National Language: Tagalog Or Bisaya

[Redeyes]

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I really hate how our history books are so focused and fixed in to Luzon and in particular, Manila.

Philippines history in actually luzon history?

[overseer]

if this question is asked in Cebu, they would answer Bisaya...
if in Manila/Luzon, they would say Tagalog...

people would choose what they know and what they use, who wouldn't right?

and btw, "cle" in English (e.g. bicycle) is more of "kel" than "kol" when pronounced correctly.

[DuaneKier]

hahaha about this "cle" kol or kel... i use to argue with my tagalog officemates before, coz as tagalogs pronounce (noodles) as nodels we laugh at them and they also laugh at us bisaya if we pronounce it as nodols...

[shichiru]

historians are currently restructuring philippine history because its centralized in luzon...

[K]

I really hate how our history books are so focused and fixed in to Luzon and in particular, Manila.

Philippines history in actually luzon history?

yes. practically. the official school books mostly talk about luzon history. and when people talk about filipino culture the almost always mean manila (and it surrounding areas) culture.

[K]

By the way, I'm not sure if I could choose Bisaya since it is NOT a language. It is a group of people. The languages of the Bisaya are Karay-a, Waray-waray, Illongo (Hiligaynon if you ask someone from Bacolod), Cebuano, Aklanon, etc. People also call these languages Binisaya, which means "in Bisaya style" if I am not mistaken.

How about having NO national language. Just use english for official transactions. I think that's what Singapore is doing and its doing pretty well.

This thread will be labelled REGIONALISTIC by rabid nationalists. But think: what could get more regionalistic than the imposition of a regional language to areas who just happened to have weak policital clout at the inception of the Philippines.

[FreeSpirit]

I think Filipino based on Tagalog is appropriate as a national language. Most if not all people in the Philippines understand filipino because it is taught in schools and used on TV, ads etc. I honestly believe that it is still best to have a national language which is Filipino(tagalog) ... because this has helped me. I come from bacolod ... If I travel around the philippines I can communicate with fellow filipinos using tagalog ... I would prefer to use english but to be realistic not all filipinos can speak/understand English, ... Anyway to be practical I still choose Tagalog it still reaches a wider audience than Bisaya ... thanks to the Filipino subject in schools and Filipino shows courtesy of the media.

[FreeSpirit]

By the way out of wikipedia

Cebuano
as their First language: 18 million
as their Second language: 10 million
Total of 28 million

Tagalog
as their First language:22 million
as their Second language:50 million
Total of 72 million

Cebuano: 28 million VS. Tagalog: 72 million
Tagalog still leads cebuano in terms of language distribution throughout the Philippines

[K]

Dude, best to get your data from the experts:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PH

Cebuano: 20,043,502
Tagalog: 14,486,888

By the way out of wikipedia

Cebuano
as their First language: 18 million
as their Second language: 10 million
Total of 28 million

Tagalog
as their First language:22 million
as their Second language:50 million
Total of 72 million

Cebuano: 28 million VS. Tagalog: 72 million
Tagalog still leads cebuano in terms of language distribution throughout the Philippines

[K]

Isn't that like forcing the whole country to wear a green shirt and afterwards saying that the official uniform should be a green shirt since everyone is wearing a green shirt?

I think Filipino based on Tagalog is appropriate as a national language. Most if not all people in the Philippines understand filipino because it is taught in schools and used on TV, ads etc. I honestly believe that it is still best to have a national language which is Filipino(tagalog) ... because this has helped me. I come from bacolod ... If I travel around the philippines I can communicate with fellow filipinos using tagalog ... I would prefer to use english but to be realistic not all filipinos can speak/understand English, ... Anyway to be practical I still choose Tagalog it still reaches a wider audience than Bisaya ... thanks to the Filipino subject in schools and Filipino shows courtesy of the media.