Should spanish be revived as an official language?



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Why? Spanish isn’t our native language unless if it’s to continue to do business with Latin America and our former colonizer, Spain. But from my encounter with real Spaniards and Crillos and Mestizos from Latin America in college and at my work, they’re more likely to speak English. Spain and some Latin American countries teach English in school also. English is a more important language because of the British Empire and the US military. It’s an international language the same way Latin was in the Roman Empire or Medieval Latin to the Europeans and the Middle East Arabs in Medieval times.
If Spanish must be taught it should be for business with our former sister colonies in Latin America and Spain. English for doing business and research with the United States, our Asian neighbors, and other English speaking countries like UK and Australia. I’ve read in my Philippine history that the PI was very wealthy during colonial times because of trade with China, Philippines, and Mexico and parts of Latin America.It can be again if it continues relation with Latin America and other english speaking countries like the US, UK and the British Commonwealth since Philippines can speak english and maybe Chinese and have a shared history with Latin America.

i would say bring it back to school as optional
and helloo why wud they ever put spanish as the official language... hardly no one ever speak spanish in the philippines. the only reason im telling it to bring back to school coz learning more languages is good. i mean itll be easier for u to communicate when u go abroad.

Hi, k3n5i nice seeing you posting here.

Spanish is one of the three National languages spoken in the Philippines until the late 1970's . 50-70 years ago Spanish is widely spoken in the Philippines.

elow ek-ek =)

that was 50-70 years ago... if ever some speak spanish its like only 1-2% of the filipino population.

why? i think Spanish is nice to know, knowing that South America is growing and industrializing, and also the growing hispanic population elsewhere especially in the US. but as a official language? no.

1. not alot speak it "fluently" anymore. Nor are there any logical need to. Except maybe for those elitists.
2. i don't see what's wrong with Tagalog/Filipino
3. English is much more efficient to know (in general and in today's circumstance) than Spanish

think bout it y'all.

from an economic standpoint, a multilingual workforce would be really beneficial to the Philippines especially because highly-skilled workers are one of our prime exports. Spanish is the second most-international language..
it is estimated that there are currently more than 350,000,000 spanish speakers all over the world, and roughly 10% of them are living in the United States.

That's a gold-field waiting to be mined.

need i say more?

it'd be cool to have it mandatory in schools but i tihnk english and filipino are more important.

Spanish? Please no! Filipinos these days are not realistic and practical with language learning. Unless you want to do business in buying baskets, bananas, illegal aliens and other crap from south and central American countries then go ahead. Other than that you are wasting your time.

Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Japanese are still important to learn because they are the biggest investors in south east Asia, including the Philippines. I would rather learn Chinese than Spanish, because it is an important force in this world economy today. Look at Spain today, nothing major even comes from it either.

Get real folks and snap out of that Spanish bullshiet. They forced their culture down our throats much to the suffering of our ancestors and until today have not benefitted much from that. Learn from the Chinese, their culture has also influenced us significantly and have prospered under all environments.

English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese should be focused in Philippine schools.

the latin countries are indeed rising, but not as important as other languages. however for now priorities realistically are not in s. america. they had a chance late after the ww2, but they blew it.

multilingualism don't make a country better, Japanese had never relied on English in fact only recently are people even Korea are making such leaps to make English more known to their publics...Philippines had gained alot from having known English, but it i dont see it even near these other asian tigers.

I agree that multilingualism doesn't make a country better, but it does give the country leverage in attracting investments and grants from the nations that have previously invested heavily and will be potential investors to help develop that country. South American countries are rising, but not to the level of importance that one should take notice and hope they will be economic powers.

For a developing country such as the Philippines, learning other languages besides English is a must to get the vital investments and confidence from more economically vibrant nations, such as Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan. Those Asian tigers didn't need multilingualism, because they had already developed and struggled on their own by manufacturing. Philippines on the other hand can benefit from tourism from these nations and attract business to have Philippines as their second home, therefore bringing jobs to the country and learning valuble skills.

Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar and even laos and Cambodia are focusing not only English, but Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean as well, because they know where the potential lies therein. Philippines should not be left behind, but compete with these nations with knowledge that they are also studying and hungry to learn.

If those tigers don't need multiligualism - why should we? We have already a practical advantage to communicate to other parts in the world through a language nearly everybody understands beyond Asia.

To develop a nation, I think being multilingual is just a distinct advantage but not the prerequisite.

What is needed to be given more focus is the technical skill set and competency to compete with these nations. To promote, support science, to our youth; and provide incentives and motivation to our ailing workforce who are more likely to succumbed to the ever-growing and ever-popular diaspora. Though the diaspora can be a good thing, but we should instead provide more reasons to our fellow Filipinos abroad, who have done well, and invest instead here.

We have the skills that can go head to head with the others (even surpass them). Why should we just stick on serving others with fruit juices on their holidays.

Furthermore, tourists and most especially investors can be more attracted here if we can already sustain a stable government devoid of corruption and a public free already from the guile of widespread kidnappings and similar crimes. That should be given focus instead of another language which is going to be another load on the curriculum (and some units more to pay for and add to the ever increasing matriculation).

If I was GMA, I would make Spanish an elective in HS and modify Tagalog so that you dont have to do that English switching crap, not that its abd cause it makes the language sound fun but I think it would be even better if Tagalog actually had words for those English ones used. Maybe a Filipino linguist can take words from Old Tagalog, re-do Tagalog grammar so that its easier, and eliminate the English switching

We will need it, because we didn't have the leverage and infrustructure support that they had. In any given situation where things don't look to bright for other realms in our economy, we need to use what we have, that is our natural resources on the land and our brain power. I don't think getting the Filipino diaspora to invest in our country will happen overnight and although sweet as it seems, it is not an easy task. Fist off, Filipinos need to change their thinking and culture to learn to really unite, other than in church and in fiestas, geez. For the past 20 years we have been offering incentives for Filipinos abroad to invest, but what happend? Lack of confidence, and CRAB mentality.

Yes, I agree that we need support for the sciences, mathematics and the current computer area, but whose going to start with that? In other SE Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam who relied on tourism and investment BECAUSE of tourism, their educational sector was boosted by grants and loans that they are now benefitting from. Now people want to do business with those countries in the billions of dollars.

And what are those skills that you are talking about? Mariners? Nurses? Lawyers? Singers? Dancers? Beauty Queens? Doctors? DH's? Please!!! Our nation can't survive just on those alone and neither can it survive on just English alone. It needs to diversify it's skills, even if it's in foreign languages. Think if you can.
Foreign language interpretation is a 24 billion dollar industry too, so if others can take a slice of the pie, why can't Filipinos? Or are you implying of Filipinos so-called inferiority to learn other languages when we are natural linguists at home and abroad?

In case you haven't heard, Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese and Korean tourists have started to return to the Philippines and has made it their #1 vacation destination, because it's cheaper, friendlier, and there are many things to do and see in our country despite the security problems. Kudos to Arroyo and the Dept. of tourism. So you do the math, with a potential for them to increase in the millions coming to our shores and with no knowledge of English, how are we going to communicate with them? "Ching chong ching, mama san papa san, suki suki?" Too much pride thats what it is! Learn their languages to help them and to ensure they return, thats how to keep service best according to the demand.

I'm perplexed that you say it would be too much of a load on classes and the student in the Phil, when there are so many students from poor foreign countries who can speak 3 or more languages on top of their learning of computers, medicine and business and yet they make it and then you seem to point out that it's too much for the Filipinos to take. See, thats our weakness, that is, we limit ourselves to what we think we can and can't do.

I agree, because in the process in using to much English words in our own mother tongue, we are just ruining our language. People are just lazy these days to use high tagalog in their speech.

If Spanish were to be re-introduced into the educational system back home, what would the practical benefits be? See, thats what you need to look at, Spain, Central and South America are not as vibrant economically as East Asia and will never be for a long time. The only Spanish speaking country that foreigners feel they can make good business with these days is Costa Rica. Now compare that with your nearby neighbors to the north, where foreigners are filling up language schools to learn east Asian languages, even in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and East, SE Asia. Or is it that they are just wasting their time? They are smart enough to know the potential for learning Mandarin, Jpanese and Korean, but why don't you?

Hmm.. To connect to our past? Whether we flips like it or not, those Españols, by virtue of their four centuries as colonizers of the Philippines, imparted their culture into us. Four-hundred years of history and culture is no joke you know.

I bet most of the pinoy kids today don't even know what "Marcha Nacional Filipina/Tierra Addorada" is.

I think it will only complicate things if the Philippines make Spanish as one of the official languages. There's nothing wrong about the Spanish language, but this will only make the Philippines a mess. Many Filipinos are having hard time to learn Filipino and English. And many Filipinos prefer learning English than Filipino language.

On the other hand, Spanish won't be that hard to learn since there are more than 5,000 borrowed Spanish words in the Filipino language.

and the Spanish era is the only past we have. And trust me the vestiges of the Spanish is NOT FORGOTTEN. Language is not the only vestiges, nor the importance of that era. (That's why Dalawapo is so mad the whole time he was here.)

one thing though the Filipino need to know is the words and languages and even cultures that were forgotten after Spain. (But not focus only on that)

As far as I know it was Chabakano which was widely spoken, not exactly Spanish. If Spanish was indeed widely spoken 50-70 years ago, my grandparents would know Spanish, but they DON'T.


I disagree. When learning a language, you have to learn the grammar itself. The Spanish grammar is very far from the grammar of any Filipino languages.


True. Around 90% of Filipinos COULDN'T speak Spanish at all during the Spanish Colonial Era.

I simply do not agree with the revival of Spanish, besides it being too late. It would be impractical in the Philippine Settings.
In Mexico, there is this movement that aims to revive their native american languages. Maybe, when all Latin American countries speak native american languages as their mother tongue, Filipinos will start to speak Spanish as their mother tongue. English has alreadt ruined our native languages, please don't let it vanish by implementing Spanish. Learning Spanish should be a personal choice.



Probably, it's because Hisotrians don't try their best to dig more on our pre-colonial past. All we know are barangays, datu, babaylan, baybayin and nothing more. Our ancestors have inhabited these islands for thounsands of years, not 500 years or so.

Aside from that it would be unfair for the Muslim Filipinos and Upland tribes to be speaking Spanish when infact they weren't conquered by the Spaniards.

I know Spain did influence the Philippines and I accept it. But our culture is not only Spanished-influenced. Besides our Native roots, we also have Chinese Influence. Come on, don't tell me that in Mexico Siopao, Lumpia, Tikoy, Siomai, Pancit are as staple as their corn as it is as staple as rice in the Philippines. In the Philippines surnames like Chua, Lim, Chan, Lee are as common as surnames like Fernandez, Bautista, or Cruz. I think such surnames(former) are not that common in Mexico.

Please don't be brainwashed. That article is simply an Anti-American sentiment.

I'm not sure if I've read Mr Guillermo Gomez's article correctly...there's this statement wherein he said that if Spanish was promoted in the early 20th century, then Filipinos would speak Spanish, never mind the other native languages... I was like WTH is he saying? His admoration for the Spanish language has gone beyond admiration, it has been an obession. It sounded to me that he wants Filipinos to abandon their respective native cultures and stick to all the Spanish influences we received.

I personally think that he has been brainwashing many non-Filipinos and some Filipinos...

or probably, this is just an agenda to Europeanize the Filipinos and forever detatch us from our native cultures.


These are not enough reasons for Filipinos to learn Spanish.
That's like saying that Chinese should also be learnt by Filipinos? We all know that China is a tiger economy nowadays, Chinese is the most spoken language in the whole -wide world, SEAsia, is home to the largest overseas Chinese community, 60% of the private businesses in the PI are run by the Chinese, the Chinese have been in the Philippines even before the arrival of the Europeneans, there is an estimation that 10-20% of Filipinos have at least one Chinese ancestor, do we need to learn Chinese? No. Same thing with Spanish.


I personally think that Filipinos are confuse about their identity because many of us continue to deny the strength of our native culture. I've met a lot of Filipinos who regard Tagalog and other native languages as an "inferior" language.

Another thing, some keep on blaming the native Filipinos for loss of the Spanish language in this country. Don't they read history books? It is true that the revolutionaries asked help from the americans to expell the Spaniards, but on the other hand, it were the Spanish mestizos who were the key to the successful annexion of the US in the Philippines. They sided the Americans to keep their high social status. Probably, if the mestizos have not sided the Americans, the native Filipinos could have expelled the Americans, too.



I agree. I remember this book when I was taking up Filipino 1 in college and it was really a surprise to me that they were using the "v" and "f"(e.g. "efectivo") which sounded a lot awkward.



The term "little brown spaniards" have not existed, BUT the term "indio" excisted. Patas lang, kumbaga. Walang angalan.

i am sorry but i meant to edit that after posting. i meant to say, is NOT. it's quiet easy to see from the rest of the sentences.

^^ I guess I read too fast. Peace

in the famous words of Samuel L Jackson from Pulp Fiction

"English motherfu-ker, do you speak it?"

there's no need to make Spanish one of our national languages... it's already a subject in college. that's reason enough. we learn it as an act of courteousness with the same reason Americans learn French when they helped them in their independence.

another interesting point would be:

on a side note, i don't even know what some old Visayan words mean when my grandpa and his same-aged group talk. im guessing not even half of Tagalog-speaking people today understand some "complex words" commonly used during the 1920s. don't ask me for examples, i barely speak Tagalog. hehehehe although Filipino(the integrated language) is more comprehensible coz they mixed it with Bisaya, Ilonggo, Waray, etc.... again, the question.... why bother with another language clearly lost through time in Philippine history when we can't even hold on to our own dialects and national language?

"I don't think getting the Filipino diaspora to invest in our country will happen overnight and although sweet as it seems, it is not an easy task."

Yep, same as adding and promoting another language.... not going to be an easy task....

Sorry, though you may be right on some points, telling me that I'm "implying of Filipinos so-called inferiority to learn other languages when we are natural linguists at home and abroad" is shoving the words in my mouth that you may well know that I will spew out! Don't go around accussing me okay, because you equally know that I'll be defending the Filipino intellect even at gunpoint as I'm proud to be a Filipino academic and empiricist (in the field of Physics which I graduated and continuing my Masters; and to my day job as a network/systems specialist in UN). Besides, I even studied basic Japanese, French, and German. My point and argument is let people practice their "freedom of speech" not force it down their throats.

To quote from you:

"And what are those skills that you are talking about? Mariners? Nurses? Lawyers? Singers? Dancers? Beauty Queens? Doctors? DH's? Please!!! Our nation can't survive just on those alone and neither can it survive on just English alone. It needs to diversify it's skills, even if it's in foreign languages. "

It's as if that learning a foreign language kind of like a cure-all. Diversifying our skills should be more flexible and universal - like in technology, sciences, and music. These are the things that everybody will surely understand be it the basics or the end-products. Let people choose and don't force this on the curriculum as as feasibility study is yet to be concluded if speaking with foreigners on vacation with their native tongue can be that as lucrative as what you think. It can be right, but for pete's sake, make people choose not make it mandated!

And why be perplexed? The load I'm telling is about the added weight on the pockets of parents. I'm not yet a parent but I know this because I'm paying for my own tuition as well as for my three younger brothers. If you're rich, then by all means make learning another foreign language your distinct advantage - but it's not my cup of tea. Practically speaking, there are other skills besides language which everyone should be focusing on.

i'd have to agree with this. learning another foreign language is not or will never be a national advantage. it's actually more of a personal edge against other colleagues in the same field where you work in.

id rather gravitate more towards china then latin america, ever meet a hispanic? they are racist towards asians.. they have their little songs talking $hit about chinese and japanses. screw them. in fact id go as far as to say we should promote buddhism in the PI

well said


aren't the grammar and syntax very different between the 2 languages?


and you think you're special because you do?

absolutely not!

No , and why should it? I don't know why they would want to learn spanish for when they could learn other neighboring countries languages. This has nothing to do with the topic but I think they should bring back the Filipino/Baybayin/Alibata alphabet. I found a site and the alphabet sorta looks like this

no

my father is actually chapacano, a group in the south who still speak spanish to this day,.. he looks like the hardcore malay polynesian while my mother is more chinese/korean in appearance. My father used to speak fluent spanish to our mexican tennants here in chicagp

i think you mean chavacano. it's spanish creole.. it's mixed spanish and bisaya, tagalog, etc.

No, but we badly need reform! We aren't even a real democracy, democrazy maybe.

Murahin 'nyo akong lahat, ngunit, ang maiiwika ko'y kapag ginawa nating official language ang wikang Kastila, magiging trilingual ang Pilipinas.

actually we are a democracy.. well, too democratic if i may say so.

No way man, we have one of the worst corrupt government in the world. You call that democracy?

Isn't it ironic, that when we were under Marcos, Philippines was in a better shape. But now we are indeed a zhithole. It's not gonna change soon when probably the only competent person who ran for president was Roco. He wasn't even close to winning.

Just my opinion though.

corrupt or not, the system is still democracy. you can't even compare democracy to communism. it's supposed to be communism vs capitalism.

I don't even believe that there is a "real" democracy that exists in the first place, but that's a whole lot different matter.

Philippine style democracy has a heritage full of bribary, corruption and cronyism, thus simply can not be compared to the developed democratic nations. We have a long way to go. So for me, atleast for now, our democracy is merely a name.

Ito lang ang masasabi ko like english and spanish.
malay also became a lingua franca before spaniards came in the philippines before malay language interacted with tagalog,Tagalog was different the old tagalog words like pagibig were used before malays Tagalog changed alot during the trading with malays that is the reason why we can't find some words similar to tagalog or some other central philippine languages words in some other philippine language is because those words were loanwords from malay

I think Spanish should have been made as an elective subject in College

No way, its hard enough trying to remind people that Philippines is in Asia, why make it even more complicating.

i disagree....we need something to separate us from the other asian countries....we got to stop living up to the reputation as chameleons and start separating ourselves from the pack.

Your really gago aren't you. Why don't you join the rest of those wannabe fools in Hawaii. Be proud of what you are, if you say we shouldn't be chameleon to Asian, then why be chameleon to Spanish. It doesn't make sense.

my bro told me the other night that he found lots of filipinos living in california that put "Pacific Islanders" in their profile in MySpace.

how sad

even our fellow malay brothers and sisters from Malaysia and Indonesia don't do that. It seems to just be a filipino ailment.

you are a sad and pathetic excuse for an idiot my friend..........my loyalty lies with filipino people and thats where you'res should be if your filipino.......believe all your naive mind wants but when bad things happen in the philippines, well let me give you this news flash.......THE REST OF ASIA DONT GIVE A FLYING FUKK!!!!!! so please save me the asian brotherhood crap for someone stupid enough to believe it like you.
and if you think "our Malay brothers" in malaysia and indonesia give a fukk about whats happening the phillipines..they dont. Hell malasia is happy that the gov. is too busy with the muslim insugency to chase the sabah claim. Unless your filipino, No one gives a fukk about the philippines....not america, not spain, and not the rest of fukkin asia. So i really dont give a fukk what we have to do to separate the philippines from the pack, cuz i for one am sick of the philippines being always in the shadow of something, either the spanish, american or now in this case the rest of asia. So you can keep milking the c0cks of the other asian countries with this "asian brotherhood" crap. I for one, as a pinoy, will do what ever i have to for the good of the philippines cuz no one else will.



p.s What the fukk does Pacific Islanders have to do with this?....i dont give a fukkk what white america thinks we are, they can label us martians for all i care...only the weak and uneducated would be bothered by that. 2


edit: i just realized that you'r that poor excuse for a filipino fill-am....i'll be sure to send you some whitening cream.

^i second the motion. i think white people's geopolitical attribution of people in "races" isn't right in any classification, geographical, racial etc. it was never right and will never be (especially if you're one who don't believe there are races at all)

what people tend to forget is that Malays (to be generic) Polynesians, Melanasians, and Micronesians and all Austronesians (to be generic) are all related, I mean how do you explain having the same language while ancestry is removed thousands of years and thousands of nautical miles between them.

Though i do think that the current "white model of classification" is standard, meaning we as filipinos are Asians we should keep it that way in paper and political purposes (in paper). However it is only racism and stupidity (gosh it's only literal that the island nation is in the Pacific, in fact the term Pacific was given on the same journey by the same man who became the first European to "discover" the islands)

Filipinos who want to dissaccociate themselves with Asians are just doing so, so they can label themselves P-islanders. Im saying that malaysian and indonesian have at least pride in their roots, instead of calling themselves hispanic or Hawiian, pacific islander, or chinese like alot of Overseas Pinoys do.

so you saying that hundred percent of Pinoys do not have pride among their natinality, and all Malaysians and Indonesians not have those ones who pretend to be other people in their ranks?

and i think you don't understand the terminology sometimes that people use. I already explain the flaw of racial afilliation made by europeans that lead to many to call themselves Pacific Islanders. I mean literally if you look in the map the Philippines is in the Pacific. Hawaiian is different from "native Hawaiian", in fact black, white, latinos, asians from California are called Californian and same goes with Alaskan, hell even American is different from "native American". And there are alot of Chinese-Filipino, its funny there are alot of stories printed here in this chat about the plight of Chinese-Filipinos being treated as just Chinese by other Filipinos, yet here we are grumbling about them calling themselves Chinese when they are.