My parents’ generation had to take 24 units of Spanish in college. My generation, now in midlife, had to take 12 units. Eventually, the requirement was completely abolished.Today, some universities require Spanish for specific majors, usually history. Other courses will have a foreign language requirement, but leave students to choose what they want to take. Some courses have no foreign language requirement at all, and this is where there are debates. Should we still require some exposure to foreign languages? At our last University Council meeting in the University of the Philippines (UP), the College of Mass Communication proposed abolishing the foreign language requirement for film majors. Dr. Sergio Cao, the UP Diliman chancellor, expressed reservations and asked why they wanted to abolish the requirement. The Mass Com faculty said that a few units of a foreign language would not produce proficiency, anyway. Happily, the foreign language requirement was retained, as faculty members agreed that the aim of a foreign language requirement wasn’t mastery, in the first place. I couldn’t agree more. I’m going to explain how exposure to foreign languages helps us not only to deal with globalization but to better appreciate our own national languages. ‘Ultimo Adios’ I grew up in a multilingual environment, with English, Minnan Chinese, Mandarin and Filipino used at home and in school. In college, I took the 12 units of Spanish, plus 3 units of German. (Since I was a Biology major, my advisor thought German would be useful.) After college, working with nongovernmental organizations, I went through a three-month crash course in French with Odille Malay before being shipped out to France for a fund-raising campaign. I never really mastered Spanish, German or French, but I did learn enough to get by. Ironically, it was the informal course in French that proved most useful, because Odille used an immersion approach, forcing our small class to speak in it, using very practical simulated experiences. The formal classes in Spanish were, sadly, not too useful because it was mainly memory work, conjugating verbs and memorizing Jose Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” without really understanding, much less appreciating, the words. Later in college, I rediscovered Spanish in the prose and poetry of Latin American writers, and in the songs of revolutionary Latin American music. Oh, if only Spanish had been taught to us in classes using contemporary examples. I would have argued, at that University Council meeting, that a film major would gain the most from an Almodovar film not just by watching but by listening to the original Spanish soundtrack. Sure, subtitles help, but it’s still different hearing the Spanish script. In linguistics, we have a term, “prosody,” to refer to the study of the rhythms of languages. Appreciating languages like we do music helps us to become more appreciative of cultural diversity. I’m always shocked by how parochial we Filipinos can be, making fun of other people’s languages. (Oh, but we ethnic Chinese really get offended when people go “ching-chong-ching-chang-cho” -- we consider that a form of racism.) We live in a region dominated by tonal languages like Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and we should learn to savor their musicality. There are in fact studies suggesting that young children who grow up learning Chinese actually become better with music, the language’s tones giving them that “ear” for music. Families My bookshelves at home are filled with phrase books from all kinds of languages because I find it useful to pick up basic words whenever I have to visit a new country. It’s fairly easy for me to “slide” into new languages because I’ve been exposed, even minimally, to so many linguistic “families.” Bahasa Indonesia is a breeze because it belongs to the same family as Philippine languages. In Japan, I can make my way looking at Kanji street signs -- Kanji meaning “Chinese words”, many of which were incorporated into Japan. When I studied in the Netherlands, I could read, albeit slowly, Dutch newspapers because of English -- and the three units of college German. Once in Brazil, I signed up for a local tour group because they had run out of slots for the English guide. I never regretted it: The Portuguese-speaking guide had all these little stories to tell which you didn’t get in the English group. I never took Portuguese lessons but yes, the 12 units of college Spanish and Odille’s French classes helped. You might not master a language with three units, but at least you can aim to get the phonetics, the sounds, right. The other night I was listening to an American missionary on an AM radio station and I felt so sad for him. His grammar was perfect, but he mangled every vowel and consonant in Filipino. (Example: “Ang te-oh ay ma-kha-sa-le-nen” to mean “Man is sinful.”) It’s not surprising, given that Americans rarely bother learning another language while in school, so when they do venture into a foreign language, they find it very difficult to pick up the sounds. Our edge in the world job market isn’t just because of our English but also our multilingual exposure, which makes it easy for us to pick up new languages. I once met a Chinese-Filipino who grew up in Antique and learned to speak Kiniraya, Ilonggo, Tagalog, English, Hokkien and Mandarin. Foreign languages were a breeze in college for him and he’s now winning the world with his linguistic charm. Let’s face it, the best way to bridge different cultures is to offer to learn each other’s languages. Sometimes, even with a tiny vocabulary, just getting the phonetics right makes you special. As we learn more languages, we see, too, how people deal with their own languages. We learn how much they love their native tongue, even as they retain an openness to picking up words, and languages, from the world. You’ll find that multilingual people are more adventurous as well as more tolerant of diversity. The Dutch are an excellent example. Let’s start then with our own linguistic backyards. At UP’s College of Arts and Letters, the Department of Filipino has a course “Suroy Suroy sa Wika, Panitikan at Kultura” offering a “tour” of Philippine languages, literature and culture. I can tell you, it may as well be a class in music. Our languages may not be tonal, but they have their own kind of infectious musical quality. Whenever I return from a trip to Iloilo, I find myself speaking Tagalog, English and even Chinese with an Ilonggo lilt! If you have kids at home, I’d suggest you pick up Aklat Adarna’s “Hale, Hale, Hoy” where you can learn to count in Gaddang and Bicolano, unravel Tausug, Waray and Manobo riddles and sing out in dozens of Philippine languages. Filipino translations are provided whenever Tagalog is not used, but recruit your non-Tagalog friends to help get the words right and to tune your children’s ears to the wonders of languages. Hale, hale, hoy! Let’s go! |
Harana
Early Risers
Mag-ina Sa Banig
Mag-anak
Mariang Makiling.jpg)
with husband Christian Altaba
