Rosa Montoya

Ms. Erpelo

Eng. 165

Essay #4

A Level Below

Many believe that English is a universal language. The subject of learning English in countries around the world is a complex issue. The Philippines has this issue because English has been taught in their country for many years. Other countries do not have this problem because they are only taught their native language throughout school. Knowing English should be a huge advantage, it should elevates your education level, it should get you better jobs that can pay you more money to succeed in life, sometimes it should even make certain things like traveling a lot easier. But sometimes things don’t always go that way, I interviewed Ellen Gonzales and the knowledge that she gained throughout her school years in English was not as useful as she though it would be. For some Filipinos life isn’t as easy as people think, even with their skills in the English language.

The importance of English use dates back to many years ago. Reading Journey Of 100 Years by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Edmundo Litton I found out much information about the English background in the Philippines. When the United States took over the Philippines from Spain, English became the common language. Eventually, English replaced Spanish that was being taught by the Spaniards. In the 1939 Census around 26.6 % of the Filipinos spoke English. But there has always been a controversy because of English. The Imperatives of nationalism wanted Filipino to be the national language and they also wanted education to be taught in Filipino. But on the other hand, economic, educational and political leaders wanted to keep English as the main language. On the country studies website I also found out that in 1990 the education system offered six years of elementary instruction followed by four years of high school. Children started at the age of 7 and instruction was bilingual in Pilipino and in English.

Ellen was born and raised in the Philippines she lived in northern and central Luzon, Panpanga province. She grew up with a very strict and disciplined father he was a school teacher so education was always a big part of her life. On the country studies website I read that Filipinos have a deep regard for education. Ellen made that statement really true for me. Ellen says “my dream was to get a good education.” In the Philippines English was mandatory to learn, and still is. Kids are being taught this language from an early age. As they grow, they are learning two languages; English and their native language. Ellen states” English was a subject in the Philippines”, “it was a part of the curriculum”. English was, has and still is a part of the curriculum in the Filipino studies. Knowing this other language should lead you to bigger and better things but not everyone has the same experience.

English can make negotiations in business and country treaties much easier. Skills in English are needed in the Philippines to maintain business and international relations. The Manila Bulletin publishing corp. states that citing the Philippines for its competitive IT-skilled labor and English knowledge proficiency as two major factors in attracting investors. When the U.S. has a better understanding with any country, trade, communication and any other ways of international relationship are handled better. Therefore, both countries can benefit from each other. They can make better agreements and understand each other a lot more, therefore treaties between countries would be dealt with by the leaders themselves and not by translators. English is a language that is needed in many situations another critical situation that eglish should make easier is traveling.

When traveling on airplanes or popular locations around the world knowing English should make communicating easier. English was and still is a skill that is greatly needed in the Philippines and other countries as well, because of tourism. Many people visit the Philippines so a good language to know would be English to be able to communicate with others. Many people from other countries go to school as adults to learn English. As an adult things get much harder so it’s harder for you to learn another language opposed to learning English as a child, like in the Philippines.

The Philippines is a country many like to visit, therefore knowing English makes the trip much easier since many Filipinos know the language. David Cagahastian from the Manila bulletin wrote that the DFA’s (department of foreign affairs) secretary Jose Brillantes said the ESL program aims to increase tourist arrivals in the Philippines by offering to foreigners not only a tour of the Philippines but also an English proficiency program. Tourism Undersecretary Evelyn Pantig also said that that the Philippines has an advantage over other countries as a destination for visitors wanting to study the English language since 93.5% of the population of Filipinos are fluent in English. Filipinos have a huge advantage by knowing English because they have many more job opportunities.

The U.S. is hiring teachers from the Philippines because of their knowledge in English. The better the education a child gets, the better their future could be. Learning English can open many windows of opportunities. The Guardian newspaper from London England wrote that, in 2002 the National Catholic Reporter wrote that teachers in Catholic schools in the Manila region were being heavily recruited by the schools in the United States. Already knowing English made Filipino teachers perfect candidates. Yolly Silang, operations manager of the Texas-based Omni Consortium Inc., said that schools in the United States prefer to hire Filipinos because they have a good command of English. A teacher in the Philippines that is waiting to be hired makes about 6,800 dollars a year in the Philippines, but here in the United States she could make an earning of about 35,000 dollars. That alone is a great example of how English can help you out. Other countries around the world that don’t know English don’t have this advantage.

English is a key to many higher job openings. In Mexico, many people are always looking for jobs. There are many job opportunities in hotels, restaurants, tourist sites, gift shops, clubs, ect.. Many of these jobs ask that you speak English in order to communicate with the tourists. But English has never been a mandatory language to learn in high school so many Latinos do not know the language. Therefore, they have to go learn it in order to get the job and become somewhat successful. That is just one example of how knowing English should bring you many advantages. But for some people English sometimes becomes a need.

The English language can make life a bit easier for immigrants. Migrating from Latin American Countries to the U.S. is very difficult. It is hard for anyone to migrate here because it is a sudden change of lifestyle, of culture and especially language. Children in the Philippines have an advantage because they will at least be able to communicate with other students and be put in the good classes and continue on with their learning studies. But students from Latin America are a step behind because they are put into ESL classes to learn English when they could just be learning what they should be learning at their grade level.

I have given quite a few reasons why English use is so important and how it should make life for Filipinos a lot easier than for others from different places in the world. Overall knowing English seems to work very well in many situations. But what people don’t really understand sometimes is that not all Filipinos enjoy English or have the thrive to learn more English or to really become a great English speaker. Like my interviewee said “we really didn’t practice it, it was only in school.” So Ellen learned the language at school and through her years she had to speak it to some people but she always had a hard time with her Filipino accent. Many people don’t understand what a difference an accent can make.

Ellen came to the United States on her birthday May 26, 1991, she was already 31 years old when she came, and she decided to come after she had finished all her school studies seeking a higher job placement and more pay. Ellen describes her experience leaving as being “so sad.” She also said that “leaving the family is like putting a big rock over your heart.” But she didn’t know that adjusting to being on her own with only her husband and child would be the only thing she would have to adjust to. Ellen brang up a very good point when she said to me that “because of my strong accent many people didn’t understand me when I was speaking their same language English”. “It was especially hard with communication; they were always asking me what?? What??? They didn’t understand me”. Ellen described learning English in school, she told me that “We had to pronounce the words exactly”, they learned grammar in the correct form. But when she got here she discovered another obstacle which was ‘slang’. In the Philippines they learned English the correct way you should speak it and here in San Francisco she was hearing many words and terms she had never heard of before. This caused a problem with her job seeking.

After 2 ½ years of being here in the bay area she finally found a job at Smith Kline as a phlebotomist. It sounds very high in education but Ellen was a level higher in the Philippines. She was having difficulty communicating with people during customer service so she believed she wasn’t placed higher at an early start because of her strong Filipino accent. Ellen says, “If you are a doctor in the Philippines you cant just tell the people here you are a doctor”,” we are all put on the same level here, no rich no poor”. When she said this it hit home for me because I hear that a lot in my culture but it’s even harder because we have no experience with English at all. So it’s sad to hear when someone like Ellen has spent so many years getting a higher education and then coming here to the U.S. and being put in a lower position just because of an accent. It’s not fair. Ellen states that “I was a Med- Tec in the Philippines, I did everything I did microscopically work, phlebotomy work and customer service and other things but here I was employed as a phlebotomist so yeah it was a big difference”. When I asked her if she felt discriminated because of what had happened with her and her accent and job placement she said “100%”. “Now I work under Sutter health as a Med-Tec, I am in the laboratory now. This is an example of a strong very smart Filipino woman that had succeeded in her country but came to the U.S. seeking a better life only to be faced with discrimination.

Learning another language is not a harmful thing, nevertheless it would be a very useful thing to know for any country. But sometimes it does have its disadvantages. Having other countries follow in the Philippines footsteps would only help them out not hurt them. If other countries would put English into their education system kids would learn in at an early age and have an advantage over the people that do not. But English is not always going to be the same in other countries so as individuals we should adjust and try our hardest to learn more English and adjust to the English around us. It is a process not just one step. Ellen says” I’m always learning more English from my kids” and she laughs, “They are always correcting me, it adds to my knowledge”. Over all English does help but sometimes it’s harder and takes a bit longer that most people think. Ellen said that she’s happy now she has a family a husband and a great job now!