Final Rizal

Jaymee B. Quindara BSN 3-1 To My Fellow Children By: Jose Rizal Whenever people of a country truly love The language which by heav’n they were thought to use That country surely liberty pursue As does the bird which soars to freer space above For language is the final judge and referee Upon the people in the land where it holds sway; In truth our human race resembles in this way The other living beings born in liberty Whoever knows not how to love his native tongue Is worst than any beast or evil smelling fish. To make our language richer ought to be our wish The same as any mother loves to feed her young Tagalog and the Latin language are the same And English and Castilian and the angels’ tongue; And God, whose watchful care o’er all is flung, Has given us His blessing in the speech we claim, Our mother tongue, like all the highest we know Had alphabet and letters of its own; But these were lost- by furious waves were overthrown Like bancas in the stormy sea, long years ago. This poem that Dr. Jose Rizal wrote when he was eight years old was full of meaning and lessons we can relate to our present situation. Almost every stanza of this poem contains figures of speech that enable the reader to have a picture of what the message of his poem is. In the first stanza we could find concepts about our native language which is Filipino, about liberty, and about a bird that soars high. The first stanza, it tells us that when a country love and use the language they have that country is in the track to freedom. In the first Dr. Jose Rizal considers our language as a gift or blessing from heaven that we are ought to use and be proud of it. In his time where they were colonized by Spaniards, the Filipino language slowly deteriorates since the Spaniards imposes the use of the Spanish language. They use it on education, on

religious activities, in government transactions like tax collection and others. With this, the Filipino in Rizal’s time was slowly being oppressed. They were forced to speak in Spanish. The Filipino in Rizal’s time is like a bird in a cage but according to Rizal, loving our Filipino language shall break the chains of oppression that hinders us to fly and soar high. In the second stanza I interpret it as our language will be a key to our liberty. For in using our own language we are being nationalistic and it shows that we Filipinos are united- united in aiming for liberty. In the third stanza Dr. Jose Rizal tells us that an individual who doesn’t use or love our national language to is worse than a beast or a smelly fish. So why did use the fish? In my understanding, a fish smells whenever it is out of its natural habitat. Like some Filipinos who had gone to a foreign country and come back, they suddenly have amnesia. They totally forgot being a Filipino, considering the fact that they had just been there for less than a decade. And I believe and agree to what our college instructor told us on Sociology and Anthropology that acculturation and assimilation will be difficult to achieve given a short period of time. They begun speaking in foreign tongue and they try to mimic the accents from where they’ve been. This, for me is ridiculous. They even forgot our customary traditions and practices as if they haven’t practices it before. It was like taboo to them. This makes them stink, figuratively. As a Filipino it is our duty to take care of our language in the sense that we must not forget it but we must enrich it, use it more often and be proud to be a Filipino. The fourth stanza tells us that all languages like men are created equal. No language is greater than others for language is neutral. We must love our Filipino language for it shows how unique our race is. How colourful and diversified our culture is. But what can we observe now? Many Filipinos prefer speaking foreign languages for this, according to some, have been a status symbol. But for me, it is a symbol that we are slowly brainwashed of thinking that foreign culture is far greater than ours. In the last stanza, Dr. Jose Rizal tells us that our language is rich even before we were discovered by westerners however due to colonialism the alibata was replaced. In the present time our Filipino language is in danger of being erased too because of colonial mentality. I hope our language won’t suffer the same fate as of the Inuktikut language. All in all Dr. Jose Rizal’s poem “To My Fellow Children” challenge us in this time of rampant colonial mentality and globalization to step up, rise and be proud to be a Filipino. . Language is not merely a communication tool but as an expression of one’s identity, of one’s individuality and social consciousness. Without an identity, there would be no real sense of nationhood. Love and use of one’s native tongues was one of the badges of a true patriot.