Was it a joke for comic relief, or was it a truly desperate grasping for the right words on an impassioned plea for understanding and consideration at a videoed high-level government committee meeting investigating accusations raised on human rights transgressions? Serious matters are not joked about. A clasping for the proper and exact translation to English describes the worrisome suspicion: are Filipinos losing their proud and con fi dent pro fi ciency in the English language, a reputation long held since American rule from 1898-1946? “How do you English this?” should be unheard of in what sociolinguistics would call the “diglossia” or bilingualism in a country raised on English as the dominant choice of formal communication for the past century and a quarter (125 years!) versus some 80-130 various regional dialects/languages including the national language, Filipino, which is mostly spoken in the Tagalog region (Metro Manila, the province of Rizal, and the Calabarzon region which is composed of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon). Of course, extreme nationalists might dislike the Americans for the “sin” of colonization, and protest rabidly against the continuing imposition of English as the formal language for communication and the medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary schools.
The 1935 Philippine Constitution mandated that “Tagalog” (changed later to “Pilipino,” and now “Filipino”) is the national language. In 1940, Ex.
