It was Thursday when I conducted the CITE test to my students. They were even surprised that it was I who provided them papers to answer. I simply told them the directions on how to go through the test and answer as honestly as possible, I sincerely told them that the test is required for my masters assignment but I did not tell them about learning styles and strategies. After almost 30 minutes, I gave them the responsibility to determine which is their major,minor or negligible learning style.
After, I discussed about learning styles and elaborated each of them. As I go through the discussion all I could hear are: “lagi noh?”, “mao jud”, “sakto”, one even blurted “absolutely!”. I was glad that the CITE results were approved by my students (anyway, who would know their learning styles except them).
As I went through the results of their MAJOR learning style, I found out that out if 41, 30 are visual learners, 15 are auditory, 16 are auditory – visual kinesthetic, 24 are social- individual, 5 are social – group, 3 are expressive in both written and oral forms.
Prior to the given test, among my Oral Communication classes, that class is the most silent. When I talk in front, it seems that they are there physically but not mentally or perhaps they are just their for the sake of not being absent. There are even few times that I am intimidated by their silence. Nevertheless, during exams almost all of them get high grades. It was then after the test did I realize that they are visual learners. Good thing, I always make use of the blackboard whenever discussing something.
However, I am saddened to find out the results of their expressiveness both in oral and written forms. I agree with the results that CITE came up with. Whenever I give essays exams, it is really hard for them to express themselves especially using the English language, they same goes for oral activities. My students are from rural areas where academic facilities are not well-supported so they lack exposure to activities which boost their use of the English language. In fact, they also lack confidence to express them selves.
From the results and from the academic backgrounds that they have, it is safe to say that they lack risk-taking attitudes to learn the language. As a teacher it is really hard and calls for much effort but when you see an improvement, even a little, one is inspired to strive harder in coming up with communicative activities that will let them get out from their shells.
Generally, conducting the test really helps. I then decided to give it every semester.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Explain how input, central processing and output work to process information in L2 acquisition/learning.
Input, central processing and output are three components of a cognitive model of second/foreign language learning. The cognitive model has been raised by the “cognitivists” (researchers who use cognitive models to study second/foreign language learning) believing that psycholinguistic perspectives have been underrepresented due to the influence of structured linguistics and chomskian theories.
I’d like to discuss how this model works to process information in L2 acquisition one by one.
“Input provides essential positive evidence, the language data that allows acquisition to occur.” In a simpler sense, input is what the educators feed the students. They are the grammar or language lessons taught by the teacher within the four walls. The effectivity of an input depends on the approach the teacher uses and how she handles such approaches to meet the needs of her students. To quote Grass (1997), second language is shaped by input one receives. Thus, a teacher’s role in facilitating learning matters very much. In the input stage, it is important that students are able to “notice” structures because they do not process all of the input they constantly receive but only select.
Moreover, Information Processing refers to the many complex mental transformation which occurs after input. There are two basic psychological concepts used to understand language input : bottom-up which is the process of decoding specific bits and top-down which refers to the use of world knowledge and past experiences. It is quite obvious that top-down processing is the concept suited for language learning wherein students are able to understand the totality of whatever communicative input is given to them “with out needing to understand all of the grammar forms or vocabulary” which is the reason why they fail without having someone to discuss on form. Hence, going back to input, students need to notice and be aware of what they are learning; for that matter teacher need to regularly backslide to previous lessons as they connect them to other lessons.
If someone gives an input there’s always an output awaiting. Output serves critical functions in the language process. This is where assessment comes in, in the form of games, drills and/or tests. From these assessment procedures, we can determine which part the student did not understand well. Because the students might understand the general meaning of what is being fed to them using the top-down process but they might not fully understand the grammar or vocabulary. In this output follows corrective feed back from the teacher as well as peers explaining the correct form used ,such error correction provide negative evidence thereby facilitating learners’ noticing of the correct form which encourage the child to correct his/ her errors and build their own correct communicative constructs.
I’d like to discuss how this model works to process information in L2 acquisition one by one.
“Input provides essential positive evidence, the language data that allows acquisition to occur.” In a simpler sense, input is what the educators feed the students. They are the grammar or language lessons taught by the teacher within the four walls. The effectivity of an input depends on the approach the teacher uses and how she handles such approaches to meet the needs of her students. To quote Grass (1997), second language is shaped by input one receives. Thus, a teacher’s role in facilitating learning matters very much. In the input stage, it is important that students are able to “notice” structures because they do not process all of the input they constantly receive but only select.
Moreover, Information Processing refers to the many complex mental transformation which occurs after input. There are two basic psychological concepts used to understand language input : bottom-up which is the process of decoding specific bits and top-down which refers to the use of world knowledge and past experiences. It is quite obvious that top-down processing is the concept suited for language learning wherein students are able to understand the totality of whatever communicative input is given to them “with out needing to understand all of the grammar forms or vocabulary” which is the reason why they fail without having someone to discuss on form. Hence, going back to input, students need to notice and be aware of what they are learning; for that matter teacher need to regularly backslide to previous lessons as they connect them to other lessons.
If someone gives an input there’s always an output awaiting. Output serves critical functions in the language process. This is where assessment comes in, in the form of games, drills and/or tests. From these assessment procedures, we can determine which part the student did not understand well. Because the students might understand the general meaning of what is being fed to them using the top-down process but they might not fully understand the grammar or vocabulary. In this output follows corrective feed back from the teacher as well as peers explaining the correct form used ,such error correction provide negative evidence thereby facilitating learners’ noticing of the correct form which encourage the child to correct his/ her errors and build their own correct communicative constructs.
Why does Larsen-Freeman stress the use of meaningful activities in the teaching of grammar?
Many of us, if not all of us experienced being taught in a de-contextualized manner. Personally, for six years in elementary my teachers focused on form and not on meaning. In fact, even the books we used were form focused. So what happened to me was that I became a dictionary of rules but when time comes that I have to use in context whatever rule I’ve learned, I ran out of communicative strategies because I was not exposed on where to use the or at least introduced when to use them in context .
In connection to Larsen-Freeman’s article, I believe that the primary reason why she stressed the use of meaningful activities in teaching grammar is in order for educators, to formulate meaningful lessons; that is lessons which are familiar and authentic and within those authenticity, students are involved; they are part of what they learn. Thus, they are able to connect the grammar lesson that they have learned and by following – up, they eventually become competent in using the language accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately. Students are able express themselves effectively using the target language and the knowledge of rules becomes secondary.
Therefore another challenge for teachers is to produce and formulate contextualized activities which actually calls for much imagination and creativity in order to provide students the help that they need in learning language; to quote Larsen-Freeman “..as important as it is to develop our understanding of the grammatical facts of the language we are teaching, it is not these facts that we wish our students to learn... If they knew all the rules..but were unable to apply them, we would not be doing our jobs as teachers.”.
In connection to Larsen-Freeman’s article, I believe that the primary reason why she stressed the use of meaningful activities in teaching grammar is in order for educators, to formulate meaningful lessons; that is lessons which are familiar and authentic and within those authenticity, students are involved; they are part of what they learn. Thus, they are able to connect the grammar lesson that they have learned and by following – up, they eventually become competent in using the language accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately. Students are able express themselves effectively using the target language and the knowledge of rules becomes secondary.
Therefore another challenge for teachers is to produce and formulate contextualized activities which actually calls for much imagination and creativity in order to provide students the help that they need in learning language; to quote Larsen-Freeman “..as important as it is to develop our understanding of the grammatical facts of the language we are teaching, it is not these facts that we wish our students to learn... If they knew all the rules..but were unable to apply them, we would not be doing our jobs as teachers.”.
How does Schmidt’s Noticing Hypothesis explain the connection between two knowledge systems (procedural and declarative)?
We are introduced to two forms of knowledge which are the Declarative (or explicit) knowledge which is the knowledge about something and underlies learning and storage of facts; and the procedural (or implicit) knowledge which is knowing how to do something hence relating to motor and cognitive skills that involve sequencing information and is usually conscious. Though both knowledge forms are part of the long term memory yet they are a different. Consequently a dilemma rose on how to connect these two knowledge forms in order for language learners to achieve automaticity in language acquisition/learning.
Smith then introduced what he call as Noticing Hypothesis - that is a language student, must be aware first of a certain grammar point/language feature and then through involvement, repeated noticing and continued awareness, the grammar point will eventually become a part of his/her procedural knowledge.
Let me take for example a student who already has an initial knowledge on how and when to use simple present tenses. It is only through follow-ups by the teachers (or other intermediaries )through their communicative activities like letting her write some past events or experiences, watching a movie and retell what had happened, read some narrative events or retell a story, that the student’s knowledge about simple present tenses will retain in her cognition and will eventually become a part of her procedural memory because the student already has the initial knowledge and her regular noticing of such tenses in the said activities help her to achieve automaticity. If the student’s exposure to that knowledge stops as the bell rang, what she learned will be like a junk food – masticated, digested and deposited without leaving any nutrient. Synonymous to language learning, the student’s knowledge will remain in the declarative memory and since it is a limited storage, the initial knowledge will be gradually deleted as new input comes in.
Another implication for Smiths hypothesis is for educators to provide an lesson procedures and assessment that do not only focus to one language lesson; that is, integrated-item procedures, for it is found out in parallel processing - a special model of cognition, that many processes occur simultaneously and are interconnected, forming neural networks of various levels of activation depending on what is being processed.
Smith then introduced what he call as Noticing Hypothesis - that is a language student, must be aware first of a certain grammar point/language feature and then through involvement, repeated noticing and continued awareness, the grammar point will eventually become a part of his/her procedural knowledge.
Let me take for example a student who already has an initial knowledge on how and when to use simple present tenses. It is only through follow-ups by the teachers (or other intermediaries )through their communicative activities like letting her write some past events or experiences, watching a movie and retell what had happened, read some narrative events or retell a story, that the student’s knowledge about simple present tenses will retain in her cognition and will eventually become a part of her procedural memory because the student already has the initial knowledge and her regular noticing of such tenses in the said activities help her to achieve automaticity. If the student’s exposure to that knowledge stops as the bell rang, what she learned will be like a junk food – masticated, digested and deposited without leaving any nutrient. Synonymous to language learning, the student’s knowledge will remain in the declarative memory and since it is a limited storage, the initial knowledge will be gradually deleted as new input comes in.
Another implication for Smiths hypothesis is for educators to provide an lesson procedures and assessment that do not only focus to one language lesson; that is, integrated-item procedures, for it is found out in parallel processing - a special model of cognition, that many processes occur simultaneously and are interconnected, forming neural networks of various levels of activation depending on what is being processed.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Lady with Five Suitors and Savitri: A Salute to Women
From the moment I heard how the lady with five suitors fooled the five lustful men that she met, I said, she is the kind of woman who survives in this present history. However, as I learned about Savitri, I realized that cognition is useless without affection; thus, I realized I salute to women’s courage.
Seductive as she seems, the lady with five suitors symbolizes women’s wit as to how they play men in their hands and how men testifies that their ultimate weakness are women. The story tells about a woman who is very problematic because her lover was imprisoned but what was so impressive in the story was how she solved her problem with ease, with poise and above all with elegance. It is not easy to beg to the most powerful men in the society especially that she is not at all famous or someone very significant in the community. The lady with five suitors only amends what Coelho said in his novel the Alchemist that “Beauty is the great seducer of men.”
This story somehow criticizes (most) men’s lustfulness of choosing beauty over brains. Beautiful connotes big boobs, round butts, small waistlines or someone who oozes with sex appeal, even if she does not know how to spell the word bouquet or give any opinion about premarital sex, if she got all those biggies then she is beautiful. Ironically, it is both funny and sad.
Moreover, the lady with five suitors showed that no matter how a man is so established in his career, like the king, he would still be stupefied by a woman and that shows how women can be powerful like men (so forget about women being second class).
On the other hand, Savitri, who fought the god of death, showed the readers the emotional strength women uphold. Savitri showcased emotional bravery when she still continued her marriage to her husband even she already knew that he will die. She also showed women’s side of doing anything for the people they love. In contrast, with the notion that “when in lust, men become dumb” Savitri showed that “when in love, women become the best that they can be”.
However, as much as I want to promote women exclusively, I cannot deny the fact that both women did what they have done, all because of the men that they love. Thus, it can be said that as much as men’s weakness are women, women’s weakness are also men. Or should I say that each sex’s drive is always each sex’s opposite sex.
Generally, what makes both women very admirable is their being assertive when feeling emotional. Assertiveness involves learning a range of ways to handle any situation so that a person is able to choose a way which seems appropriate for them on each occasion. The women in the story then had choices how to handle the situation. The two women are encouraged to notice and accept what they feel, both of which involved emotional competence.
Seductive as she seems, the lady with five suitors symbolizes women’s wit as to how they play men in their hands and how men testifies that their ultimate weakness are women. The story tells about a woman who is very problematic because her lover was imprisoned but what was so impressive in the story was how she solved her problem with ease, with poise and above all with elegance. It is not easy to beg to the most powerful men in the society especially that she is not at all famous or someone very significant in the community. The lady with five suitors only amends what Coelho said in his novel the Alchemist that “Beauty is the great seducer of men.”
This story somehow criticizes (most) men’s lustfulness of choosing beauty over brains. Beautiful connotes big boobs, round butts, small waistlines or someone who oozes with sex appeal, even if she does not know how to spell the word bouquet or give any opinion about premarital sex, if she got all those biggies then she is beautiful. Ironically, it is both funny and sad.
Moreover, the lady with five suitors showed that no matter how a man is so established in his career, like the king, he would still be stupefied by a woman and that shows how women can be powerful like men (so forget about women being second class).
On the other hand, Savitri, who fought the god of death, showed the readers the emotional strength women uphold. Savitri showcased emotional bravery when she still continued her marriage to her husband even she already knew that he will die. She also showed women’s side of doing anything for the people they love. In contrast, with the notion that “when in lust, men become dumb” Savitri showed that “when in love, women become the best that they can be”.
However, as much as I want to promote women exclusively, I cannot deny the fact that both women did what they have done, all because of the men that they love. Thus, it can be said that as much as men’s weakness are women, women’s weakness are also men. Or should I say that each sex’s drive is always each sex’s opposite sex.
Generally, what makes both women very admirable is their being assertive when feeling emotional. Assertiveness involves learning a range of ways to handle any situation so that a person is able to choose a way which seems appropriate for them on each occasion. The women in the story then had choices how to handle the situation. The two women are encouraged to notice and accept what they feel, both of which involved emotional competence.
Battles and Generals: A Commentary on Sun Tzu’s ART OF WAR
The bible tells us that humans are given the freedom to choose. Whether he believes in the law of God, in the law of evil or entirely in the law of man, it is his choice and he is accountable for it. And within these options given to him, comes the battles he ought to face in whatever way he could.
Every person battles in life – it is a battle within his self, within his family and within his society. In the treatise that Sun Tzu wrote, I let what he called war as the battles of life, enemy as the obstacles that makes life worth fighting for, allies as the instruments which help a man to get into his goal, army as the senses that can be manipulated by the general and the general as the person who drives his armies.
Sun Tzu said …
“In the operations of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them a thousand lies, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.”
By this, I‘d like to say that: indeed, life is full of deceptions. What we see as gold is simply a sparkling yellow that will soon turn into rust. Similarly the people we meet in our journey are not all genuine on what they are showing us; it is because they too have hidden intentions that they keep to win their own battles. Thus, we should not expect to be the only one who is good, who has the spirit to win or who has the blaze of a prudent warrior. Everyone has such a soul to fight and spirit to win in any way they could.
But even so, Sun Tzu reminds us that we should always fight as fairly as possible and do our best to win such uprisings as he said...
“It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.”
Sun Tzu also raised the idea that human should not be panicky about all the problems and pressure that circumstances offer us. We should abide with these obligations and must be able to handle them with carriage. I believe this lesson fits best to people who tends to hurry with their lives. People who rush on things worry too much and the anxiety that envelopes them pulls them down which hinders their dreams being achieved. This situation is evident in the generation today. When I was young, I remember to still be playing patintero and takyan even when I am already 16 but as I notice nowadays, girls who are 13 to 15 are already very conscious about their physique. It is understandable to be conscious with the hygienic aspects but it is quite strange (for these very young girls) to be so vain about make-up kits, facial wash, toners and even about boy – girl relationships. They tend to hurry with their lives that they grow-up too soon. They did not enjoy their youth to the fullest which (I believe) is one of the reasons for some complications in their adulthood. They better know what was said by the ancients (as retold by Sun Tzu) about a clever fighter…
“…a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”
Life itself is a huge war composing little episodes of surviving. And one of these episodes is the battle of students not to be late in school especially when the class is an hour after sunrise; in fact, I am one of these students (in my tertiary) who try hard not to be late in my class and succumb to pass my requirements on time. Being punctual in almost everything is one asset that helps us become victorious; this was implied by Sun Tzu when he said…
“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted. Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.”
I also would like to quote on to an analogy that struck me most in the novel, it goes…
“Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.”
This line tells us that we should be vigilant enough to know who or what we are up to. We need to see the omens for us to be aware of the realities in life; we shouldn’t live our lives in fairy tales. We must be able to use our brains to fight the struggle of living. We have to go with the flow of life but we must be sure about what we really want and what we need. We need to set our priorities and principles and be able to stand and defend it from distractions; however, we should also know when to bend because there is nothing more constant in this life but change.
Also in life, we should not be close minded. We have to open both our hearts and our minds to all opinions, comments etc. For in this way we will become better. Through these people who correct us, we are enlightened and we become wiser in dealing with our battles. Just like wars in history, life’s battle is a series of winning and loosing; nevertheless, we can outnumber our loss if we open ourselves to other people’s suggestions. In this way, we will become more equipped in the next battles that we will face.
Finally, let us not forget what Sun Tzu said…
“Let your rapidity be that of the wind, your compactness that of the forest. In raiding and plundering be like fire, is immovability like a mountain. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
Now, I say, in life or in any battles that we will go through: we have to be strong and be optimistic that whatever hardship that goes into us will all take off.
LILO 092508
Every person battles in life – it is a battle within his self, within his family and within his society. In the treatise that Sun Tzu wrote, I let what he called war as the battles of life, enemy as the obstacles that makes life worth fighting for, allies as the instruments which help a man to get into his goal, army as the senses that can be manipulated by the general and the general as the person who drives his armies.
Sun Tzu said …
“In the operations of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them a thousand lies, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.”
By this, I‘d like to say that: indeed, life is full of deceptions. What we see as gold is simply a sparkling yellow that will soon turn into rust. Similarly the people we meet in our journey are not all genuine on what they are showing us; it is because they too have hidden intentions that they keep to win their own battles. Thus, we should not expect to be the only one who is good, who has the spirit to win or who has the blaze of a prudent warrior. Everyone has such a soul to fight and spirit to win in any way they could.
But even so, Sun Tzu reminds us that we should always fight as fairly as possible and do our best to win such uprisings as he said...
“It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.”
Sun Tzu also raised the idea that human should not be panicky about all the problems and pressure that circumstances offer us. We should abide with these obligations and must be able to handle them with carriage. I believe this lesson fits best to people who tends to hurry with their lives. People who rush on things worry too much and the anxiety that envelopes them pulls them down which hinders their dreams being achieved. This situation is evident in the generation today. When I was young, I remember to still be playing patintero and takyan even when I am already 16 but as I notice nowadays, girls who are 13 to 15 are already very conscious about their physique. It is understandable to be conscious with the hygienic aspects but it is quite strange (for these very young girls) to be so vain about make-up kits, facial wash, toners and even about boy – girl relationships. They tend to hurry with their lives that they grow-up too soon. They did not enjoy their youth to the fullest which (I believe) is one of the reasons for some complications in their adulthood. They better know what was said by the ancients (as retold by Sun Tzu) about a clever fighter…
“…a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”
Life itself is a huge war composing little episodes of surviving. And one of these episodes is the battle of students not to be late in school especially when the class is an hour after sunrise; in fact, I am one of these students (in my tertiary) who try hard not to be late in my class and succumb to pass my requirements on time. Being punctual in almost everything is one asset that helps us become victorious; this was implied by Sun Tzu when he said…
“Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted. Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.”
I also would like to quote on to an analogy that struck me most in the novel, it goes…
“Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.”
This line tells us that we should be vigilant enough to know who or what we are up to. We need to see the omens for us to be aware of the realities in life; we shouldn’t live our lives in fairy tales. We must be able to use our brains to fight the struggle of living. We have to go with the flow of life but we must be sure about what we really want and what we need. We need to set our priorities and principles and be able to stand and defend it from distractions; however, we should also know when to bend because there is nothing more constant in this life but change.
Also in life, we should not be close minded. We have to open both our hearts and our minds to all opinions, comments etc. For in this way we will become better. Through these people who correct us, we are enlightened and we become wiser in dealing with our battles. Just like wars in history, life’s battle is a series of winning and loosing; nevertheless, we can outnumber our loss if we open ourselves to other people’s suggestions. In this way, we will become more equipped in the next battles that we will face.
Finally, let us not forget what Sun Tzu said…
“Let your rapidity be that of the wind, your compactness that of the forest. In raiding and plundering be like fire, is immovability like a mountain. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
Now, I say, in life or in any battles that we will go through: we have to be strong and be optimistic that whatever hardship that goes into us will all take off.
LILO 092508
Reflections : Commentary on the Chinese-Filipino Literatures
After reading the article, a light sparked in my mind telling me that everyone in the Philippines has a struggle to belong.
I have always believe that the Chinese community is one of those fortunate groups occupying the country. They are known to be resourceful enough to meet their daily breads and supply their luxuries. However, I was wrong.
The struggle of some Filipino-Chinese writers to be accepted in the Philippine society is nothing else but a continuous battle between the contemporary society and of history. Yes, history tells us that Chinese tradesmen had been with the Filipinos for quite a long time already but the discrimination that grew in the passing of time and the influx of tragic circumstances made the relationship blunt. For this reason, the Filipino-Chinese relation in general became more casual than customary. What was harmonious trade became a half-baked communication giving each other a sense of careless independence.
Moreover, it was said in the article that instead of creating heroic stories etc. Filipino – Chinese writers write about their experiences in the Philippines, about Chinatown and the like; well, I view this as something positive because these published write-ups has became their voice. This spread of their works consents that in the Philippines they are not subdued from voicing-out about how they really feel and what they are really going through. This also shows that in one way or another even if they are aliens to this country, still, they are treated as nationals. Also, it is a good thing that they write about their group so that natural-born Filipinos will not become uninformed about their way of living.
The author commented about tradition being overlooked in the contemporary writings. As for me it is no longer an issue. We are in the new century so we have to write about what is “now” and it is evident that tradition is no longer a must in our everyday lives especially when these traditions are becoming so impractical for very poor Filipinos or even to a very scruffy country like the Philippines where politicians are just merely playing with the people’s right to suffrage. People are becoming more practical and when a practice is no longer fitting to follow, or becoming impossible to conform then might as well leave it behind. We have so much writings about the past and in them tradition is being emphasized because those were written in the milieu when tradition is so important in the lives of people as if there will be a curse proceeding if it will not be observed.
On the other hand, I cannot blame nor mock those Chinese people whose writings concern about their homeland though they live and earn money in the Philippines. This situation is similar to our own OFW’s who might be going abroad and stay there for years but still they settle in the Philippines when they grow old. Maybe, it is just human nature to be at peace with one’s country. So nevertheless the Chinese people live in the Philippines, still their innate nationalism belongs to their homeland.
With the question, Will a translation into a language accessible to the majority make Filipino-Chinese writings more acceptable asset of Philippines literature? I say, definitely! This literature will become another anthology which will add not only entertainment but also awareness to the readers. Hopefully, this can help establish a profound tie between the Filipino and Chinese communities.
I have always believe that the Chinese community is one of those fortunate groups occupying the country. They are known to be resourceful enough to meet their daily breads and supply their luxuries. However, I was wrong.
The struggle of some Filipino-Chinese writers to be accepted in the Philippine society is nothing else but a continuous battle between the contemporary society and of history. Yes, history tells us that Chinese tradesmen had been with the Filipinos for quite a long time already but the discrimination that grew in the passing of time and the influx of tragic circumstances made the relationship blunt. For this reason, the Filipino-Chinese relation in general became more casual than customary. What was harmonious trade became a half-baked communication giving each other a sense of careless independence.
Moreover, it was said in the article that instead of creating heroic stories etc. Filipino – Chinese writers write about their experiences in the Philippines, about Chinatown and the like; well, I view this as something positive because these published write-ups has became their voice. This spread of their works consents that in the Philippines they are not subdued from voicing-out about how they really feel and what they are really going through. This also shows that in one way or another even if they are aliens to this country, still, they are treated as nationals. Also, it is a good thing that they write about their group so that natural-born Filipinos will not become uninformed about their way of living.
The author commented about tradition being overlooked in the contemporary writings. As for me it is no longer an issue. We are in the new century so we have to write about what is “now” and it is evident that tradition is no longer a must in our everyday lives especially when these traditions are becoming so impractical for very poor Filipinos or even to a very scruffy country like the Philippines where politicians are just merely playing with the people’s right to suffrage. People are becoming more practical and when a practice is no longer fitting to follow, or becoming impossible to conform then might as well leave it behind. We have so much writings about the past and in them tradition is being emphasized because those were written in the milieu when tradition is so important in the lives of people as if there will be a curse proceeding if it will not be observed.
On the other hand, I cannot blame nor mock those Chinese people whose writings concern about their homeland though they live and earn money in the Philippines. This situation is similar to our own OFW’s who might be going abroad and stay there for years but still they settle in the Philippines when they grow old. Maybe, it is just human nature to be at peace with one’s country. So nevertheless the Chinese people live in the Philippines, still their innate nationalism belongs to their homeland.
With the question, Will a translation into a language accessible to the majority make Filipino-Chinese writings more acceptable asset of Philippines literature? I say, definitely! This literature will become another anthology which will add not only entertainment but also awareness to the readers. Hopefully, this can help establish a profound tie between the Filipino and Chinese communities.
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