Friday, March 07, 2008
Mandarin courses to preserve
RP’s links to Chinese investors
By Rommel C. Lontayao Reporter
Tsinoys and Chinese-education heads are pushing for an optional
Mandarin language class to be offered in select public schools across the Philippines, a Chinese-Filipino group said.
“The Philippines has a decided edge over other foreign countries by having a Chinese-language speaking community,” said Teresita Ang-See, founding president of Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran—an organization that promotes the integration of the Chinese Filipinos (or Tsinoys) into the mainstream Philippine society.
Ang-See added that many foreign investments in the country are, in some ways, linked to the Chinese Filipinos’ competitive edge in terms of ability to communicate with more foreign businessmen—not just those who speak English.
“The Chinese language speaking community serves as our direct and indirect link with foreign investors,” she explained.
China is one of the Philippines’ top trade partners and is rapidly becoming a major investor.
Ang-See, however, lamented that the younger generation of Tsinoys are “fast losing the facility to speak and understand Chinese.”
“Currently, we still have Chinese schools that teach the language.” But she added, “The problem is that Chinese Filipinos only make up a small portion of the total Philippine population. We do not have the speech community to support the Chinese language. That’s why for many of the Tsinoy families, it was more convenient for them to teach their children Filipino and English first.”
That problem can be addressed by teaching more Filipino students the Chinese language, therefore increasing the size of the speech community and eventually preserving the Philippines’ “link” to Chinese-speaking investors.
Ang-See, for Kaisa’s part, said the Chinese-Filipino community is trying to help.
“Now, teachers are being sent to China and Taiwan for them to learn intensive language teaching,” she said. “To emphasize the teaching of the Chinese language is very essential. We have to promote the learning of the Chinese language now.”
Mandarin, the official language of the People’s Republic of China, is spoken by some 885 million people, easily making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
The Volunteer Program for International Chinese Teachers under the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Office of Chinese Language Council International had announced it will be sending instructors every year to the Philippines to teach Mandarin.
According to representatives of the Education ministry, they presently have more than 100 Chinese-language teachers in Tsinoy schools in the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Tarlac, Cebu, Davao and Quezon.
The implementation of the planned language instruction will be started next school year in public high schools.
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the Mandarin-language class may be offered as an elective subject in high-performing public schools.
“This will help broaden our children’s understanding of China and its culture,” Lapus said of the project.
The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., one of the supporters of the plan, has been a partner of the Department of Education in improving the quality of public-school education. To date, the Federation has constructed more than 2,500 classrooms nationwide through the Education department’s Adopt-a-School Program.
In addition to English, which is the medium of instruction and is one of the core subjects in basic education, other foreign languages that are taught in some Philippine schools today are Spanish and French.
China has been considered a historical partner of the Philippines with deep social, economic and ethnic ties dating back to the 10th century.