The American Frank

On English & Taglish

Email from Nonie David in Lagos, Nigeria, having read my ‘A Damaged Academe’ (published by American Chronicle, 29 June, published in this blogsite with the exact same content but with a different title: ‘Diliman in a Dilemma’ (see below). Image of Nigerian students of Nonie, captioned ‘Break time.’

Dear Frank,

Thanks a lot for the immediate reply. I devoted some time yesterday devouring your article. In the process I also ended up reading more things from other blogsites on Taglish.

As my sister has told you, I have been living in Nigeria for some time now, actually 24 years. I have always been in the education field. I lectured on geophysics at the University of Benin for ten years. Right now, I am administering a secondary school; I was the founding director - we started some 7 years ago.

Over the years I found myself really getting concerned, sometimes even irritated, every time I get to meet some of our compatriots in Nigeria and hear them speak Taglish. Nothing morally wrong with Taglish as such but many times I get the impression that it prevents them from being articulate with their thoughts. Actually, other expatriates have commented that sometimes they do not understand the way Pinoys express themselves. In the end, I think Taglish puts us to a disadvantage.

Living in Nigeria has exposed me to hundreds of tribes and therefore hundreds of local languages. They use English as a national language. I have not seen any disadvantage of their using English; as a matter of fact, it is an advantage. Interestingly enough, I believe that there are many more educated Nigerians (I mean those that passed through the university) speak much better English than the average Pinoy college graduate. This is because when they speak English, they think in English. There is a local lingua franca called Pidgin English but people who speak it are aware they are not speaking the correct English.

You were the first person I heard referring to tribes (Tagalogs, Ilocanos, etc.) in the Philippines. I am not very happy about it. If my experience in Nigeria is a guide, I would say that the fact of the tribal differences having disappeared among Pinoys over the centuries of colonial rule is a blessing. We have no problem of intermarriage nor is our politics based on tribal lines. I really think we are better off than those African countries who highlight tribal differences.

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Well, Mr. Hilario, I am sorry for sending this rather delayed. Several times I tried to work on this piece I always end up the day not being able to send you because of power failure. That was the case of the whole week last week. We always have power failure here at times you least expect it. You just do not know what you enjoy there in Pinas.

Cheers,

Dr. Lorenzo M. David (a.k.a. Nonie)
Whitesands School
Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria

By the way, thanks a lot for the article. I just hope there are more of you Pinoys who could get most of us thinking.