, the keywordspeak.com team wants to give unbiased news even though we are offended personally. We think that some parts of the article is true. You will really use Filipino language to communicate to the tinderas, katulongs and drivers.

However, he should have became more sensitive.

Manila Bulletin Online had removed his article on their website. We tried searching the term "James Soriano language learning identity privilege" on google and their site is on the number one on the search engine result page, SERP. Here is the screenshot that we got after using that search term.

The above screenshot proves that the Manila Bulletin Online had posted his article last August 24, 2011, at 4:06 AM. However, clicking the link will only lead you to a blank page of their website. "You are not authorized to access this page." the page reads.

showbiznest.blogspot.com blog site had made a screenshot when mb.com.ph haven't removed the article yet, screenshot below is from showbiznest.blogspot.com.

Here is the controversial article from James Soriano:

Language, learning, identity, privilege
By JAMES SORIANO
August 24, 2011, 4:06am
Ithink
The Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines — English is the language of learning. I’ve known this since before I could go to school. As a toddler, my first study materials were a set of flash cards that my mother used to teach me the English alphabet.

My mother made home conducive to learning English: all my storybooks and coloring books were in English, and so were the cartoons I watched and the music I listened to. She required me to speak English at home. She even hired tutors to help me learn to read and write in English.

In school I learned to think in English. We used English to learn about numbers, equations and variables. With it we learned about observation and inference, the moon and the stars, monsoons and photosynthesis. With it we learned about shapes and colors, about meter and rhythm. I learned about God in English, and I prayed to Him in English.

Filipino, on the other hand, was always the ‘other’ subject — almost a special subject like PE or Home Economics, except that it was graded the same way as Science, Math, Religion, and English. My classmates and I used to complain about Filipino all the time. Filipino was a chore, like washing the dishes; it was not the language of learning. It was the language we used to speak to the people who washed our dishes.

We used to think learning Filipino was important because it was practical: Filipino was the language of the world outside the classroom. It was the language of the streets: it was how you spoke to the tindera when you went to the tindahan, what you used to tell your katulong that you had an utos, and how you texted manong when you needed “sundo na.”

These skills were required to survive in the outside world, because we are forced to relate with the tinderas and the manongs and the katulongs of this world. If we wanted to communicate to these people — or otherwise avoid being mugged on the jeepney — we needed to learn Filipino.

That being said though, I was proud of my proficiency with the language. Filipino was the language I used to speak with my cousins and uncles and grandparents in the province, so I never had much trouble reciting.

It was the reading and writing that was tedious and difficult. I spoke Filipino, but only when I was in a different world like the streets or the province; it did not come naturally to me. English was more natural; I read, wrote and thought in English. And so, in much of the same way that I learned German later on, I learned Filipino in terms of English. In this way I survived Filipino in high school, albeit with too many sentences that had the preposition ‘ay.’

It was really only in university that I began to grasp Filipino in terms of language and not just dialect. Filipino was not merely a peculiar variety of language, derived and continuously borrowing from the English and Spanish alphabets; it was its own system, with its own grammar, semantics, sounds, even symbols.

But more significantly, it was its own way of reading, writing, and thinking. There are ideas and concepts unique to Filipino that can never be translated into another. Try translating bayanihan, tagay, kilig or diskarte.

Only recently have I begun to grasp Filipino as the language of identity: the language of emotion, experience, and even of learning. And with this comes the realization that I do, in fact, smell worse than a malansang isda. My own language is foreign to me: I speak, think, read and write primarily in English. To borrow the terminology of Fr. Bulatao, I am a split-level Filipino.

But perhaps this is not so bad in a society of rotten beef and stinking fish. For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned.

It is neither the language of the classroom and the laboratory, nor the language of the boardroom, the court room, or the operating room. It is not the language of privilege. I may be disconnected from my being Filipino, but with a tongue of privilege I will always have my connections.

So I have my education to thank for making English my mother language.

This incident should serve as an eye opener to all of us Filipino. We think that the article is striking because the honesty on the sentences was too realizing. Also, parents should also teach their kids other than what the tutors and teachers can do, as parents are the ones who is the best person who can teach kids about their roots. That his own heroes died for their country, own language included.

UPDATE: mb.com.ph reinstated James Soriano's controversial article