LANGUAGE LEARNING

English must be taught using basic American English during early education for easy
language learning, but Filipino English should be used and then maintained in the latter education. English must also be taught with the help of Tagalog language for easy language learning and acquisition as well.
We were introduced to English during the time when Americans came here. We learned English using their own version because primarily, there are other English like British English and Australian English. We learned to speak and to write in English through Basic American English and I think there is nothing wrong with that. Of course, in the start, learning the basic or learning from the roots is best to have a strong foundation.
English should be taught at an early age because that is the time where children do not filter ideas and information as much as adults do. That is the stage of exploration for us so it is easier for us as children to acquire and learn a language, may it be our native tongue or a foreign language. I even think that if English were taught first to us when we were still children and not Tagalog, we will be fluent in English as much as we will be fluent in our supposed-to-be native tongue.
There is a controversy just recently about a bill that was passed, suggesting that English should used only starting Grade three, which I think is wrong. Grade three students will already be used to using only the Tagalog language and therefore it will be hard for them to learn English. It is harder to incorporate something into a mind that has already been exposed to something for a long time. The tendency is, that mind will not that be open to new ideas anymore. The input of those ideas will have to be gradual because the processing of that individual will also be gradual. In the process, there will be a lot of discrimination of ideas that will happen. It will be really different when we were still young, just like what has been said in the previous paragraph.
During Pre School, we could not have learned English without word by word translation of our Tagalog language into English. We needed to associate a Tagalog word into that unfamiliar English word for us to be able to learn. We just could not learn English by associating it with a certain object. We really needed to learn it using words. In this case, we needed the help of Tagalog words. We even needed to be introduced into basic American grammar for our sentence constructions. Because of the direct association of English words with our Tagalog words, we were able to be familiar with the foreign language. This is the reason why we had learned English fast. We were even able to use it just like how we use our native language, both in our oral and written communication during our early years.
We started to have a problem, however, when we had grown up and we had to use English in almost every aspect of our lives. We then find out that there are a lot of English words that do not have a direct translation in our native language. We therefore had to make adjustments. When we were young, we are just content in the nearest direct translation because we do not have any choice. We are not yet that familiar with the language.
After a while, familiarity with how to use the English language in both written and oral discourse is already prevalent, we explored the language and created our own version of it: the Filipino English. We can now call it ours. Basic American English can now be switched to Filipino English.
Filipino English is how we Filipinos use the English language based on the way we want to use it without any constraint. Filipino English is when we do not follow anymore what basic English tells us just like the word salvage, which the author has given as an example.
We even have our own rules now in how to use the language, which Basic American English does not have. I even think we are far more grammatically correct than the Americans in using English.
I think one way in how we use Filipino English is through our coinages. Filipinos are very fond of coining terms. Examples I remembered during our Linguistics class were: Cocacolization, which meant industrialization; Imeldific, which is used to describe luxurious spending; and Melanisms, which refer to ‘carabao’ English.
We had given a new dimension to English language because we did not give ourselves restrictions by just sticking with the way the Americans had taught us. Just like what the author said, American English had evolved into Filipino English because we incorporated our culture into it. We have explored the language therefore we had ideas on how we can adjust English, which the Filipinos can all relate. Through all of this, we had given English a new identity; the Filipino identity, which cannot be claimed by others as theirs.
I still think, however, that we could not have done it if we weren’t taught basic American English because American English is really what is globally accepted as Standard English. We need to really be taught first using this English before we should be exposed to Filipino English because Filipino English is a more advanced and more complicated type of English.
Learning English this way is just like learning the basic notes in music and then being able to create songs after.