DCET - Michael Chavez

Have I Heard It Right?

“Multi-linguistic country, strong country”—that was the theme that I had to work on writing far a school event. And I almost think that they’ve got it all wrong. How could it ever be that the state of being multi-lingual strengthens the nation whereas strength can greatly be attained with the aid of unity? Unity implies sameness, wholeness and consistency. Isn’t it? Could it be that the real theme was “One language, one compact nation”?

That’s just what I initially thought as I hear the theme given to us in a school event. But initial reactions do not necessarily have to stay with you for a lifetime, right? When you recovered from shock, you can at once redeem yourself. And that’s what had happened to me. I happen to realize later that I was looking in a narrow picture of it and that there are still broader views that I have to see. Let’s just say that the narrow point of view is regionalism; otherwise it’s globalization.

When we talk about regionalism, we may say that Filipinos are accustomed to having numerous dialects that differ per region. Some of us barely even understand the dialects used by some of our fellowmen. So where is unity in that case? How could we be referred to as a strong republic? The answers can never be drawn out of these questions actually because this by far is only the wrong prerogative. Perhaps, “multi-linguistic” is what the theme is proposing. It implies therefore multiple languages, not just multiple dialects. Don’t you get confused between the two terms. The term dialect refers to the language spoken only in some regions of a country while the term language refers to the one generally spoken by the citizens of a country.

On the other hand, when globalization is being talked about, we may be talking about a Filipino being literate in foreign languages. Most Filipinos, though not all, are bilingual being able to communicate both in English and in Filipino. Some may say at once that it is not a nationalistic thing to do because we are not patronizing our native language solely. But the truth is, doing it so does not lessen a person’s nationalism. The English language is in fact considered as our second national language. Furthermore, it is also the language of globalization. If we are able to communicate to the world, we can branch out to our neighboring countries and be aided by them during the times that we are losing our own strength. And later, we will be able to establish our own strength. United Nations (UN) is a clear example of this.

And so, out of these things I’ve drawn from careful thinking, I can now make myself believe that being multi-lingual really is a foundation of a nation’s strength. And so I say, “yes, I’ve heard it right!”.