MMMiii!

PinoyBlogoSphere is holding a Blog Writing Contest in an effort to strengthen our country as a nation.

Prizes

• Grand Prize: Php5,000 + 1yr Domain Registration. + 1yr 100mb hosting
• Second prize: Php3,000 + 1yr Domain Registration + 1yr 100mb hosting
• Third prize: Php1,000 + 1yr Domain Registration + 1yr 100mb hosting

Mechanics

• All Filipino bloggers can join, both in the Philippines and abroad.
• The theme shall be “Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa” (Free translation: “A gift of tongues for a strong nation”).

For more details, go here: Wika2007

This reminds me of a reaction paper I just wrote promoting the use of the local languages in instruction. Since this has been a never-ending debate, especially among educators, I think I’m going to blog about that one, for although I am teaching English, I am all for Filipino and the vernacular as media for instruction for core subjects (except English of course) and development of instructional materials in our languages.

Last year, I attended Sawikaan 2006 and the winning word was lobat. It is a contest wherein people “elect” a word of the year because of its popularity or use and social, economic and political relevance. I think I should join and use “blog” as my entry, however, this would require thorough researching but if I start on it now, maybe I can be in time to join the 2008 selection.

I also attended the conference on the standardization of the Filipino language–regarding spelling, like if letters should be doubled, and so on. Filipino is very flexible. Some of the arguments that time were too annoying, however. I particularly remember the argument on toothbrush->tutbras or tutbrash. Until Prof RioAlma just said why not just use sepilyo or something like that. Would it be Sipilyo or sepilyo? Lol.

Now, why didn’t I write this in Filipino first? Because I’m sleepy and I should be checking papers instead of blogging, to be honest, and writing in Filipino needs a LOT of effort from me. ;P

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