The Story of a Filipina Writer

Did you hear the story of a Filipina writer? If not yet let me share this wonderful story.

Let's Start;

When she was a child, she had a hyperactive imagination. She painted pictures and told stories, even before she could reach. In their house they spoke two languages, English and Cebuano. She grow up in the apart of the Philippines known as the Visayas. English was the language that shaped her World. She learned to read in it and to write, at age six. She used Cebuano to express the gut level sensations, like hunger or being tired.

She think that she speak and write English better than the average middle class Filipino. This one of the factors which determined her career path. She currently a writer who works as a newspaper editor to earn a living. She can attribute her English proficiency to her parent's careers which is both educators also. She believe that the average middle class Filipino from their part of the world express herself in Cebuano first, before English and then perhaps Tagalog. For the masses her point of view is those living below the poverty line......English is a totally alien language. And to her additional views 70 percent of Filipinos do fall below the Poverty line. She also said that Filipinos who write in English and learned the language through reading American books,are removed in terms of world view and culture from a large part of the populace. But she believes that we are as a Filipinos, in our supertitions and gut level values,as the farmers or fishfolk.

She write English not for political reasons, or to make a statement, but because this is the only language that she really good. She grew up in the Visayas,and her other language was Cebuano. However, because the central government in Luzon dictated that "Filipino". the national language, be based on Luzon's tagalog. " Filipino was always an alien language to her. She learned it to her grammar books in grade school but it was never a valid way to express the way she felt. She only learned Tagalog....conversational tagalog at age 22, when she moved to Manila. Up to now she cannot speak nor write a formal tagalog. She said that her educational system puts a premium on English, which was always a ready to fall back. And as for Cebuano, it is invisible, virtually expunged, from the educational system. She think it's quite unfair, since more Filipinos speak it than any other indigenous language. She can also speak it, but was never taught the formal rules of spelling, syntax, grammar...nor more exposed to exemplary writing in Cebuano while in school.

The end 🔚

What can you say about the Story?

Did you learn anything from the story?

Thank you for reading 📖

Lovelots ❤️😘

@Kris2310