The Chinese Filipino Education System's Decades-Long Not Making Mandarin Accessible to Non-Chinese Speakers

 

Yesterday, I wrote about traditional Chinese textbooks and why they can't be used in teaching Mandarin anymore. Today, I feel like writing about the root cause of the problem. There was a time when Chinese Filipinos never accepted that they were both Chinese and Filipino. Filipino citizenship while being ethnically Chinese. Right now, think that Bryan Loo may be Chinese ethnically but his new brand, Tealive, is considered Malaysian by international standards. Jollibee's owner Ton Tancaktiong may be ethnically Chinese but it's a Filipino firm. In the past, there have been some Chinese who were still stubborn to be called "Filipino". Maybe, one can view the film Mano Po (the first film anyway) and notice how some of the children wanted to "return to China". Maybe, one can view The Joy Luck Club to try and understand the struggles of Chinese Americans in finding their identity.

The Chinese schools in the Philippines needed to be Filipinized for a good reason. A Chinese school in America needs to teach American English. A Chinese school in Malaysia needs to teach the Bahasa Malaysia language. A Chinese school in the Philippines has to teach Tagalog. Yet, some ethnic Chinese who are no longer considered Chinese by international standards refused to be referred to by their citizens. There was a time some Chinese Filipinos refused to say they were Filipino and may have had a longing to go to China, even if they hardly spoke Mandarin. As a result, Chinese schools in the Philippines tend to teach Mandarin as a hermetic sacred language than something that should be made accessible to anyone. 

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines

The result was the use of traditional Chinese textbooks. Chinese classes handled Chinese as a primary language than a secondary language. It required students to learn Chinese first when they should be entering Chinese classes to learn Chinese. I remember getting my hand spanked with a ruler whenever I failed to recite it properly. The Chinese teachers (and even the Chinese principal of any Chinese Filipino school) have very little choice but to follow the lousy curriculum. I thought it was just an isolated problem. Instead, I did some talks with some Chinese Filipinos that the Chinese schools used more or less the same textbooks.

When we tried to Romanize on our own, we were told to stick to Zhuyin. Obviously, the wrong Romanization leads to the wrong pronunciation. It's like B is not P and D is not T. It requires discipline not to read Pinyin like it was English. Whether we want to admit it or not, the Filipinization of Chinese Filipino academies and sticking to traditional Chinese education is a bad mix. I remember complaining openly about what's the use of studying Chinese if I could never learn to speak it? I studied and as long as I passed, that was it. Chinese language teachers had no choice but to let a student pass the written exam if they could write it down but not read it. There was too much focus on rote memorization. We need to memorize like I need to memorize the standardized Pinyin (and I used the Bopomofo sequence to memorize it), and I need to memorize the basic greetings and basic grammar. We need to memorize but we also need to understand.

The end result is that when these people graduate in Chinese (maybe at least Grade 6, and take note that I never got my diploma because I failed in Zhuyin and I'm fine with it and I still get along fine with my former Chinese language teacher)--they still can't speak Mandarin or write in Chinese. It was always the drill of any Chinese teacher to talk about the benefits and the importance. However, by teaching Chinese in that one size fits all system--students without Chinese background are bound to be overwhelmed. I always felt stupid whether I passed or I failed. It was even worse when previous-generation Chinese Filipinos complain about why their children can't be as "good as them". It's like a secretary from the 1950s complaining why her children can't use the typewriter as well as he or she does. Do they even realize that they can't register their businesses using Zhuyin? I wonder how many of the previous generation Chinese Filipinos can really speak English well enough to communicate in both languages for non-Chinese speakers?

It should be noted that some of the architects of Filipino protectionism are Chinese Filipinos. There were the late Manuel Lim and Alejandro Lichauco during the reign of the late Carlos P. Garcia. Garcia did lose the re-election bid but his Filipino First Policy still lived on. Ironic that several older generations of Chinese Filipinos didn't want to be identified with the "ethnic Filipinos" (who are Malay and Indo) while trying to build their empires in the Philippines. Those are the times when I feel ashamed of my own ethnicity. I even wonder if both Lim and Lichauco had their own interests? Lichauco even lied that Garcia's Filipino First Policy was effective. I believe Filipino First Policy was also an enabler as to why Chinese Filipino schools got stuck in that kind of education system for decades. Yes, the price that the public pays for protectionist policies. As a result, the rich vs. poor gap increases as well as the number of uneducated people. Even if all the poor unite to overthrow the rich, can they really do it without any basic literacy? 

What should've been done was that Chinese Filipino Schools should teach Chinese as a secondary language. It's because when the literacy of American English and Tagalog increases, Mandarin Chinese is taught to people who can't even speak the language. It's how low the schools should've shifted to Pinyin long ago (read here). Mandarin isn't a subject that's meant to be in a hermetic chamber. If it were, will those Chinese Filipino schools explain how they intend to get people ready as the number of Mandarin speakers worldwide is over a billion? That's why I even wrote an entry about making Mandarin Chinese more accessible and learnable in the Philippines. Just imagine that I only saw the beauty of Mandarin when I entered college. I did only share my regret but never started to question what really went wrong.

It's all about bridging the gaps. The use of bilingual Chinese textbooks will make it more practical to memorize increasingly difficult conversational questions and answers. Hopefully, the 华语 (huá yǔ) subject will focus on practical speaking. It would also mean having a Chinese-English dictionary as a requirement for the class. Having bilingual Mandarin textbooks would be helpful in making people memorize certain stuff. It might be the standard question and answer. It might be filling in the blanks. This would require students to translate the question in Mandarin to English, answer in Mandarin, and translate the answer into English. During tests, they should also write down the Pinyin and English translation to see if they can translate back and forth.

I really see the importance of 华语 (huá yǔ) more than ever. I want to stress that we need to make Chinese education more accessible. Also, it's time to make Chinese education focus more on learning than just simply grading. A good grade coming from learning something is a real good grade. A good grade that only came from rote memorization or cheating should never be considered a good grade.