Memoirs of an Amnesiac

There was a period in the Philippine education system where the mother-tongue-based instruction was used. According to our principal, she remembered having taught using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction for two years.

With the slow yet obtrusive incorporation of the Mother-Tongue-based instruction in the K to 12 system, many parents have shown apprehension. I, myself, have my own set of apprehensions. Foremost among them is the identification of the mother tongue. Mother tongue or L1 is supposed to be the first language spoken by students at home. Most students (especially those who hail from my school) use Chinese as their first language. Speaking Cebuano or Visayan (the assumed mother tongue) is something like a new foreign acquisition for most of them as speaking the dialect is made taboo in our school. So you can only imagine them speaking with gusto among their peers when they use such terms as: lage, bitaw, sige, unya and dili.

Second, there have been few books (if not, none) published using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction. If my first premise were true, then I should better start polishing my Chinese (which according to most of my students, I "murder" each time because Chinese is polysyllabic and when I pronounce them, I meant them differently). Or I better go look for old copies of books about Pepe and Pilar. Whoever they are, I absolutely have no idea. I was only acquainted with Henny Penny (remember her? the red hen?) And then begin each language lesson with this, "Sige mga bata ablihi ang inyung mga libro (Is libro even Cebuano?) sa pahina (which is also not entirely Cebuano) napulo'g usa ug atong istoryahan ang mahitungod sa tulo ka hari na nagdala ug lain-lain na bahandi." Oh grief. I wonder how long it will take me to finish just giving instructions within a forty-minute period class.

Third, there is an underlying problem among private school students in the Visayas (Cebu, most especially) about the subject Filipino. Many students have proven slow or at most failing in this subject. I could probably attribute it to their disinterest in soap operas whose endings are bordering on the morbid (where the main character, after having been stabbed, wakes up as if from a deep slumber and resumes fighting with one's antagonist, only to get shot again and dies of partly depression for having lost his ladylove). They belong to the generation of "Adventure Time" and English-dubbed animes. One time I reasoned with a student why they got so hooked with the characters in "Adventure Time" when they're poorly drawn and illustrated. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against the cartoonists of that said cartoon show. I was just merely trying to illicit a reaction from my student. She said the stories within it are interesting. As to how and what interesting means, I still don't have an idea (although I did watch one episode and it did not match to my taste).

If students have a difficult time with Filipino, imagine them getting instructions in Cebuano. One time my friend tried teaching her child Cebuano with the hopes of slowly diminishing her naivete and promoting the MTB instruction. The child comes home from school and my friend asks her, "Kumusta man ang imong exams, anak?" The child responded with a complete set of expressions, "Gahi (hard) kaayo, Mama."

Why are we having this in our education system anyway? I can only surmise that it was based on the premise that any language acquisition is based on the mother tongue or L1 (first language) as when language learners code-switch certain words in order to better get a grasp of their meaning and content. By learning the mother tongue, students get to know the instructions better and thus, respond in the manner that is required.

This move in the Department of Education is a must-see for educators like me. I absolutely have no qualms about the above premise. My suggestion is that proper parameters must be set in order to clarify what mother tongue truly specifies in a country with more than a hundred dialects.

My brother thinks of hiring a yaya with an AB-English qualification for his second child. I don't know whether he was just saying this in jest but I have to warn him again that changes have been made in the education system (as capricious as the minds of the politicians who are on their seats of power).

I will suggest that he get a copy of Si Pepe and Pilar and read to his child before it goes to sleep.