maging englishero na lang tayo

Often times my work requires me to talk to Old people. But since my features aren’t exactly Filipino looking, they almost always start off a conversation with me in English. After which I usually tell them, “Tagalog nalang po. Marunong ho ako magtagalog”. However one thing always seems to amaze me, these old folks have a better command on the English language than most younger Filipinos. The truth is the standards on English spoken knowledge have been declining ever since the 80’s. it started off with President Aquino’s “Filipino First” program. Sure, it isn’t wrong to try to foster a sense of patriotism for a nation. and of course it was good to bolster up Philippine made products. But in my opinion, what was wrong was to start forcing kids to watch cartoons in tagalong. For a nation with overseas workers as its main export, it would have made perfect sense to help the kids to have a good strong foundation for spoken English. Believe it or not, overseas contract worker remittances make up around 10% of the Philippine GNP! And with all the call centers sprouting out in the country nowadays, I wonder how much better this industry would be growing if most Filipinos spoke better English.