Americanization

Filipino culture is highly aural-oral when it comes to the indigenous language. Older generations, with greater Americanization, tend to write in English, when they have to write. However, texting on cellphones is often done in clipped Tagalog. Tagalog needs more literature. The translation to Tagalog of Kirsten Nimwey's fantasy book The Explorers impresses me. But the vastness and sophistication of the literature of Tagalog's southern brother, Indonesian, really outdo Tagalog's. Being aural-oral, Tagalog-users emphasize television, film, and videos.

Born in the time of The Beatles, my generation in the Philippines was the product of more nationalism and less Americanization than what my parents experienced, born during the Swing and Big Band music era. It was in 1937 that the Philippine government adopted Tagalog, an Austronesian language, as the basis of the national language. Filipinos born during the time of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson had much more Tagalog indoctrination, and television shows, anime, and cinema became more Tagalog. Later Filipinos born during the reign of Lady Gaga became more exposed to the Internet, where English was ubiquitous. With floodgates open, the archipelagic nation once again became inundated with the colonial language. It still seemed though that the reading habit was not for the majority because most books there were in English, which the elite gobbled up. The Philippines was a country of about 200 native Austronesian languages, whose ancient origin was Taiwan. What school children learned was Tagalog (alias Filipino) and English, but Taglish, the patois of code-switching between the two languages, was the de facto oral-aural lingua franca in the islands. English was the main written language.

On its way to Americanization since the Spanish-American War of 1898, in the 1930s, the Philippines was still somewhat a Hispanic country. Manila was the 9th largest Spanish-speaking city in this world in 1930 with 324 552 inhabitants. The switch to English for at least written communication was set in motion. Adding to the linguistic confusion, in 1937, the Philippine government chose Tagalog, out of about 200 native Austronesian languages, as the basis of the national language, because it was already dominant in many parts of the archipelago. By the late 20th century, Taglish, the patois of code-switching between Tagalog and English, became the de facto oral-aural lingua franca in the islands, despite that Tagalog (alias Filipino) and English were separate studied subjects in school. English was the window to the external world, whilst Taglish became the familiar chit-chat on the streets and in the domestic media. Spanish embedded itself as many natural-sounding loanwords within Tagalog, Taglish, and other native languages. Tagalog had not been fully "intellectualized" as a language, as many great international works had not been translated into it. Tagalog used in non-humanities fields of science remained only experimental. Artificial Intelligence and machine translation might give Tagalog a "kangaroo-hopping" boost.

The essence of Americanization was elucidated in simple and beautiful words by President Wilson in his memorable speech delivered at Philadelphia in 1915 before an audience of naturalized citizens of that city.

The Americanization of Japan began after World War II.