Why Am I Here in the Philippines?

Globalization leaded the world to be more united and share more things than ever before. However, this was or is possible since there is an instrument that makes the world to connect to each other. I believe this instrument is ‘English’.

It never happens in my country but happens in the Philippines and I was so shocked when I see the situation. I have a basic Filipino class in the school but there are several students with Filipino citizenship but do not know how to speak Filipino. I would understand if they are grown up in the foreign country though they are Filipino citizen. However, some of them had visited to foreign countries just for purpose of vacation and trip. But the reason why they do not know how to speck Filipino is they are not used to speak Filipino since their parents never speak Filipino but only English at home and their school also only allowed them to speak English.

In case of Korea, people are eager to learn English and they think speaking and understanding English is essential in the society. To enter the company, Korean people should have good or high grade for official English test such as TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). Not only for company but also universities and colleges allow student enter their school without any entrance exam or such if a student has really high score in these tests. Since this is true in the society of Korea, many parents try to send their children from little kind to English kindergarten which teaches English to the 2 or 3 years old kids since they are saying learning language is more effective when kids are young. So kids are learning English even before they learned Korean, the national language.

How about me? I was here in the Philippines since I was just 13 to learn English since my parents believed that the Philippines is better in terms of circumstances since the Philippines are using English during the daily routine where Korea usually not using English. From that young age of my life, I have to leave my sweat home and my parents and family just to get skill of speaking English than any other average Korean people.

I, of course, also understand how essential knows how to speak English in this age of globalization. Especially, in the field of work, there is no company or institution who works alone without having any other relationship or communication with foreign companies or institution since the market is not limited to the local these days. However, it is said things that people are more used to English than their own national language. There is one study saying this kind of situation will make these kinds of languages can become extinct within 100 years in the future. How sad it is?! Therefore, we should be more take care of our own languages and think how the world can be harmoniously worked while globalization is still expected as usual.