Why we cannot "deal with it"

Reading the article “The Philippines is now an English-speaking nation; Deal with it” by The Society of Honor was quite disheartening.

It’s disappointing that some Filipinos have the mindset that Filipino (a language borne by the diversity of cultures the country holds) is a language used and confined in their own homes, a language that cannot aid in globalization, competence, and intellectualization in the country. It’s a disgrace, actually, that someone would belittle his/her own language like that and dismiss it so easily.

To reiterate a point supposedly made in the article, I quote, “But the number one reality is that the economy is based on English, and successful workers and managers are fluent in English. The parent who limits his child to Filipino, or the student who limits himself to Filipino, drastically cuts his career opportunities.” English IS one of the official languages in the Philippines, I acknowledge that, and it is the medium of instruction in school. But saying how one “limits” himself to Filipino cuts his career opportunities – that’s too much. It’s borderline discrimination; diglossia. It’s implying that only people who speak English well can finish well in life – how insensitive does that sound, considering the bulk of the Filipinos are in low class social standing, with no adequate access to a proper English education (especially since English would not be the language being spoken at their homes).

“Holding the Philippines – or individual students – to Filipino is like holding a race horse in the gates while the other 11 horses bolt down the track.”

I realized, upon reading that statement, that the reason why Filipino isn’t developing as a national and official language is the fact that self-entitled people look down on it so much. What’s so wrong about this is that they don’t even try to dream of an intellectualized Filipino language, and purposely fail to see its beauty and ever-evolving components.

We have a long way to go, fellow Filipinos, but we’ll never just “deal” with entitled people and their foreign language superiority tendencies.