I AM A FILIPINO AND I LOVE MY LANGUAGE

Every country has its own unique language. It is the language they inherited from their ancestors and was polished as time passed by. In our country, the Filipino language was long prohibited in the days of colonization by Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese. Local heroes fought for its sovereignty. They died so they can see their countrymen secure their freedom and be able to speak their own language. But as time passed, different foreign languages drastically spread across the country. Sadly, most of the time our mother tongue was overshadowed by these foreign languages, especially the English language.

The capability to speak English has been the basis of literacy and evidence of the kind of education you have acquired. They say that the English language is the key to success, not only in our own country but also in other parts of the world. That is the reason why all the schools and institutions have English Speaking Campaign (ESC) to train their students in speaking straight English properly.Through this training, their students excel in speaking English, in order to become world class and ready to compete against other nationalities. But on the other hand, as we learn and become fluent in it, we tend to forget something along the way. We, little by little, lose our love for our mother tongue. Filipino language is a big part of us being Filipinos. Unknowingly, we forget how many heroes fought and died so we, and the next generations to come, can enjoy the kind of freedom that we have.

If I had to choose between  mastery of  English or mother tongue, I would happily choose our mother tongue, if only to show my love for my heritage. By choosing it, I can say proudly "Pilipino ako, hindi dahil sa Pilipinas ako pinanganak at mga magulang ko ay Pilipino, kundi dahil mahal ko ang wika ko at ang aking pagkaPilipino ko." However, our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal himself, who was an accomplished linguist, said "Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa malansang isda." Out of love for country, he proved that one can be an expert in so many languages and still keep his love, not only for his own language but for his heritage as well.

I am proud of being Filipino. And I also believe that learning English or any other language is one way of enriching my being a world class Filipino.