Filipino Bacon

A satirical website about the filipino customs and cultures.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Tag-alog: What is the use?

Tag-alog: What is the use?

Tag-alog absolutely has no use in the modern civilized American society. Anyone in the United States with filipino decent can read, write, and understand English as well as anyone else. Everytime you hear a group of Flips talk, you can hear some English sentences in their conversation, so what is the use for Tag-alog?

First off, let us talk about a breif history of the Philippines (or as I call it, Flipland for shot),. Spanish exploers landed on the islands in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan established settlements there. The Spanish have been ruling the islands for 300 years until the Spanish-American war broke off. The United States took compete control of the islands until after World War II, when they granted independence in 1946. Despite over 300 years of Spanish rule and nearly 50 years under U.S. control, Tag-alog still exist in the country. So let us go over the ideas about the use for Tag-alog:

 Tag-alog lacks vocabulary for technology, business, law, government, science, mathematics, broadcast media, and religious affairs. So when the Flips have to talk about any of these subjects, they have to use English vocabulary, and later on, they end up talking each other in English. In this case, Tag-alog has no use in the industry and government.

 In Flipland, children learn English as early as first grade. English words were introduced to fill in to cover missing words in the Tag-alog vocabulary. College education is taught entirely in English. It is very obvious that any Flip with a decent education can communicate in English with no problems.

 The vast majority of American-born children of filipino parents do not speak Tag-alog at all. Although they might know a few phrases or words, they all speak English among each other. Tag-alog has been disappearing in future filipino generations in North America. Therefore, Tag-alog is useless for future filipino-American communities.

 It is common in Manila that the speakers speak both Tag-alog and English. You will always hear lots of English everyday there. The Manilia Bulliten is printed entirely in English, and the news is reported in English half of the time, and sometimes entirely. Road signs are printed in English. You can survive in Manila without even knowing Tag-alog at all.

 Okay, so Tag-alog is part of the filipino culture and customs. In fact, it is a very tribal language since it has no use in government and business. So, if people in Flipland are going to be taught English, Tag-alog will have no use to communicate in upper-class society. So, there is only one limitation for the use of Tag-alog: to communicate with tribal and low-class people where there is no formal education.

So based on these points, there is no use for Tag-alog in the modern, upper-class society. There is no need to use it in the United States and Canada. It is only limited to tribal and uneducated people. Tag-alog will never be used by Americans of filipino decent. Tag-alog is simply a waste of time to learn.

12 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

its called preserving traditional language and practicing old cultural traditions. it hurts to see my homecountry of the Philippines undermined by neocolonialism.

9:29 PM  
Blogger danicaE said...

i think there's another good thing about the dialect. pwede mong murahin, laitin o sabihan ng masama ang mga taong nanlalamang sa'yo, particularly yung hindi naman Pilipino, without them knowing. way to get even. hehehe.

peace!

4:10 AM  
Blogger Meg Amat said...

I chanced upon your blog when i was looking for pictures of jeepnies. I felt my heart break when I read this post.

Rizal once wrote the line "Ang taong hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay daig pa ang mabaho at malansang isda."

1. Tagalog lacks vocabulary for technology. Fair enough. But so do other languages. Japanese for example assimilates many words to describe many concepts as well. For example the word helicopter. English is actually based on Latin and is very similar with German. English borrowed the word boondock, based on the Filipino word bundok. Scientific names of flora and fauna are in Latin.

Tagalog is actually rich with words that can't be translated. Could it be that we just don't have a grasp of these words. Hikahos. Tampo. Sasakyang pang himpapawid.

And all languages, except Latin are continually evolving.

By the way, many important documents are in Filipino: passport, diplomas (of the top universities in the country), certificates of birth, marriage, land titles and many others. Apparently, you haven't heard of Radyo Veritas, which is an AM radio station, through it, Filipinos were united to rise up against a tyrrant of a president, Mr. Marcos, leading to the first blood-less revolution. The EDSA revolution has been studied the world over. China tried to emulate it and witnessed a huge massacre. This radio station generally uses Filipino as medium.

2. As part of neo-colonialism, this was imposed. More commonly known as the "benevolent assimilation act" While the educated ones can communicate extremely well in English, some thoughts can only be explained in Filipino. The Department of Education and Culture and the Commission on Higher Education has required a certain number of units to be taught in Filipino.


3. I was raised in the tri-state area but reside in Manila now, so I can speak on this. I think it's about a culture. Languages are identities of cultures. Basically, lose the language, you lose a big chunk of the culture. Maybe you could drop the "Filipino -" from the "future Filipino-American communities" Besides, bi lingual jokes are wittier.You have to languages to work with, the range for word play is much wider. As in all vernacular languages.

4. You survive Manila, but you don't fully experience it. Many things are richer and/or funnier in a local language.

5. The notion that Tagalog is tribal is very uneducated. It's been used to state the most profound from poems to declamations and many more. Also, I'm sorry to say that you're discriminating against the poor. Would you do that to an American street person who survives on welfare, who are probably uneducated either? I doubt. In the same way we shouldn't discriminate against poor Filipinos.

I hope you reconsider your stand on Tagalog or Filipino (Filipino is the Philippines' national language not Tagalog, by the way, though Filipino is based on Tagalog) A little more research wouldn't hurt. :) You may not benefit from learning Filipino, but without a doubt, learning Filipino is not a waste of time.

Marahil pinipilit ka lang matuto ng Pinoy kaya nailathala mo itong sanaysay na ito. Sana isang araw, matutunan mo ring mahalin ang Pilipinas. Maraming bagay (kahit maraming nakakasuklam din)ang sadyang masaya,makulay at nakakapag-taba ng puso na 'ika nga, "Only in da Pilipines."

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Mabuhay ka rin, Tony!

11:27 PM  
Blogger iridescent dreams said...

Wow. And you think it's so civilized to do a blog entry that criticizes a whole race?

Do you want me to enumerate all the grammatical and spelling mistakes that you committed in writing this entry?

Tsk. Never mind.
You are so not worth it.

And oh, have you noticed the comments? They're obviously from Filipinos (duh). Have you noticed the way they were written? Polite, respectful, understanding and with open-mindedness, despite the fact that your entry lacked all those qualities.

Tsk.

3:08 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

tony,
ang tanda mo na hindi mo pa rin alam ang kahalagahan ng wika sa sarili mong bayan? itinuring ka pa naman ding inhinyero... buluka man uy!

4:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey dickhead kapal ng pagmumuka mo!! upakan kaya kita! keep ur damn opinion to urself

5:53 AM  
Blogger ViZion said...

this will be the last response perhaps i will ever give to any of your posts. i have read the comments of other people and somehow i can gather that you are a person who does not want to listen to other people nor consider what others feel or think. you only care about what you think.

tagalog only for uneducated?

word of wisdom for you:

the true educated person

...will keep his native language alive
...will not forget his roots
...will preserve his culture
...will respect other people's views, feelings, freedom, and culture
...will speak truth while trying to live peaceably with everyone

...will consider these to heart

"The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice." Proverbs 12:15

"A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions." Proverbs 18:2

10:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Something's seriously wrong with your perception.

At this day and age, I can't believe that narrow-minded cretins like you still exists.

And here's one for you asshole, I hope you understand this.

NAKAKAHIYA KA.

5:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

there's nothing i can do if you criticize the Philipppines and everything about YOUR roots. but i just wish that there will come a day when you realize that all of these is just so wrong. i just don't get it when people like you even bother to waste time blogging about such things. why not just keep to yourself those comments about US?..

are you even a normal human being to be acting like this? are you even man enough to face the facts that the Philippines is indeed an awesome country, and the Filipinos are such awesome people? i don't know who you are, what you have gone through to be like this, what you are doing right now, or just why you are even doing this crap. my english grammar may not be perfect, pero sana naintindihan mo yung gusto naming maiparating sayo.

let's face the facts, the Philippines has flaws, negative things, so on, so forth. but it doesn't mean that you can talk rubbish about it, especially when you are part of that race, whether you want it or not. dude, i just pray that you can change your perception about things like these. if not, i wish that you'll just stay quiet and keep those rude comments to yourself. Blessings to you dude..

7:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I truly believe that we have reached the point where technology has become one with our society, and I am fairly certain that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.


I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as the price of memory decreases, the possibility of copying our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about almost every day.


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10:34 PM  
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