MERGED: Modern Education, Literacy and English Proficiency

[n`gel]

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Hey I just got a call from verizon it's our phone company here. The telemarketer sounded really hmm.. bisdak kaayo'g iningles ba, I thought she was from India or somewhere but I did not expect her to be Filipina and she's in Pennsylvania I thought the call was from the Philippines. Dugay kaayo siya nahuman pastilan pakapin binisaya gamay. She was offering a new package that includes some various services when she asked if we make international calls she asked where so.. bam! Kababayan on the lose. hahaha. But boy I tell you it wasn't that what you call good conversational english, but she was hired, does that prove that you don't really need that much to communicate with Americans? I mean mas kasabot gani ko niya than their third party confirmation company. See, after she called she said she's gonna forward the call to a third party company to confirm all information about the subscriber, so there... ako kaistorya murang ambot taga India gyud siguro to not really sure murang alien kay kato pako kadungog ug ingon ato, wahahaha.

So bout pasabot taas gyud cguro ta standards diha's ato kay kung i-compare ngano gud intawn gi employ to sa verizon diri tong bayhana nga pastilan kaayo, as in pastilan gyud kaayo, murag akoy naulaw niya. Grabe gyud she has that up and down intonation when she talks? Waaaah help!

I remember my husband asking me kung mga Pinoy maglisud ba gyud kuno ug iningles kay most Pinoys at our Sunday service kay kataw-anan man kaayo ug mga tuno when they speak english. Napa mi preacher nga sige lang ingon, "you know man" wahehehe, *dapugs* pag tarong kuno istorya brader yaw nalang accent accent diha kay mangil-ad na hinuon. Bitaw tinuoray, kasagaran nga mga bisdak kaayo maginengles kay kana ganing "yes sir yes mam" line of work. Ingon ana lang na sila pero tag $500 to $700 per week. Now we talk "where's the money at"? Dagku pa na sila sweldo sa mga plain office workers. Oh yeah, don't misunderstand this point from the globally competitive issue okay? Para naku what matters most? The PAY, coz maoy gapakaon sa pamilya.

Globally competitive kunohay, reality check. Our human resource exports are populated more by blue collared jobs and nurses. Diri walay problema mga pinoy anang english, ang kulang, skill.

Call centers could be just a trend we do not know. We know that outsourcing is hurting American workers. The government might do something about these companies to decrease unemployment rate, we don't know when, in the long run, it is safe for "call center" workers to divert a little interest in their field of studies rather than concering too much on perfecting english.

Like I said before, english proficiency is handy, pero importante gyud skilled ka in a certain field.

[TrainerEd]

Like I said before, english proficiency is handy, pero importante gyud skilled ka in a certain field.[/quote]

You have a point here

[gareb]

too bad,

you may be 'globally competitive' because you know how to speak english well, but you are using what you know (in the guise of global competition) in the service of multi-national and trans-national corporations. your pride of being a filipino then is nothing but an empty husk of rhetoric.

and since we view everything coming from Uncle Sam and his cohorts as 'superior' (although we hate to admit it, but we believe in it anyway), we see english as superior from any one of our native languages. tsk. tsk. tsk.

it is as if an everyday ordinary filipino pupil in grade two can understand english better than the local vernacular in class. to teach english as a medium for instruction, a medium that cannot even be understood? so much for learning. so much for education.

and yes, the 'english advantage' myth. so far, what has it done to us but made us the international source for toilet-cleaners, care-takers and blue collar jobs. has it exactly benefited us much that this country now is known for its being an 'economic power'? in our dreams.

we seem to forget that language, education and yes, culture, are social control mechanisms. whoever influences those have a control over how people think, and how they would act. english for our ass-wipers? no doubt.

globally competitive when our industries cannot even survive inside the country? when will we ever realize that even our educational system is rigged behind the guise of "globally competition" to entice the best and the brightest among us to go out there and serve a foreign master?

nurses, sailors, tecnnicians, mechanics, engineers, doctors. rendering their services outside the country because they cannot find jobs here.

it is as if we can solve the current problem of economic inequity by having a mass exodus abroad... 'realistic' reasons come up at the first place, because we do not have a sense of country... it has been robbed from us from the very start. we have been purposefully made to be stuck in the quagmire of poverty so that we will remain forever beholden, supplying raw materials and labor and becoming dumping grounds for excess products.

globally competitive? change the economic terrain here first. only then can we talk about being globally competitive. and this time, such competition would benefit all of us.

[Miryam Dipinsor Sanyajo]

You're talking idealism gareb. The world is not kind to you who are idealists. We know that, we know what's happening in our country but can we help it? Tell it to our government not us, tell it to Miryam lol. It will probably take 500 years *erk* if not impossible for your ideals to realize in our country. Why don't you run for president?

[gareb]

i prefer to tell it to you guys. you voted for those people up there anway. it's either you control or you get controlled. i think that fits right into your pragmatist perspective. failure to know that you have power is, in itself, a component of being dominated. it's time the people take charge, not just a single person.

yeah, the world is not kind to idealists. especially those who want to change the world. maybe because those who control the world (and benefits from such control) does not want the scales tipped. most of us, thinking that we do not have the power, is dominated and follows status quo wisdom.

we hate idealists, but we are aware of our own suffering. ironic... pathetic even.

[saber]

Teach the young early.

[b|tcH_g0dd3sS]

YOu are all brilliant. Unfortunately, you all have digressed.

Advantage or No, good English comes handy.

- Read english articles out loud.
- Practice Correct English.

[icky 47]

1. Read english books. It will improve your grammar.I suggest reading "Readers Digest"
2. Enrich your word power, consult the dictionary when needed.
3. Watch english shows/movies and emulate how the characters speak. It'll improve your accent
4. Watch Educational/News Channels more often. You'll learn new words and discover how some uncommon words are pronounced.
5. Encourage family members to use the english language as the common household language, the native language will always be heard of outside of the house.
6. and for the parents, if you find yourself lazy of reading the newspaper have your children read them aloud for you. You will discover that there is much to teach to them by doing this simple thing, and it also is a good "bonding" activity between parents and children

[Graecia]

Based on my 3 yrs experience in the call center industry, in speaking, Americans dont really mind if the sentence is constructed incorrectly, whats important to them is the accent.. in writing ofcourse it has to be structured gramatically,. no excuses

[brian_d]

I guess it all depends on how you're exposed to the language. You see, most of us Filipino's were taught the English language by Filipino teachers who have "a Filipino accent" themselves so obviously they passed this along.

I've once seen the Japanese Empress on NHK, ready some fairy tale for a New Year event or something. She speaks perfect English with a Received Pronounciation (Elite British Accent) to boot. If I closed my eyes, I could have sworn I have watching BBC instead of NHK. I guess its because she had access to the best English teachers from Britain.

My point is its a question of how you were first exposed to a foreign language, in her case it was direct from British tutor so she sounds British. Had she been taught by a fellow Japanese who speaks English, then she'd sound just like how a Japanese would when they speak English.