English Language Challenges

I used to be a grammar nazi in English especially when I was younger, but things changed when I arrived to Chile and was forced to learn Spanish on my own. I probably picked this pet peeve in grade school with my 5th Grade adviser since she was very strict in correcting our grammar and enunciation.

Both Filipino and English are official in the Philippines so it is in our constitution that both languages must be used as the medium of instruction. Out of the 7 subjects we had back then, only 2 were taught in Filipino and the rest are in English. 

When I started going to a University, we had 3 compulsory English subjects, the first two are College English and the final one is for technical writing to prepare us on writing research papers from term papers to theses. Medium of instruction in most Philippine Universities is strictly English, unless you are from the University of the Philippines where they have the Filipino route of instruction. During that time, I didn't have much problem with the subject since I was lucky with all the English teachers that I had back then and arguably my favorite will always be Dr. Resureccion Cacnio my English teacher when I was in 4th Year highschool. I can still remember how I suffered a lot in her class, she was this small old lady with a very squeaky voice and she was the only teacher who made me stammer because of her commanding presence in class. I am up to this day thankful to her since her training polished not just my writing skills but as well as my confidence with speaking in public. Her training made things easier for me in College. 

Fast-forward to this day, I basically have forgotten a lot of specific grammar rules, and I became a lot more careless with it. A thing that I was always careful about because of  my previous job in the Philippines. It is a long story why I changed my mentality but basically it was because of Spanish. 

In University of Chile, I believe that it will be really helpful if the level of how the language is taught will be restructured and improved so the students can further develop their communication skills in English. It is so unfortunate that English is basically still a luxury in this country and I believe the University can do better on resolving this situation for the benefit of its students who will be then the future professionals of the country. Different activities can also be done aside from writing blogs to help nurture each students skills. Personally, it is writing blogs which I enjoyed the most during the entire semester of taking English 4 but I believe, more than writing blogs, some other activities can also be done to enrich not just our writing skills but also our speaking skills through phonetics and speech laboratory. On top of that, different clubs and organization can also be formed within the University like a Journalism club perhaps in coordination with the University's own Institute of Communication and Image and many other activities to further enrich its own students communication skills in English.