Blogger Party

I was surfing last night and came across a blog entry on a Filipino TV show, SOCO. The author was aghast at the propensity of Gus Abelgas, the host, to mention postmortem autopsy. Perhaps, the blogger was apprehensive that Pinoys may think that there is a pre-mortem autopsy? Looking it up, according to Random House Webster's College Dictionary (April 2000), the meaning of autopsy, a noun, is (1.) the inspection and dissection of a body after death, as for determination of the cause of death; postmortem examination...

I got an email two weeks ago pointing to the same thing. The email contained Filipinos' Friendster profiles written in Pidgin English or what passed for English. My friend wrote a line commentary for each of the profile she had chosen. Admittedly, I found it hilarious! It also occurred to me that she was pretty bored and had nothing to do in the office to do something like that. She has finally mastered the art of pretending to work.

Going over the blog and the email made me remember the research work I and a colleague, Darell, tried to do on Filipino students' English proficiency. It was in May 2005 when I interviewed training and recruitment personnel of multinational call centers. After identifying the entry level skill-set requirements of four call centers (almost the same but different jargon), Darell tried to get data from the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS). At that point, we had already jumped to the conclusion (we didn't have test data) that studying in Philippine colleges does not significantly improve English communication skills, unless the degree course was in Journalism, English Lit. or English Education. The course literature indicated that English taught in the universities was basically a review of High School English. This was in compliance with Philippine regulation.

The DECS bureaucrats [they should really be called bureaucraps] gave her the classic shitty treatment. She tried calling them first, nobody ever answered. When she visited (Pasig City), and having declared the purpose of her visit, the responsible personnel suddenly disappeared. They put Houdini to shame. It seemed that they didn't really want to disseminate to the public the results of the national tests they have been conducting since the 70's. I am certain that they have seen the trend. They are just terribly afraid to be blamed for the continuing deterioration of the Filipinos' communication skills in English. Compared to the Filipinos of yesteryears, the self-professed proficiency of Filipinos in English has now become a myth.

Hey Da, wanna do a pre-mortem autopsy?

Posted in LAUGH The Legally-Recycled Bachelor's blog | | | | 440 reads