“He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish.” – Jose Rizal, Philippine’s National Hero.

Have you ever been a country where no one speaks your language? Have you even been in a country where English is not that popular? Have you ever had a conversation with someone who doesn’t completely speak your language? Were you able to understand them or you end up choosing to speak with someone who would understand what you exactly say?

I was born in the Philippines and my mother tongue is Kapampangan, it’s one of the many dialects used in our country. Our national language is Tagalog. We use Tagalog to understand all the Filipinos all over the country regardless what their dialects are. I was taught Tagalog in school because in our house, we use Kapampangan. It is essential for a Filipino to learn the language because it is what we use to communicate to each other.

But throughout the years, I have noticed that children who were naturally born Filipino are well-versed in speaking English rather than Tagalog. I have met people who was never taught Tagalog in their household just because English is more appropriate to learn because it is used as universal language and well, in my country, speaking English gives you lots of advantage. English makes a Filipino sound smart.

I learned English during grade school; My school requires us to speak the language while we’re inside the campus to be able to practice but we still fail to do so because it was easier for us to speak in our mother tongue back then because most of us speak Kapampangan unless there’s a transferee student from another city and cannot speak Kapampangan, then that’s the time we try to speak to them in Tagalog.

At 17, I was able to write and speak in English a little too well than average. I was able to enter university and had a normal conversation with my new friends in English since my university is an international one and some of my classmates were from other countries.

While studying in the university, I fell in love with linguistics (scientific study of language), however, it wasn’t offer as a major on the course that I took which was AB Communication. The felt of needing to learn different languages got into me at a younger age. I have friends who knows how to speak, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Hindi, French, Spanish, Arabic & Russian. While with them, I was able to learn greetings, essential words and some others and vice versa, I teach them some of Tagalog words too.

When I finished university, I decided to work abroad, specifically in United Arab Emirates. Most of the expatriates in the country speaks Arabic and English, however, some who lived here for very long time, or was born here, speaks more Arabic than English. I met few people who educated me about the education system and how they were taught standard Arabic and English in school. Which felt a little different from Philippines because what I noticed with schools in the Philippines now, they focus on teaching children the English Language rather than focus on teaching the depths of the Tagalog language.

Not everyone knows, Philippines has its own alphabet system called Baybayin. Here’s the sample of the how it looks like:

Just like in any other countries in Asia, we have our own script, however, due to colonization, they slowly stopped using the script until we remained using the Roman Alphabets. For this, I feel a little sad because Philippines could’ve been unique from any other countries as well if they just retained on using Baybayin. Wouldn’t you love to see your country having its own script? Nowadays, many people are starting to love the Baybayin and I’ve read some articles where they are actually teaching it also in some schools which is really good.

What’s happening in the Philippines now is most of the children are learning Korean and Hangul due to popular demand of Kdrama and Kpop in the country. Establishments also opened to teach Hangul just like what they long time ago for Nihongo, Japanese. I’m not opposing on teaching them other language but what I wanted to point out is Tagalog has so many things to offer; there are so many deep words that only old people know and there are still unknown words up to this date. If Philippines remove Tagalog language in the curriculum (which I think is starting to happen) it will be a defeat for those hero who fought for our country against invaders. Imagine, Jose Rizal fighting over for Filipinos only for them to slowly kill his mother language.

I hope that someday soon, the Department of Education will see how Baybayin is actually an important part of our culture and how Tagalog should stay as the national language. I hope stereotypes will stop condemning those people cannot speak English fluently and laugh at them for speaking an entirely wrong phrases. English is a universal language, yes, we need to learn it somehow but we don’t need to patronize it, trying to change the Philippine culture.

How awful to hear someone who insults his countrymen just because they cannot speak English. Admit it or not, Filipinos are the only people who try to seek perfection in speaking English. Here in abroad, you speak English the simplest way possible for them to understand you and no one has ever laugh at each other just because they were bad at speaking the language.

Many of my foreign friends are falling in love with our language, Tagalog. They actually think that Tagalog is the most beautiful language worldwide and I’m proud that I can speak, write and converse using Tagalog.

I am writing this article in English to reach more readers; Not only Filipino readers, but also other nationalities. Tagalog is a beautiful language and should never be forgotten.

To all my fellow Filipinos;

Sana’y maituro ninyo sa inyong mga anak, pamangkin, kapatid at mga kaibigan ang kahalagahan ng Wikang Filipino. Ang artikulong ito ay isinulat ko upang magbigay pugay sa ating sariling wika. Nais ko rin na maiparating sa lahat ng Pilipino sa bawat sulok ng mundo na ang ating wika ay ang natatanging susi sa ating kultura.

Nilalayon din ng kasulatang ito na hikayatin ang mga guro na pagtibayin ang pagpapanatili ng Wikang Filipino bilang isa sa mga asignatura na itinuturo sa mga paaralan.

Ang ating wika ay ang kaisa-isang bagay na hindi kailanman makukuha ng mga dayuhan kung patuloy nating bibigyang importansya ito.

Ikinagagalak ko rin na makita na sa kabila ng pagtalikod ng iba sa ating lenguwahe, marami rin naman ang mga magulang na itinuturo parin sakanilang mga anak ang Tagalog. Napakagandang pakinggan kapag ang bata’y matatas magsalita ng Wikang Tagalog/Wikang Filipino.

Huwag natin kalimutan na maraming bayani ang nakipaglaban para sa ating bansa upang mapanatili ang ating mga paniniwala at kultura. Maging isang aral sana ito sa lahat ng mga taong tila’y naiwaglit na sakanilang mga isipan ang wikang pinakamamahal ko.