GECLWR-18 - The Life and Works of Rizal

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Mid-Year 2022
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Prof. Lilibeth B. Cruz

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Module 5 Assignment 1

Acosta, Christian Jay B.

Write your experience or insights on how the youth today shows confidence and interest
in using their mother tongue. Do the youth still value the language they were brought up
with? Explain your answer.

I still remember the time during my early school years when I was an elementary
student. Every end of the class we are required to recite in front the ABAKADA. However,
I am not that good in reading unlike my classmates who all perform well. As I go home, I
told my experience with my family and luckily, they slowly and willingly taught me how to
read with confidence. I also started to be interested into other Filipino subjects with of
course the help of my family most especially my father who always created practice
questionnaires in Filipino before my exam. As I grew older, I realize the value of our own
language and I can use it comfortably more than English language.

From my experiences, the value for our nationality started to developed with my
family during my early years. They are really the one that taught me on how to talk and
use our mother tongue- the Filipino language. maybe it also because Filipino language is
the main language we used in our home.

However, I noticed that the youths of today slowly disregards the importance of the basic
ABAKADA during their early school years. Most of the children nowadays first learn
foreign songs and languages before the basic Filipino alphabet. They are trained this way
which is somehow alarming because they forget our nationality.

The bottom line is there is nothing wrong with teaching the youths on how to use
English language. The younger generations show a promising potential and talent to the
global community. However, we should also remember that to show love to our beloved
country, we should teach the youths of today to speak our own native language. Because
our ancestors fight for it and it is the only symbol of our nationality that cannot steal from
us and remember also that according to our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, that anyone
who does not know how to speak our native language is worse than a best or a smelling
fish. The youths should start to use our native language confidently, because it reflects
into our own Filipino identity.