Filipinos Need to Prioritize Learning English and Start Endorsing Mandarin/Nihonggo Over Spanish

There was a time when the Philippines when it had its edge over other countries because of its English. The reason was because of the ten years American Commonweath. Then the Philippines truly became a nation on July 4, 1946, in short June 12 should be the commemoration of victory against Spain instead. Moving on, one may consider the world market and places where investment is strong.

I remembered my lecture from my English teacher back in High School. She discussed about the declining quality of Filipinos with their English speaking. While China and Japan may start to speak English (but not fluently), the Philippines lost its edge. Worse, we have leftists and pseudo-nationalists who believe that English must be gotten rid of. That kind of mentality kept countries like China from progressing, it was only until China started to endorse English that they have become more progressive. English itself is the language that Filipinos would need for international business deals.

The major irony has always been this. Leftists have antagonized English because it's "unpatriotic" never mind that the Filipino language is a mixture of Malaysian, Indonesian, Spanish and even Chinese words. Filipino is a heterogeneous language like it or not. Then they start their Pinoy Pride when a Pinoy makes it big, never mind that Pinoy who made it big had a good to excellent command of the English language.

It's time to really scrap off Spanish from the College foreign language curriculum. Spanish for one is a useless course unless you are in Spain just as Tagalog is useless unless you are in the Philippines. Spanish itself is really too much of a useless foreign language course. Besides, who's going to need to say "buenas noches" in the office. I've even met some Filipino-Spanish who have chosen to forget Spanish entirely.

Now I know that the name Philippines was derived from Philip I of Spain. However Spain is no longer as influential as it was during the 1500s. Spain was defeated out of the Philippines by 1898 so it's been 100 years since the Philippines was liberated from Spain. But as I said, Spanish is a really useless foreign language unless you are dating someone from Spain. However the only Spanish that some Filipinos are marrying are Filipino-Spanish, not from Spain.

One language we can start to encourage is Mandarin. Why do I want to start endorsing Mandarin? Chinese are more dispersed than Filipinos no thanks to the Maoist Regime. Chinese end up going from job hunting to job providing, these days Chinese firms end up creating joint venture jobs around the world. You may end up seeing Chinese who set up legitimate businesses left and right but have poor command of English. While they may want a English tutor or want someone to teach them Filipino if they are in the Philippines, one may consider how Chinese are a widespread race. It's almost impossible to ignore Chinese around the world and... China's firms may start investing left and right either by joint venture or 100% ownership.

So what's the advantage for businessmen to learn Mandarin? Knowing that there will be Chinese firms who prefer to have a joint venture overseas, learning Mandarin is an advantage. The Filipino business partner knowing Mandarin can coach his Chinese partner how to speak Tagalog and English. Learning Mandarin will allow one to seek better opportunities for jobs or businesses in China, Taiwan and Singapore.

Nihonggo is another language we cannot ignore. I could still remember the words of Takeru Sato when he first came to the Philippines. In spite of problems, he had a warm welcome which implies that the leftists were either in hypocrite mode OR were held back by the cops. Moving on, Japanese firms tend to move around the world and Japanese people these days tend to intermarry a lot outside Japan. One may think about how learning Japanese is an advantage.

So let's just think about how learning Japanese gets a long way. Some Filipinos may end up finding better jobs in Japan if they were in the art or technical fields. Sad to say, but quality Pinoy artists tend to get mocked back in their home country. If they can learn Nihonggo, certainly they can let their talent shine in Japan. They can end up drawing such beautiful Manga art that would not be appreciated in their homeland. They can also teach Japan something new. And of course, Failipinos will have no right to share in that glory either.

Overall, it's time to really prioritize learning English then add Mandarin or Nihonggo to help foster a better Philippines!