Speaking proper English
Posted on November 30, 2004
Speaking proper English
Updated 11:26pm (Mla time) Nov 28, 2004 Inquirer News Service
Editor’s Note: Published on page A16 of the November 29, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
ON SECTION B3-1 of the Nov. 15 issue of the Inquirer is an article lamenting the rapid decline of the English-speaking skills in the Philippines. I agree. However, it must be pointed out that Americans do not necessarily mean prope
English when they want Filipinos to speak English better. They mean American English. If Rocky Peltzman is quoted properly, evidence of this is obvious. As quoted, Peltzman says that in order [t]o speak good English, you’ve got to think in English.
The above sentence sounds fine to the average American, to whom call center agents will be speaking with on the phone. However, someone speaking proper English would say that to speak English well, you’ve got to think in English. (Omitting, of course, general rules of formality and excusing the use of a contraction in you’ve.) The subordination of proper English to the whims of American English is a natural effect of common usage, commerce and socio-political trends. This fact, however, should never excuse improper usage by somebody who is criticizing the English-speaking skills of another person, much less an entire nation.
Then again, I’m just picky.
-FREDERICK F. CALOPE via email
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This letter was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday. The English communication skills of students nowadays have declined dramatically. There are a lot of reasons why this happens today. Some are:
- Unconciously accepting Taglish as a new language.
- D GenTxT Fnmen0n - Many of us doesn’t know how to spell English words correctly
- Ineffective English curiculum.
My college professor once told me, Taglish is a bastardized form of English and Filipino. If you want to talk in English, begin your sentence in English, and end it in English.
Simulang mo ang iyong pangungusap sa Filipino at tapusin mo ito sa Filipino.
Gets mo? Ako gets ko!
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