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Language, learning, identity, privilege

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Filipino is the “language of the streets” – “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 lines, found in a “Manila Bulletin” column now circulating on social media, aroused sentiments that champion the Filipino language Thursday as the nation winds down its commemoration of August as the National Language Month.

James Soriano, who wrote the column titled “Language, Learning, Identity, Privilege,” contextualized his piece in his experience of learning English as his “mother language.” Soriano said he was required to speak English at home, had all his books in English, and even prayed 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,” he said in his column originally posted Wednesday.

“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,” Soriano added. - GMANews.TV

Read Language, learning, identity, privilege by James Soriano here.

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Edit: The column has been deleted/removed by Manila Bulletin, but you can still read it from Google Cache.

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