Learning English as a second language demands mastery of the four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Of these four skills, I believe that speaking is the most challenging to master. I further believe though that writing well makes speaking a lot easier. Being secondary learners of the language, speaking well before writing comes with too much practice and experience. We just don't have that much experience conversing in English. Speaking well, however, may come from writing very well. One of the reasons why we don't want to speak in English is lack of confidence that we have mastered English structurally. When we can write well, it follows that we know the structure and the meaning of the English language.
We usually fail to learn well the structure of the English language because we lack the much needed confidence to learn it. We have reached fourth year high school sans belief of our capability of learning the structure of the English language - that it is not as confusing as what of us mostly believe. Could this have been caused by wrong instruction by English teachers before who were not confident teaching the language? This lack of faith may have rubbed off among the students that only a few really know the structure of the language confidently well. Lack of strong faith in one's ability to grasp the meaning and structure of the language, therefore, deters functional use of English.
By strange fate, the gentlemen are not at all gentle in their functional understanding of the English language. Could it be in the genes that only a few men like English? Immature men (a.k.a. children) hate English. They always think English has to have them twist their tongues to pronounce words clearly. They fail to understand that speaking the language and communication for understanding demand clear articulation. Strangely, because of how atrophied men's brain have come to be, they fail to comprehend that global issues are resolved and business deals sealed using English as the medium of communication. Fatefully strange, this seemingly brainless logic perpetuated by moronic Adams contributes to our failure of fully appreciating the function of the English language.
Lastly, men's stark abhorrence to anything less manly makes them look more like apes than humans. Why hate the English language which has moved men to fight for freedom after King? Why such hate to a language which has catapulted so many men to glorious victories as it did to Churchill? After Romulo in the United Nations, the Philippines has never again a nameless spot in the world map. It was MacArthur's well-meant promise to return that gave us all hope to a better Philippines. All these done in English, the language men oh-so-hate. In English, all these men communicated their ideas. Why hate so much the language that has freed us from all the bondage of ignorance, oppression and pain? Have we regressed and have grown tails already? Have we become monkeys now?
When we cannot seem to sketch who Judah Ben Hur is, weaving words of the English language, chances are we are either monkeys or apes, not humans at all. Humans have faith in themselves. Man always has faith that he can learn. By fate and not strangely, both men and women are endowed with innate capacities to learn, enough gray matter for more complex intelligence. Apes are not as intelligent as we are. We are also supposed to be appreciative, not full of hate. We are more civilized than monkeys that if the latter race is capable of appreciating, how much more are we? If still we cannot sketch Judah Ben Hur, then we might as well be caged with the monkeys, or better free the monkeys and have us aping instead. Long live the monkeys!
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