Speakin' Dollar

Most of you will definitely laugh and wonder what's with the title of my blog today. But to most of us who could speak English (some fluently, others not), this is usually the term used. An ordinary person, let's say here in the Province, Lipa, once na marinig kang mag-English speaking lalo na kung hindi ka naman American citizen, eh ang tingin agad sa yo eh: MAARTE, MAYABANG, MAYAMAN.

Some people just don't realize that English is a medium of conversation not only among the rich. Once you are educated, whether by public or private institution, you could speak and write in English form. I don't see anything wrong when a person is speaking in English, naaaliw pa nga ako kasi bukod sa tagalog, o kahit anong dialect, marunong silang mag-English.

One time my daughter Arielle, came home and told me that they have a rule in school that if they are caught speaking in tagalog/Filipino they will be given a minus point in their English subject. So as not to be fined, she doesn't talk/speak at all. And I asked her: Why aren't you speaking in English? Samantalang when you were small until you went to pre-school ang galing-galing mong mag-english. The she said: Eh kasi po mommy nung 1 araw narinig ko yung dalawa (2) kong classmates, pinag-uusapan ako. Bakit daw ako English ng English, ang ARTE-ARTE ko daw.

Upon hearing this I felt bad. Really bad. Kasi as a mother, I told her, teaching her to speak in English is a way of conversation as well. Wala naman akong ituturo na ikasasama mo. Until now I rarely hear her speak in English because of these comments from her classmates.

I'm just hoping that maalis na sa ugali nating mga Filipino yung pag narinig kang nag-Eenglish eh maarte ka or what, instead ang galing naman niya. I think it's better to hear the latter one.