Ms Marguerite Feeling Guilty Spokening English – Me Feeling Gifted
(MDL’s half body[1] from Rappler)
Ms Marguerite has written about her feeling guilty spokening English – “The Guilt Of Being Born And Raised Filipino, But Having English As Your First Language[2]” (18 August 2020, Rappler.com). “Spokening English” in my title above is of course a Filipino corruption of “speaking in English,” either an apology for speaking in that tongue, or attempt to shame someone who is.
We Filipinos are downgrading our own cultural abilities such as by being ashamed of communicating in English at anytime.
Ms Marguerite says:
English is my first language, the one I hear in my head when I think, the one that just rolls right out of me when I need to convey something, anything.
I Frank A Hilario am an FBI, full-blooded Ilocano, but English is my first language when I think, especially when I write – and I blog every single day.
Rappler says Ms Marguerite is head of its Opinion Section:
She is also a fictionist, and came out with her first collection of short stories, People In Panic, in 2015.
English. Instead of being ashamed spokening English, Ms Marguerite should be encouraging people to learn more English than they already know! Because, especially the American version, English is the world’s currency in information, intelligence and insights.
Ms Marguerite says:
I was born and raised in Metro Manila, to fully Filipino parents, in a fully Filipino household, and had never based myself outside of the country. But if you told me to hold a conversation or write an essay in the Filipino language right now, you would be subjecting me to a daunting, maybe even frightening, task.
Miss Marguerite, that’s your story – you cannot rewrite it, so don’t try to! It’s your advantage: claim it.
My story is that I am a farmer’s son, not poor but not rich, and I learned to feel enriched with the English language, British and/or American, when I was in high school, private, with the library full of books (many world classics), westerns and detective stories with legal twists (Perry Mason books by Earl Stanley Gardner) and readables such as LOOK, Newsweek, Reader's Digest – that’s how this introvert learned to love the English language to the death!
That English love turned to writing, that turned to editing, that turned to digital writing, digital editing, digital publishing – and blogging, which I have been doing every single day in the last 19 months.
I blog in Agriculture in favor of the social good of Filipino farmers starting with technology. I search for knowledge and experience via the Internet in mostly spoken in English anywhere in the world. After all, English is the universal language.
I employ my own theory that I call Communication for Development, and I have a blog by that name. Ms Marguerite, I invite you to read me spokening English!@517
https://communicationfordevelopmentphcomdev.blogspot.com).
[1]https://www.rappler.com/authorm/arguerite-de-leon
[2]https://www.rappler.com/voices/rappler-blogs/opinion-guilt-being-born-raised-filipino-english-first-language?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1ryf6--9a6Yz1Rp2jErk5tIXlyhjuWB3gh1b-xDXAs0Vk8_JUL7c9eHqI#Echobox=1623567095
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