The first A

This is my first paperwork for my Rizal course this term. I'm gonna post it coz I was so proud of it. I never expected that it'll get a grade of 98 (I was even thinking a grade of 80 here).

A reflection on Rizal’s poem, “To My Fellow Children”

Rizal’s poem put emphasis on two things - The language, and the youth. You might not see exactly the emphasis on the youth if you will read it line by line only. One will have a hard time interpreting it, if he will read it between the lines. I too found myself to be in what I so called a dilemma. For me to understand the poem, I had made three questions. 1) To whom did he dedicate this poem? 2) What caused him to write such poem? 3) Why did he make such poem? To answer these questions, we have to analyze the poem. We also have to know the situation at Rizal’s time.

As I said earlier, Rizal focuses on two things here - The importance of the youth, and the language. He believed that the youth is the core factor of building a nation and the foundation of a society. Rizal believes that the youth needs to be socially aware and opens their minds to different ideologies, and especially giving them the importance of having a language and loving it. I read the poem many times before concluding that he dedicated it to the youth and the language. Giving emphasis about the importance of having a language, but having respect and loving it. Here, I see the Rizal made the poem because he sees that a lack of respect and love for their own language is one thing that divides each of the Filipinos at that time. He sees fellow fellow citizens lacking the appreciation and love for their own language and thus loosing their identity. He made such poem to address this situation at his time. Making the poem a tool for opening the Filipinos minds of having one language, having an identity of their own. Moreover, not just by accepting that the Spaniards calls them Indios.

The statement “Ang Hindi Magmahal sa sariling wika/salita ay higit pa sa malansang isda” still makes sense this day. Even in this age of globalization. We still have to adhere to our own language. Our own language is our passport to different culture, and the passport of the different cultures to us. We should never abandon our national language. As I said before, loosing it means also loosing our identity. Our own cultural awareness and love for out nation. Globalization does not mean to abandon our language, but to love it more and give importance to it. English is really an international medium of communication. However, never it should be the national medium of communication. It develops the country, yes, but we should also put into fact that besides our own country, China was such a powerful nation without the love and admiration for English. Therefore, as Japan, where culture and language are the key factors for them to be successful. Two good examples of a nation loving and keeping their own language, and thus succeeding in the global market and trade.

We can be globally competitive without abandoning our language. Heck, we should be more successful in terms of communication since we are better English speakers that the two countries I have mentioned. These countries are developing a bilingual or even multilingual individual that helps them grow in terms of dominating the global market and acquiring newer technologies. Far better than ours (I’m very sad to say this but, even if we are directly connected to United States in terms of technological partnerships. China and Japan are far ahead of us). How do you think China got the big deal from Nike in shoe manufacturing? On the other hand, how about Japan dominating the video game consoles like Nintendo, and the Sony Playstation? Moreover, driving the Americans crazy by making and releasing the Microsoft Xbox to counter the so-called Imperial domination? (Should I go on with the TV and other multi media devices?) The sad point is that we speak far better English than they do. It disheartens me that we should be the ones having the success of these two countries are enjoying now. Nevertheless, because of the government just only focusing on the development of the English language for the sake of getting more nurses to United States and other jobs overseas. It truly disappoints me on how “they” or we only think of us to be just having a blue color job over foreign soil. Have we already lost our love for our language? Have lost our identity? Should we really sacrifice this for the sake of success, wealth, and just to get out of the slums?

Abandoning our own language means suicide. Loosing our identity is the door to insanity and chaos. How can we develop English speaking Filipinos when we do not even develop and love our own language? Such hypocrisy makes me that we are competitive because we are good English speakers makes me on my own soil. Rage flows in my blood as I see that these so-called English speakers just having a blue-collar job overseas and just landing in a call center job here in our own country. (I have nothing against the people who work in a call center. I just hate the people who run those businesses. Such crab mentality dominates their senses) The cancer is in us. We ourselves abandon our own language in the knowledge that English is our answer for our misfortunes. Stand up and have an identity young man. Be proud to say that you speak in your own tongue, not by the tongue of others. And with this let me say in my own tongue “Dumadaloy sa akin, ang kamalayan ng isang nasyong matagal nang nahihimlay sa bangungot ng ibang sibilisasyon.”