Name: Julaina T.

Cuivillas Subject: Rizal MW- 2:30- 4:00 PM

Course/Block: BEED III, Block A

REACTION PAPER ON JOSE RIZAL’S “SA AKING MGA KABABATA”

Jose Rizal wrote the poem "Sa Aking Mga Kababata" when he was eight years old. It was

written in Tagalog and was all about the love of one’s native language. The poem reveals Rizal's

earliest nationalist sentiments, in which he asserted in his poetic verses that Tagalog, as a native

language, is equal to Latin, English, Spanish, and any other language.

After reading the poem, I had a variety of reactions to each verse, including happiness

and surprise. I am grateful for the opportunity to read Rizal's poem, which reminds me to

treasure my native language, and I am astounded by the precision with which he writes. I'm

absolutely amazed, and motivated or inspired all at the same time. Amazed at how Rizal wrote

this poem genuinely using words that are very captivating, which is incredible to think given his

age, and inspired to become patriotic like him because his poetic verses spoke to me powerfully

as a Filipino.

The first stanza of the poem speaks about our love for our language, it is a gift from

above that we should be grateful for and if we truly love our language, we would value it, use it,

and we would feel free. It's amazing that Rizal recognized and believed that our native language

was a gift from God which added to my amazement of him and to his poem. The second stanza

of the poem motivates me because it raises the value of our language, which Rizal declared that

it has the same value, same level as any other language. As I previously stated, Rizal considers
language to be a gift from God. Who am I to abandon our language when Rizal defends it?

However, after reading this poem, I felt guilty because I sometimes failed to express myself as

proud user of our language, which is extremely wrong. My reaction to stanza four is that I

completely agree with what it says because it is true that our language is similar to others, and it

appears to be true that it is a gift from God because God allowed us to learn and give us wisdom

to establish an alphabet and arrive at our language. Last but not least, stanza five inspires me to

appreciate our national language; as I previously stated, my opinion to this poem remains

constant. Rizal compared someone who didn’t love the own language to an animal and a stingy

fish, and by that I am inspired to cherish and keep our language and that I am willing to help and

be part of making our native language grow.

To be honest, this poem makes me guilty for what I’ve done as a Filipino, guilty for the

way Rizal expresses his love for our native language which also shows nationalism, and which I

did not equally do even at my early adulthood. It's a huge betrayal of our Filipino heroes and

forefathers who fought and fought to keep the language alive. Even as a citizen of this country

and a member of this generation, I have seen how other languages have been idealized or even

used to test Filipinos ability, particularly the English language. Many young Filipinos has been

influenced by other languages like Korean language because of watching Kdramas but then I

believe that this poetry helped Filipinos reflect on their identity as Filipinos, and how our

language may guide us through to our real identity. An identity of what our language is, who we

really are, and where we came from.

In conclusion, this poem elicited a strong reaction and firm stand of appreciation from

me. I'm grateful to be able to read Rizal's poetry, and I'm inspired to be patriotic like him since

his beautiful lines spoke to me as a Filipino in a compelling way. This type of poem has the
potential to awaken Filipinos, particularly in this generation, where other languages have taken

precedence over our own. Therefore, I believe that this is an excellent poetry that every Filipino

should read and appreciate.