Angela P.

Neri Reflexive Paper

BSN119 Understanding the Self

The Philippines is known to have more than 100 languages or dialect depending on how
the person differentiate and interpret on the way of speaking. In terms of population size, the
country has 10 major languages. From the north to south, these are Ilocano, Kapampangan,
Tagalog, Bicol, Pangasinan, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Cebuano, Waray, Tausug and Maranao.
Knowing this information, how can a person perceive if it is a language or a dialect? The first
principle is what we call intelligibility, it is the quality or state of being intelligible or capability
to understood. For example, if you heard a person saying “Maayong adlaw” which means good
day in Ilonggo, if you weren’t able to understand it therefore you distinguish that the person is
using a different language. But when you greet each other in “Magandang umaga” that may also
change its accent over time, it is dialect. Dialect is the variation of language and as long as two
people can’t understand each other, it is language. But when they can comprehend each other
regardless of having its variation, its dialect. One good example is Tagalog in NCR wherein
there are many English language borrowed. That is why there is what we call a mixture of
Tagalog and English, “Taglish”, which is actually a functional social class language. There are
also Tagalog in Batangeno and Caviteno, and what makes it interesting is that they have their
own style of pronouncing every end of a word with a tone. In Batangeno, they use “AH” on
every end of their word while Cavite is “EH”. Yet you can still understand the words that they
are speaking. There are other words that are local on it because there are situation and things that
evolved. So, these are local words that they use in their phase but still able to understand each
other, then that is dialect.

However, there are frequent questions on how a language started. In terms of human
development of pre-history, it is difficult to trace back the original language because of
insufficient studies conducted from the early times of the Filipinos. Although, these are now
being continuously study by archeologists and paleontologists. Because the skeleton of the
ancient human are being studied the structure of the human body, the hyoid bone. It is a bone
that affects how we pronounce a sound and that enables us to speak, to say, and to do things.
Chances are there is an ability to speak of the ancient human being.
 The research on these studies is ongoing through observing the structure of the human
anatomy of the ancient human being to reconstruct how to make a sound. If these data are
improved, a hypothesis can be made on what is the possible language. This has a relevance to the
generation today because these studies teach about language development and its talks about the
brain. This may aid as an application to different areas just like in healing a language disability.

These studies can lead to contemporary issues such as understanding the difference of
language and dialect. Moreover, it is also how we speak, where we learn it, and how do we think
because of our language. These issues may possibly involve identifying the identity of the
Filipinos during the early times particularly in the context of culture.

From the old times, Filipinos really didn't get along most probably because of the
Philippines being an archipelago making them isolated from each other, resulted to many
differences and led to disputes. As the Spaniards came and conquered the Philippines, again most
of the Filipinos believed that all of their fellowmen tried to fight against the colonizers and were
united with one goal. In reality, a lot of Filipinos betrayed their own kin to side with the Spanish
with hopes of grandeur, peace and because of Christianity. With the reign of the Spaniards, we
suffered different kinds of abuse from them that resulted a revolution. One major example is the
murder of Andres Bonifacio that was ordered by the so-called President Emilio Aguinaldo. As
time passed, history kept repeating itself from the period of the Americans to the Japanese.
Filipinos kept thinking that we are valiant and had honor. But looking back to a much recent
time, the Martial law, many Filipinos argue that it was the peak of the Philippines that the
Marcos regime was the best and Marcos was the best president we had but actually it was
declining, many argued that the people were disciplined back then but it is because of fear. The
fear of being erase, the fear of being tortured and the fear of dying like those people who fought
for their rights those people who wanted to speak and some who were innocent yet taken by the
regime. Recently, Imelda Marcos was proven guilty of seven counts of graft that lead to a
conclusion the Marcos family were stealing, But if I may ask? Aren't all the politician Filipinos
elect thieves? From the Aquino’s, Fidel Ramos, Gloria, Erap and until now almost all politicians
from small barangays to city councilor mayors, the senate up until the highest seat are now
corrupt. But why? Because Filipinos kept repeating their mistakes for the hopes of an easy way
out. The “bahala na” mentality of believing on too much superstition, feeding on mainstream
media, believing fake news, re-electing thieves, not valuing education, closed mindedness,
insensitivity, crab mentality, victim blaming, arrogance and ignorance is our new culture here in
this contemporary world.

The cultural values that is being taught to the students are all embedded information of
external identification but knowledge about it isn’t enough to be a representation of a Filipino.
Majority of the Filipinos have the perception of embracing a diverse culture which make it
unique to other countries. These are the people who have little awareness on our authentic values
in being a native Filipino like having own style of writing (Baybayin). This is widely influenced
by the American framework from the beginning of our history that entails the future generation
to be knowledgeable about historical facts of other cultures of the countries that has shaped the
culture of the Filipinos. That has no relevance at all in today’s cultural values because of the
continuous in the change of its evolution. Prior to which the natives in the early times have
already started to leave behind their identity and brain washed by the miseducation and
Christianization of the colonizers. Moreover, the Filipinos condone International works through
adapting and implying it in the context of our culture because of the belief of having natural
diverse traditions.

The Filipino's culture is not colorful but dark that is eating this country whole, which led
me into the answer. The Filipino in the context of culture is a victim of traditions and beliefs that
are toxic. That is why it is significant to know about the self in the context culture to enables us
to be aware on our values and influence of the change in the environment.

A person’s culture orientation has a huge influence on how the citizens of that culture to
find themselves. For example, North Americans and Europeans embraced individualism that
includes being self-reliant, independent, and assertiveness. All of these point out a particular way
of viewing the world and our culture as well. As Americans in the independent view of self, we
see the self as a distinct thing from some of the other roles like mother, father or sibling. These
people are more likely to describe themselves in personal trait terms

This concept of individualism contrasts in the way Asians, Africans and Latin Americans
embrace their culture which is collectivism. It focuses on interdependence, cooperation, and
social harmony. In general, they think what’s good for the group takes highest priority. In
relevance to the Filipinos, Munoz (1971:161) asserts that “A Filipino is anyone who feels and
thinks he is – who says he is. It is a definition he does not just want to be smart about. It
something he has come to believe in, deeply and honestly.” A Filipino act accordingly and
defines him as one, no matter how he sees and defines the Filipinos through his personal
experiences observed. These experiences may be positive or negative which are called as “Peak”
and “Nadir” provided by Maslow, a psychologist. In the interdependence, the self cannot
untangle things my role as mother, father, or sibling, is much more entangled in how the self
view him or herself. People from collectivism describe themselves in terms of role that they play
in a group. For example, how a Filipino view himself at any given moment is possible to
influence their performance in their self in the context of culture. Depending onto what salient
category the surrounding it emphasizes to them, the self can possibly show many different selves
and the way they view themselves can influenced the way they think and perform. By one’s
social and cultural context. The self is the one who manifests culture and culture is created by
different individual selves or personas that do a certain or specific thing that later on become
their identity.

References:

 Enriquez, V. (1977) “Filipino Psychology in the Third World” Philippine Journal

of Psychology, Department of Psychology University of the Philippines, Vol. 10,
No. 1, 3-18. Retrieved from
http://116.50.242.171/PSSC/index.php/pjp01/article/view/34
 Lieberman, P. & McCarthy, R. (2007) "Tracking the Evolution of Language and
Speech" Expedition Magazine 49.2 Expedition Magazine. Penn Museum.
Retrieved from http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=9236
 Mulder, N. (2013) “Filipino Identity: The Haunting Question” Journal of Current
Southeast Asian Affairs Vol 32, No.1. Retrieved from https://journals.sub.uni-
hamburg.de/giga/jsaa/article/view/640
 Neisser, U. & Jopling, D A (1997) “The Conceptual self in context: culture,
experience, self-understanding” Emory Symposium on Cognition 7, Cambridge
University Press, ISBN 0 521 48203 8. Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/p2801rvw
 Racoma, B. (2014, January 24) “The Existence of over 170 Languages in the
Philippines” Day Translations. Retrieved from
https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/2014/01/the-existence-of-over-170-
languages-in-the-philippines-3715/
 The Pinoy Warrior (2014, September 23) “A Take on Filipino Identity”.
Retrieved from http://www.thepinoywarrior.com/2014/09/a-take-on-filipino-
identity.html
 William B. Gudykunst, Yuko Matsumoto, Stella Ting-Toomey, Tsukasa Nishida,
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