LATEST assessment tests on public schoolchildren show an ever so small improvement in English proficiency. Is it finally the light at the end of the tunnel—a new generation of Filipinos who speak real English and not some bastardized form? Filipinos who know proper grammar like we do? Filipinos who can express ideas like Claro M. Recto of yore? Filipinos who can grapple with concepts in English as if it is our first language?

Not by a long shot. It will take more than a blimp in the statistics to regain our mastery of English for which we were used to be known. Remember we can rightfully claim that we are the second largest English-speaking country in the world after dear America.

But why, oh why, this fixation with the English language that has caused endless debates and acrimonious fights on official languages in Congress and on medium of instruction in our classrooms? Filipino (Tagalog) or English, or both, or even Cebuano and Ilonggo.

The reasons are straightforward. Speaking straight English is the passport to success and freedom. It cuts you out among the unemployed to the ranks of a desirable worker. It gives you the chance to migrate and be all you can be although this is increasingly less the case. In a most basic way, speaking good English defines an educated and cultured Filipino, not somebody to be laughed at during beauty pageants or TV shows. English is the badge of “sosi-ness” that without it, spells personal failure in many ways and our country’s barometer of advancement or regression. Notice the usual lament of “how bad their English is or we no longer speak English the way we did.” That sums it up.

Surely speaking English is important. It is more so these days of a lone English-speaking superpower. We are of course grateful to our American masters and teachers who gave us the gift of tongue. For us to be at least bilingual from birth, to engage foreigners in friendly banter and to travel, study and work in the States.

But clearly speaking English is not the sole measure. If it were that simple and easy, I will retire to Bantayan tomorrow. It is equally true that speaking English cannot be the end all and be all of our education system, that not to churn out good English speakers condemns the entire learning apparatus to hell and hence the fate of our nation. If it were so, then how do we explain the ascendancy of Japan, the rise of China, the emergence of Korea and the fast coming Vietnam—all with kindergarten English? That is just for Asia, look beyond and look through history and the same findings hold.

It so happened that in this time and age, it is English-centric and plus our colonial affair, we are fixated unhealthily on English. What is essential that we can communicate clearly in any language, to transmit cherished values through actions and to pursue excellence with character?

The use of language is part of the bigger social phenomenon of culture. What is the value of speaking great English when we don’t learn, when English-speaking professionals can’t show up on time, when champion debaters in English have faulty logic. It is better to live right.

Studies now point to the use of the vernacular as a medium of instruction in the early years to facilitate teaching and learning. Media has long embraced Filipino as our lingua franca that sends the message home. It is acceptable and downright fashionable to speak deep and high Tagalog in political circles. It is time we take English what it is - a tool to communicate. Stop the circular arguments on which language comes first. After all, the use or abuse of English is not the problem; we are.