Spanish, Important for Filipinos

While the country is fresh from celebrating the birth of our national hero; one wonders if the language of Don Miguel Cervantes will be introduced again in schools and regain its former status as one of the official languages of the Philippines.

Although there is an agreement forged between the Spanish government and ours to reintroduce the language it is not clear when the said agreement is to be implemented.

One may question the importance of Spanish when as a matter of fact; more and more prefer to use Tagalog instead of English, one of the two official languages of the country. In Congress alone, majority of the lawmakers use Tagalog on the floor.

We should not forget the important fact that our history from the time Spain came till the early 1900s is written in Spanish. There are a lot of important historical materials collecting dust in the national archives that Filipinos cannot read. Imperial Spain’s putting the Philippines into submission is an “old” story. There are more mind-bungling stories that we should read if we are really interested with our past.

We should understand and speak Spanish.

The wave of Filipino exodus remains unchecked. Wherever our compatriots go in Europe or in the US, Spanish is widely spoken. While it is true that we speak English; when abroad, sometimes not all of us can communicate properly because of pronunciation and accent differences. Should we have another language in place, it facilitates commingling with people with different cultures and languages.

Nationalist groups oppose Spanish and even English. According to them, these are vestiges of colonialism. I agree but do they mean that we have to look like an idiot one day when we go abroad that nobody understands our Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano, etc? When these nationalists march and protest in the streets, they drive their points in Taglish. Why not 100% Tagalog?

I don’t mean that we have to be a Jose Rizal, a linguist fluent in 22 languages. Wherever he went, he was able to communicate with anyone in their native tongues be it in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or English. That made him learn more by easily assimilating himself with the culture and the people of his host nations.

The problem is how many of us are interested in learning languages or at least a foreign language? How many of us seriously understand the importance of learning a foreign language in this age of technology and globalization?

I really do not know.