A SWING BY THAILAND
Last Monday, my sis, myself, and a few colleagues from the NPMTTA (Northern Philippines Mother Tongue Translators' Association) flew to Bangkok for the Conference on Language Development and Multilingual Education. It was jointly sponsored by UNESCO, UNICEF, SEAMEO (Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization), SIL, Mahidol University in Bangkok, and a few other notable international organizations.
Other than the fact that I did not get to see any of the Bangkok Sights, the conference was a success as far as I am concerned. I came home with lots of plans and acquaintances that would help make a go of those plans. Well, just one plan actually, but it entails a lot of workforce and more planning. We were able to network with people from the Philippines (people whom one can't just approach readily here in the country) especially key people from DepEd who can help us kickstart the 'correct' multilingual education; i.e. first language first education in my tribe. I said 'correct' because the fact is we have been educated multilingually but with the wrong methodology.
I was also able to get some ideas on how to solve our orthographic debate. There is a pressing need to standardized the Kalanguya orthography so that teaching materials and literature production for the MLE program can begin. Maybe later, it will become a national policy in the Philippines that the heart language of the child should be used to teach him/her content from first to second grade, at least in public schools.
Other than the fact that I did not get to see any of the Bangkok Sights, the conference was a success as far as I am concerned. I came home with lots of plans and acquaintances that would help make a go of those plans. Well, just one plan actually, but it entails a lot of workforce and more planning. We were able to network with people from the Philippines (people whom one can't just approach readily here in the country) especially key people from DepEd who can help us kickstart the 'correct' multilingual education; i.e. first language first education in my tribe. I said 'correct' because the fact is we have been educated multilingually but with the wrong methodology.
I was also able to get some ideas on how to solve our orthographic debate. There is a pressing need to standardized the Kalanguya orthography so that teaching materials and literature production for the MLE program can begin. Maybe later, it will become a national policy in the Philippines that the heart language of the child should be used to teach him/her content from first to second grade, at least in public schools.
The results of such educational program are staggering but I will not summarize them here. Basta, uunlad ang Pinas pag nangyari yun! :-)
Hmmmm, so many ideas, so many good plans, so little time.
Comments
I'd like to check out Thailand someday.
I updated my blog address, btw.
Yeah, i know! iT's really ambitious but i'm encouraged cuz it's already happening in other minority language groups! Thanks for dropping by and for the info :)
hello sis,
we're trying to revitalize our culture and language and one way is to use the language as the medium of instruction, and use stories from the culture in teaching basic literature... ambitious like Wil said but not impossible... :)
Hi Bill,
Yup, alam mo naman dito sa atin, kelangan may kuneksiyon ka or else di papansinin ang mga proposals mo!
Make it happen!
Looking forward to it's success.