Friday, September 21, 2007

And this does not ends here...

My sister just told me about her friends' experience with one of their teachers. Her friends are studying under Maples Collegiate's CVE program. They are Filipinos who recently migrated here in Canada. Of course, they speak Filipino.

The issue begins here.

The teacher made a comment on Filipinos saying that we are disrespectful for speaking in Filipino in public spaces. She said this in class. The kids were so embarassed. They are angry but they could not do anything.

My take...

1) I don't understand why the teacher has to make a comment so specific. Why Filipinos? There are a lot of people here in Canada. Each came from a different nation and, of course, speaks a different language. Why single out Filipinos?

2) English-speaking people go out of the country too. And I am more than a 100% sure that they speak their own language even if they are in a non-English speaking country.

3) Why say this in a class? School is supposed to be a friendly environment for students. A place for them to be comfortable, free of prejudice and racism.

4) In the current social, political, and economic atmosphere, there is no space for this kind of thinking.

5) This is Canada. I don't know if this teacher ever heard of the word DIVERSITY.

6) And seriously, this teacher should go back to college. He/She might have skipped an awful lot of classes. He/She graduated with a narrow mind. One suggestion, he/she should take a course on anthropology.

I speak Filipino with my friends and with my family because THIS is our language. There is no reason for me to stop speaking in Filipino just because I live here. Language is a very important part of a culture. Killing a language and/or stopping someone to use a language, for me, is a crime and a disrespect to the culture the other person has.

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