I don't know if you guys have noticed my new blog link "Writing On Air." That is actually Apo Jim Paredes's blog. The man himself has actually migrated to Australia a few months ago and has been religiously documenting his life in the country. I have known about his blog for sometime now, but recently I have been reading his thoughts and have been posting comments... and he takes time to respond to everyone's comments which sometimes reaches a hundred or so!
He is a joy to read and his musings are very well thought of. It's just sad that the Philippines has once again lost a brilliant mind. I really hope that the government gets its act together, or else all of the country's intelligent minds will just up and leave for a better life. If an accomplished artist like Jim Paredes decided to take his family and leave all the comforts (i. e. maid, cook, driver, huge house) behind to start a brand new life in a foreign country, what is stopping other qualified individuals from doing the same? I know that this isn't new, but the situation is so dire that the country needs all of its resources to be able to function. I mean, just look at the government. It has turned into one big joke.
Even education has taken a downturn. Would you believe that a lot of call centres are closing shop in the Philippines because employers cannot find enough people who speak English properly? When in the world did that happen? These same companies are now opening up in India! India! No disrespect, but some companies are very strict when it comes to accents that it is an essential part of their employees' training. Indians usually have a very hard time learning this. And yet, they rather have Indians doing the work than Filipinos who used to have the highest English literacy population in Asia. Now, even China is catching up... fast!
Given that the quality of education has become shit, there are two other things that did not help the Filipino youth of today and I am sure there are people out there who will agree with me.
Text messaging and Taglish.
Okay, fair enough that there isn't enough space to write up a lenghty message using one's mobile phone. But for Christ's sake, if you are going to type up a whole novel using abbreviated words that don't make much sense except for people who are well versed in text-speak, wouldn't you rather just dial the number and get it over and done with in less than a minute? It's obvious that I am not a fan of text-speak. It has become such a dilemma not only in the Philippines but also in first world countries like Australia that kids 15 and under use text-speak to write essays for school! They have become so immersed in using text-speak spelling that they no longer use the correct spelling of the word!
And regardless of what your peers say, mate... it ain't cool. You sound like an uneducated fool. Imagine applying for a high paying job and your CV has:
joe bloggs
addy: 6 white st qc
qual: hs grad, col grad
exp: 10 yrs txting
Another thing that I hate the most is Taglish. I guess this is coming from my old school training. I still remember my 6th grade English teacher:
"You start a sentence with one language, you finish it with the same language."
Sounds easy enough? Wrong. I am appalled that people even older than I who fall into the trap of sounding like uneducated morons who think it's cool to speak in a mish-mash of two languages. It pisses me off completely.
Kung tingin mo na mukha kang mayaman dahil baluktot ka magsalita, hindi po.
Using a Filipino-adopted jive, it's try-hard.
Sorry, I know I'm ranting. This actually stemmed from an email I received from a colleague whom I thought would know better than to use text-speak in a work related email. Drives me absolutely batty! You know that it actually took me yonks to figure out apt is not the word "apt" but actually a shortened "appointment". No wonder when I was reading the statement it didn't make any sense. Argh!
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