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A little edit: the complete motto of the Philippines is MAKA-DIYOS, MAKA-TAO, MAKAKALIKASAN AT MAKABANSA.”
I forgot to mention and explain Bansa. Bansa means nation in Filipino but it's origin is from the Sanskrit Vamsa meaning Clan, People or Race. There, the whole world, 5 language families, spanning several continents, epitomized in just the simple motto of the Philippines. If you are a spy and understand several foreign languages, this is just beautiful.
There are quite a few places where English is an official language, but it doesn't mean that it's the default day-to-day language for the city. I'd certainly believe there are Indian cities where English is the default language for the majority of people, but I very much doubt that's true for all of India. I'd love to hear from people who have lived in an Indian / South Asian city who might be able to weigh in.
For example, English is one of two official languages in the Philippines. I was in the Philippines for a while, mostly around Metro Manila, and I do think there was a fairly large proportion of people who can understand English to some extent, but it was not the default language you hear on the streets, in restaurants, stores, etc. and there were definitely people I've met there who had a pretty weak grasp of English (of course, I also met people who spoke English very well). I would not say that English is the default language of Metro Manila by a long shot. I suspect this is also the case with many South Asian cities, but perhaps it is not true everywhere.
I do think the Dubai and Doha mention is interesting. That sort of makes sense with foreigners making up the vast majority of the populations there and so they'd default to a global lingua franca.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kbish
Can confirm this. There are many different languages spoke in Kuwait City, but nearly everyone can speak English (a bit broken or with heavy accents for some, but not impossible to communicate with).
Instead of adopting English en masse. Make your own language and coin your own words and interpretations. The world is becoming less and less nuanced and special with the death of many languages.
This is really the main reason Singapore can be a hub in Asia and many Filipinos are able to work overseas .
The airlines based in Dubai and Doha also have many flights to different continents because English is widely used in the cities.
The main reason English is not as common and fluent in HK and Macau is because not all schools teach in English. Universities and colleges in HK teach in mainly English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenTiger
All school subjects in Singapore are taught in English with the exception of the "mother tongue" which is mostly in Mandarin Chinese but can be Malay or Tamil also.
In the Philippines, math and science are "only in English". This basically means that everything that is to be read or to be written in those subjects are in English. As a consequence, everyone in the Philippines reads 1 + 1 = 2 in English, with no one knowing how to read that in Filipino. However, teachers and students might speak or revert back to the regional language when discussing something.
Why don't you learn some Filipino vocabulary? Filipino is actually a more Cosmpolitan language than English. Most English vocab is only made up of Latin, Germanic, Fench and Greek words. All belong to just one Language Family, Indo European.
Whereas Filipino has a large percentage of the language composed of Spanish, Aztec, Malay, Chinese and some Arabic and Sanskrit.
The word for knowledge in Filipino, Alam is the same as Alham of Arabic, the word for Wallet in Filipino, Pitaka is Aztec origin, the word for sister, Ate is Chinese in origin. The word for faith Sampalataya is Sanskrit in origin from Sampratraya. Why should we stoop down to your level and speak the less richer English language with vocab just made up of 1 language family when our native language is based on 5? Do you cut out newly bought expensive cloth to stitch old ones?
I frankly wish that Filipinos would speak even less English and more Filipino. Americans are such ignorant butches when it comes to language. Monolingual Americans make fun of people who speak Englsih with an accent when the person they insult is already speaking his 3rd or 4rth language.
The more English spreads and dominates the dumber people become since it is proven that multilingual people have a respectable higher IQ than monolingual ones.
So let me end my rant with the motto of the Philippines: Maka Dios, Maka Tao, Maka Likasan.
Maka means advocate or honor, its the same word as the the Arabic Mecca meaning the honored one. Dios is the Mexican version of the Spanish rendering of Diyos, itself coming from the Latin Deus meaning God, Tao is the word for man in Tagalog but also means self evident thing and is taken from the Chinese philosophical concept of Dao/Tao of Taoism and Maka Likasan means nature in Malayo-Polynesian.
If you are a Polyglot or the head of an international spy ring this is when you realize that the Filipino language is profoundly beautiful and has so many different layers of meanings. But it's all lost in Americans like you who barely understand any other language and then demean people for not under standing English enough.
Only one poster stated everyone should speak English or that English is some intrinsically better language. Filipino’s not on my radar of languages to learn at the moment as my friends who had lived there all moved out and are unlikely to move back and I myself am not from a Filipino background and the FilAm friends unfortunately do not speak Filipino with any frequency or fluency. I have nothing against the Filipino language, and I’m more than happy to learn more languages, but there’s a priority queue I have for that in terms of personal usefulness to me and personal interest. English isn’t even my first or second language and I have decent fluency in four languages and working knowledge of another three, so I don’t know why you turned this into a personal and baseless invective.
I asked this question as part of a general interest in languages and not because I like the idea of any global lingua franca supplanting other languages. My leanings are actually towards the opposite of that where I think languages and dialects have an inherent value to them that should be preserved. I essentially want to know where the lingua franca has unfortunately supplanted all others and nothing you stated has any relevance to the topic at hand.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 10-11-2019 at 10:24 AM..
yes but im not the pro Marcos ilocano although i like the projects he started. im not just an admirer of him. i'd rather have Quirino and Ramos than him
India is same with the Philippines. English is an official language but not the default language for everyday communications
Yep. And I was in for a world of shock at how few people in major Indian cities had a mastery of the English language. Even to those who could speak English, it certainly was not their default language. I traveled to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jaipur and multiple cities across Rajasthan.
i grew up in the province in the north, mind you not even from the Tagalog speaking province and Tagalog or Filipino was taught the textbbook Tagalog
now you go to Manila and all you hear is bastardized Tagalog/Filipino ewan
What's funny is when you go down to Mindanao where Bisaya, Illonggo, or some other language rules everyday speaking. You will hear alot more English being spoken than Tagalog.
yes but im not the pro Marcos ilocano although i like the projects he started. im not just an admirer of him. i'd rather have Quirino and Ramos than him
I guess there were enough Ilocanos in Hawaii that liked Marcos enough such that he went into exile there in 1986 with the People Power movement and ascention of Cory Aquino.
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ewan
although i like the projects he started. im not just an admirer of him. i'd rather have Quirino and Ramos than him
