[EDLING:228] POLITICAL ECONOMY: Becoming multilingual

[Francis M. Hult]

The Manila Times
POLITICAL ECONOMY
By Calixto V. Chikiamco
Becoming multilingual

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/feb/24/yehey/opinion/20040224opi2.html

THE Philippines ranks low in terms of scientific and mathematical literacy.
Decades of neglect of science and mathematics in our public and grade school
education have resulted in graduates lacking in mathematical and scientific
skills. Many Filipino children have more dreams of becoming an actor,
politician, lawyer, or policeman than they have of becoming a scientist,
engineer, or mathematician.

For this reason, the country is less competitive in attracting industries and
jobs that require high technical, engineering, or scientific skills.
Microsoft, GE, and Oracle have established research and development centers in
India and China but not in the Philippines.

While this situation ought to be corrected, perhaps it will take a generation
before we can compete with India and China for jobs in the scientific and
engineering fields.  The exigencies of China and India’s respective
militaries, which we don’t have, dictate that they produce a lot of well-
trained scientists and engineers.  Moreover, the Philippines’ rich resource
endowments have somehow degraded the value of science and engineering in our
society.  Singers, not scientists, are lionized.

In the meantime, however, the country should emphasize acquiring language
skills in our educational system. While we may concede China and India’s
superiority in mathematics and the sciences for the moment, we can gain a
competitive advantage over them in linguistics.

I’m not talking of Filipinos becoming more proficient in English. President
Arroyo has already noted young graduates’ declining proficiency in English and
has mandated reverting to English as the medium of instruction.

Our graduates need not only to be proficient in English, but to the extent
possible, acquire other language skills as well. This means that we should
turn out more graduates who can speak in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French,
etc.

Our educational system should be geared to turning out graduates with multi-
language skills. Perhaps, it would be good to set a requirement for all
college students to take certain number of units in a foreign language course.

There’s no reason why we Filipinos cannot be adept at several languages. There
are already a large number of returned OFWs who are knowledgeable in Arabic,
Italian, Spanish, or whatever language they have been exposed to in their
stints abroad.

In this age of globalization, having a large pool of people who are adept at
various languages is a significant competitive advantage. For example, there’s
a company called Source One, which is recruiting Spanish-language call center
agents. It intends to service the growing Hispanic population in the United
States.

The country having been a former Spanish colony, Filipinos have some
familiarity with Hispanic culture. It’s not something that Indians or Chinese
can easily acquire.  Therefore, we can establish an impregnable niche in
Spanish-speaking call center services.

There’s also going to be a growing market for Nihongo-speaking caregivers in
Japan.  With a large segment of the Japanese population graying (as many as
one in five will be 65 years old or over), the Japanese government will be
forced to liberalize the entry for caregivers.

The country, with its large young population, can fill in Japan’s need for
caregivers.  Again, it can have a competitive advantage if the caregivers
already know at least rudimentary Nihongo.  Perhaps the government can
negotiate that instead of giving aid for the purchase of Japanese equipment,
the Japanese government can finance the establishment of Japanese language
centers in various parts of the country.

Having a polyglot population will be an enormous advantage in the tourism
industry.  Chinese tourists, for example, hardly know English so they would
appreciate enormously if they could converse with Mandarin-speaking tourist
guides or salespeople.  The same goes for tourists in non-English speaking
nations, such as Japan and the Middle East.

While other countries like China are trying to get their population to learn
English, we should try to be two steps ahead of them. The government should
not only have programs to make Filipinos improve their English language
skills, but also get more of them to acquire other language skills.

Educational planning isn’t one thing that the government can delegate to the
private sector. Getting the country to become more multilingual will give the
country an edge in a more competitive world.