John Jonas explains why English is widely used in the Philippines: the country has two official languages (Filipino and English) and a highly multilingual population (over 120 languages/dialects), so English functions as a common lingua franca. He recounts personal observations from a 2009 visit (English on signs, arguments conducted in English) and includes a family example (a Cebuano speaker, a Tagalog speaker, and Ilocano-speaking in-laws) to show why families use Filipino and English to communicate. He also gives practical tips for assessing English fluency (TV/books/newspapers, use of English slang, written correspondence).
Chapters
How do Filipinos learn English? So did you know that the Philippines actually has two official languages? One is Filipino and the second is English. The government declares these are both the official language of the Philippines. I didn't really realize this until 2009 when I went to the Philippines the first time, which is really the only time I've ever been there. And I was shocked to see, like, street signs are in English here, billboards are in English. I started taking pictures of like, do not block intersection sign in English or like building permits posted on the sides of buildings where they're building something downtown Manila. And the whole thing's written in English. Or like stamped in the concrete on the sidewalk is Makati City traffic. It was all really surprising to me. I didn't realize, like, how ingrained English is. So I started learning about how people learn English there. And they start learning when they're in like preschool. They learn English and they learn it all the way to college and they study it and then they watch American TV and they read. They read English and they watch British TV and they listen to English radio. So there's, there's all kinds of things that they're doing. So like, my second day in the Philippines, I was in the hotel lobby and I hear this argument going on. And I turned and looked and it's the hotel clerk behind the desk who is Filipino arguing with a Filipino guest. And they're arguing in English. And I mean, I looked because I was hearing an argument and it didn't register till a little bit later, like, oh, yeah, I'm just understanding they're arguing in English. That seemed weird to me. But the more I've learned, the more I've come to realize, like, oh, so much conversation happens in English. Here's why. So the Philippines has more than 120 different languages. And so depending on how you measure them, there's like 120 to like 185 different dialects. A lot of them aren't compatible at all. They're not versions of Tagalog, which is like the base language. So like Cebuano is, is a language and Ilocano is a language and they're not Tagalog based. And so someone who speaks Cebuano doesn't speak to someone who speaks Ilocano. People who are not Tagalog native have a hard time learning or learning Tagalog. And even then they're not going to be able to communicate with someone else who doesn't speak Tagalog. So rather than learning Tagalog, they will learn English, and then they can always communicate with other people because everyone learns English. So I asked Julia my OFS about this, and here's, here's. She gave me a really interesting description of, like, her family and what goes on. She says, I'm not a native Tagalog speaker, so I'm not that fluent in Filipino. I'm a Cebuano speaker. My husband Jam, is a native Tagalog speaker and is fluent in Filipino. Jam's parents are native Ilocano speakers who are also fluent in Filipino because they live amongst native Tagalog speakers. If you forced us to only speak in our native language, we wouldn't understand each other. I don't understand Ilocano. My in laws don't understand Cebuano. So when we get together, we use Filipino and English to understand each other. But I lean more towards English because my Tagalog isn't that good. So I didn't. I didn't really realize, like, oh, yeah, you have to communicate with other people who you. There's not a unified. Everybody speaks this language in the Philippines because you have 7,000 islands, and on different islands, they speak different dialects, and the dialects don't necessarily understand each other. And so they use English to communicate. So people. People often ask me, like, can I find someone with really good English in the Philippines? Yes, you can. You just have to recruit for it. Because there are some odd things to their. To their language. It's completely reasonable to find someone who's perfectly fluent. A couple things that I would ask are, what TV shows did you grow up watching? And are they Filipino TV shows, or are they American TV shows? And if they're American TV shows, did you watch them in English, or did you watch them dubbed in Filipino? What books do you like to read? Do you. Are they in English? Do you read newspapers? Or do you read, like, English news? Because newspapers isn't really a thing anymore. And then, like, the peak of me in recruiting someone for their English is, do they understand English slang or do they use English slang? Because if they use English slang, the chances of English being, like, deeply rooted in their. In their life is really high, and their English is going to be way better. What TV shows do they watch? What do they read? And slang are really good ways to determine if someone's English is perfect or flawless. And you can also just look at their. I mean, if you look at their writing, you get a really good idea. Especially if you can chat with someone or send them a whole bunch of emails across a bunch of days where they're not going to get a friend to help them type those out. So can you find great English in the Philippines? Yes, you can. It's super reasonable.
