Filipino is a Language of Learning

          We had an exciting interaction in our Linguistics class last Saturday, Sept. 3. Indeed we had a mind boggling activity. Our professor asked us to read a certain article regarding language as a form of learning, identity and privilege written by a Filipino columnist. After reading the whole article, I learned that the writer regarded English as the language of learning. He explained that it's really a great privilege for him when he was raised in an English speaking environment and definitely this served him well. Anyway, there's no question about that. What makes us super react was, when he mentioned in his article that Filipino language was just a 'language of the streets' and 'not the language of the learned'. Unbelievable! That Filipino columnist just insulted our own language! These statements were totally obnoxious and raised  mixed reactions to different Filipinos who happened to read his article.
          Totally disrupted by these assertion, we had this interaction in the class that solicited the opinions of my classmates regarding this issue. We were asked by our professor to form questions written in one whole sheet of paper to be passed to everyone for clarifications and discussions and everybody did what she said. " Will you agree with me when I say that Filipino is the language of learning to most Filipinos?, I had written this question in a yellow paper and passed it to my classmates to ask for their answers. When my yellow paper was returned to me, I was dumbfounded when everyone agreed that Filipino language was indeed the language of learning. Maricris, one of my classmates said that, "Filipino language is used to learn other languages and is the medium of communication used in our country". Most of my classmates gave the same answers.
          I was raised in a Tagalog speaking environment and considered English as my second language. Undeniably, it's quite hard for me to express my answers in English since I was not really used of speaking the language. But this doesn't mean that I learned less. Ofcourse, I also had the capacity to learn what other English speakers learned using the Filipino language. The only difference was only in my fluency in using the English language. Thus, I tried hard to learn and speak the English language with the help of my first language and surely it helped me a lot.
          The writer of that article evidently came from the middle-class of the society and preferred English as his means of communication. He has his freedom of choice and expression about his view of using English as his first language as well as uplifting it, however, this doesn't mean that he has to demote and insult the Filipino language. After all, he might be just trying to raise an issue or enlightening the Filipinos about what is reality, but he should have tried using a different approach.Something that will at least respect the Filipino people especially the language itself!!!