LANGUAGE

I watched the Binibining Pilipinas beauty pageant last Saturday and was I awed in what I saw . I don’t really watch beauty contests but since I was at work at the time and the show was newsworthy, I decided to tune in anyway. What particularly caught my attention was the question and answer portion where judges determine which contestant has beauty only as a façade and which contestant has beauty and wit combined.

As the questions start rolling, the candidates answered intelligently as they could in spite of the obvious tense emotion that they were feeling. Almost everyone did well except for the one who eventually won the Miss World 2008 title, Ms. Janina San Miguel who grabbed the attention of all that were watching both sleepy and not. She started by saying how confident she was and then continued to prove how she’s not. She answered the judge’s question by mumbling the words, laughing in disbelief and murdering the English language with the tenses as the chief fatality. Her answer was so stunning that it was already in Youtube just hours later. As expected, Ms. San Miguel’s answer earned a lot mockery and ridicule. I will not wash my hands here because I too was guilty of laughing at her. However, if we try to look at it in retrospect, the problem may not only be on her but also in the way we perceive this kind of thing.

In beauty contests such as this, many of us if not all of us have a notion that contestants with exceptional eloquence in English are the brightest and those with a native accent are second greats. Of course having a good command of the English language is a sign of intelligence but that is certainly not the only parameter for it. In fact, other European and Asian countries that don’t even speak English in international beauty pageants have more Miss Universe, World and International crowns than us.

I believe that if pageant coordinators will be open to the idea that Filipinas from all over the region, even without a full grasp of the English language, will be given equal opportunity, we will be able to widen our pool of beauties with brains that can compete in international pageants. If contestants from other countries can bring interpreters with them why not us? Let us not be ashamed to have a visayan interpreter or bicolano interpreter or even filipino interpreters in our contests and bring it abroad if we should.

English language is not our only way toward global competitiveness. I believe it plays an essential part but our own language can be competitive as well. Let us learn Filipino by heart and English as a second tongue. Those who know English can use it all they want but let us not hinder in any way the progress of those who cannot by limiting their opportunities. Encouraging the use of Filipino in beauty pageants is not a bad start and besides one of the country’s grandest pageant is called BInibining Pilipinas and not Miss Philippines.