Luis Alemany Madrid
Madrid
Updated Monday, February 12, 2024-10:46
Spanish in Iran Learning languages in the Islamic Republic
New Dehli The largest Spanish school in the world
There is a country in the world called the Philippines in which Spanish is a language that no one speaks but that
appears like a ghost to walkers with good hearing
. Spanish is in the names of the beers, in the surnames, in some place names, in the inscriptions of some historical monuments and in many individual words of Hispanic origin that can be recognized in the middle of any conversation in Tagalog...
"Until 1987, Spanish was studied in Philippine schools as a mandatory subject, although it was not a teaching aimed at the use of the language.
Filipinos studied Spanish as we have studied Latin
. A lot of syntax exercises, a lot of grammar... In Manila it is still It is easy to find Filipinos aged 50 and over who can say a few phrases in Spanish, even though there has not been a native speaker for a long time. There is still a familiarity with the language. The numbers are said like in Spanish, just like spoon is almost the same word. The phonetics of Tagalog are very similar. It is very easy for students to start studying Spanish although then they always get stuck... And, if we travel to
Zamboanga
, the community that speaks Chabacano shares 50% of their lexicon with Spanish. I can understand myself with a Chabacano speaker just as I can understand myself with a Portuguese or an Italian.
To know more
History.
The Spanish in the Moluccas: when the Empire 'made the Asias'
Editor: LUIS ALEMANY Madrid
The Spanish in the Moluccas: when the Empire 'made the Asias'
Culture.
Sweden urgently seeks Spanish teachers for rebellious children
Editor: LUIS ALEMANY Madrid
Sweden urgently seeks Spanish teachers for rebellious children
Miguel Blázquez, professor of Hispanic Philology at the University of the Philippines and director of the association of Spanish teachers in the islands (AFELE), is one of the people who knows the most about the persistence of what was
the first official and unitary language of the islands, the language in which José Rizal wrote
and in which his first Constitution was drafted. The story is more or less known: the Spanish arrived in the Philippines in 1565 from the Moluccas Islands. For the next four centuries, Spanish was the language of the colonial administration and, starting in the 19th century, it was also the lingua franca in a highly fragmented country. It was the language of education, business and politics, even after the disaster of 1898 and the entry of the Philippines into the area of influence of the United States. In 1973, a new Constitution annulled the status of Spanish as an official language. Over the next 20 years, his presence became ghostly.
"There is no negative attitude towards Spanish or a reproach for being the language of the colony. Rather, there is a nostalgic interest," says Blánquez, who arrived in the Philippines in 2017. Last December, a report from the Cervantes Institute identified the archipelago as one of the countries in which there is
the greatest demand for Spanish teachers
along with Sweden and Norway.
Of course, the Philippines is not Sweden or Norway and its education system does not offer the promise of a kind and well-paid career. On the contrary, the case of Spanish in the Philippines is marked by the precariousness of a country in which
the GDP per capita is 3,460 dollars
, 15% of the level of Spain and in which territorial inequality is immense.
"In 2010 and 2012, the Government of Spain signed two agreements with the Government of the Philippines to reintroduce Spanish as an optional subject in public secondary education," says Blázquez.
Queen Sofia and then-Minister García Margallo
traveled to Manila and visited a school and the agreement was celebrated as a diplomatic success.
In practice, the implementation of the conventions was frustrating. "As there were no Spanish teachers, we had to retrain the existing staff, the English or science teachers, and
tell them that they had to teach Spanish
," says Blázquez. The training programs agreed upon for them never bore the expected results, so in 2017 the director of AFELE found himself with an unusual circumstance: the Philippines had a body of Spanish teachers who, in short and with very few nuances, did not speak Spanish. .
His task, since then, has been to improve his situation. Blázquez trains teachers, designs free teaching resources for students and teachers and edits free textbooks, adapted to the reality of the country
. "
The Government of Spain, since 2021, has participated more actively in the training of these teachers with free webinars and Spanish courses through the Europrof program. In addition, the embassy is working on the renewal of the expired bilateral agreement with the Philippine authorities in 2016," he points out.
Is a future imaginable in which the Philippines begins to import Spanish teachers? No.
The public system is protectionist
, very difficult to access for expatriate workers, and offers low salaries, while private education is elitist and relatively small. The few students of Hispanic Philology at the University of the Philippines avoid the path of public education because they aspire to better salaries. Despite the precariousness of its economy, the Philippines is a country that has prospered greatly in the last decade and in which
the temptation of business and rapid social advancement
is everywhere.
"We have become the great call center in the United States," says Blázquez. "And, since the United States has a large Hispanic population, speaking Spanish is beginning to be highly valued by employers." The Spanish subject is behind other languages that are offered as electives:
Chinese and Korean represent the countries that invest the most in the country
and have an obvious pragmatic interest. Japanese is on the next step, thanks to the Filipinos' cultural fascination with the country their country occupied during World War II. Spanish is the first European "second language", very far from English, which is the lingua franca and the one that conveys education. The potential is great, although we must be realistic: outside of Manila, even the knowledge of English is not that widespread.
What would Blázquez say to the Ministers of Education and Foreign Affairs? "I would encourage you to work more with local institutions, to listen to them, and let them
decide and lead the processes
. It is not so much a question of resources, but of attitude."