16/11/2019

Ilocano, Why I Prefer English As My Writer's Language – I Must Think Global And Act Global!


OMG! See image above: "The Philippines' english proficiency erodes[1]" is the headline of BusinessWorld for its story on 15 November 2019, and that single thing proves 2 things: One, the story is true and immediately verifiable. Two, even the English proficiency of the editors of BusinessWorld has eroded!

I click the Facebook link, and I see that inside the online paper, there is another sign, as it were, that Filipino English has deteriorated. I find the story without a story! The headline is text, of course, but that is all – the rest is all infographics, as if BusinessWorld has forgotten English as a language of communication for its readers!

Not me. I am forever English. I don't like writing in Tagalog (Filipino); I don't like writing in my native Ilocano either – they are both difficult to write with. And none of them even measures half of the richness of published English literature.

I have been writing my essays in English since I was Freshman at the UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, in 1959 – and I am not going to shift to the native now. English is my language of creativity that can hardly be changed.

BusinessWorld was founded 27 February 1967, so it is about 52 years old – giving up at such a good age? I am 79 years old, Ilocano, and I learned to love the English language on Grade 1 yet, in 1947, 72 years ago in the village of Sanchez in Asingan, Pangasinan. I never lost the love for the language – even if I did love the Diwang Kayumanggi (for the elementary grades) and the Diwang Ginto (high school years) book series of Juan C Laya, born in San Manuel, Pangasinan, which is next to Asingan, who was probably an Ilocano.

Even if I have to repeat myself, I am going to tell you that counting from 2005, I have blogged at least 5,000 long essays, each one a minimum of 1,000 words in my numerous blogs – would you believe 100 plus? – first at WordPress and now at Blogger. And I am a one-man band, and all digital, when it comes to that: I write my drafts onscreen, review and revise several times; then I upload to Blogger.comwithout changing anything except the font, to Helvetica – no reformatting necessary, no HTML work to be done at all – secret! (If you didn't know, HTML is one common big headache of bloggers.)

I love English because of the great writers quotable, memorable, exploratory, intellectual, and inspiring that are hard to find in the Philippines, among literary, political, or popular science writers.

I love English because as a spiritual guide for the world, whatever you believe in. English is also the common language of knowledge. If I chose Tagalog as my writer's language, I would be a patriot. But between Patriotism and Knowledge, I will always choose Knowledge. Why because Knowledge is Global, while Patriotism is Local.

Spiritually, I must think Global and act Global!@517






[1]https://www.bworldonline.com/the-philippines-english-proficiency-erodes/?fbclid=IwAR1d66UbcVz
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