English and Comic Relief c/o Dense Modesto

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This has got to be one of the most painful videos I’ve ever seen. And mind you, it has little to do with Janina San Miguel’s weak attempt at English. At least the girl tried, so let her be. Melanie Marquez must be this 17 year old’s idol, for all we know.

Actually, it would be imprudent to equate intelligence with broken English. Nowadays, people seem to think highly of themselves whenever they could speak straight English when in fact, these so-called PINOYS cannot even speak straight Tagalog and worse, they prefer to speak TAG-LISH instead. Most of the pa-sosyal people and kids do that most of the time and that’s more irritating. Have these people not been taught at school that you speak one language at a time if you want clarity and cohesion? If you want to speak in English, then speak in straight English and vice versa with Tagalog. You do not add and mix these two languages to make it seem like your cool and hip and smart. It makes you look cheap and maarte, actually. But of course, not all good English-speaking Pinoys are like that and it would be stupid of me to make such a generalization. 

To be honest, to be able to speak in English is essential because as we seek to move towards globalization, this language will help us gain the upper hand in getting a job or a career basically. I think it would be safe to equate good education or sufficient education with good English skills instead. Because not all well-educated, good English speaking people are intelligent, right? Some receive good education because they can afford it. But intelligence is rarely developed as it is mostly based in your genes. So some who receive good education and speak perfect English may not necessarily have the brains to think beyond speaking perfect English. Some.

Actually, you just need practice, patience and the will to do it. If you’re not good at something, then practice! I am not good at math (and chem and physics and statistics etc, etc, etc) so what I do is solve the practice exercises or problems that our profs usually give and pester them during their consultation hours. I am good at memorizing stuff (hence my biology course) so once I see a pattern in solving, I memorize that pattern and I apply that to similar problems. Frankly, my brain is not well trained to analyze numbers that’s why understanding the math (physical sciences) theories and concepts are not enough in my case. Know your strengths and use it. Get you ass moving, do something to improve yourself and stop being lazy.

Another thing that bothers me is that why did the judges let Janina San Miguel win? Because being able to speak in English is an entirely different thing to being intelligent. She could have answered the question in Tagalog. But then again, could speaking in Tagalog saved Janina San Miguel’s ass from ridicule? It would have if she had a truly intelligent answer lurking inside her head. In the end, I see the dysfunction in the pageant itself. And I agree with Ruffa Guttierez, that physical beauty and brains should come together in competitions like these. Blame the judges for putting you on the spot, Janina. If you did not win the crown, then perhaps the critics would not be this harsh on you. You could use an interpreter in the Q&A portion in the Miss World Pageant, you know, if those speech lessons cannot help you.

On a happy note (if you can call it that), here are Dense Modesto’s dance remixes of the two clips above. His sarcasm in doing these videos (he also did the Saging Lang ang may Puso Remix feat. Mark Lapid) has a way of putting lessons in my head. Enjoy lang.

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