The 2006 IPSC

The 2006 ESU International Public Speaking Competition will be held in London from May 16 to 19, 2006, on the topic of “Mapping the Global Future.”

More details about the IPSC can be had from this PDF file.

Following our practice over the past several years, ESU Philippines is cooperating with the Inquirer Intercollegiate Debate Championships (IIDC), an annual gathering of the country's best young debaters and public speakers, in selecting the Philippine representative to the IPSC. Last year's representatives were Kevin Punzalan of DLSU and Julie Prescott of UP Visayas. In 2004, Patricia Evangelista of UP Diliman won the IPSC championship.

This year, the IPSC selection round will be held on April 6, 12:30 pm at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, in conjunction with the IIDC. Anyone interested is advised to inquire with Nicolo Cabrera of the IIDC at nicolo.cabrera@gmail.com.

The Charter Members of ESU Philippines

1. Erlinda F. Basilio, Ambassador and Director, Foreign Service Institute
2. Cesar B. Bautista, former Ambassador
3. Howard Belton, CEO, Unilever Philippines
4. John A. Bernas, Executive Director, Ayala Foundation
5. Edgar Chua, Country Chairman, Shell Group of Companies
6. Isagani Cruz, Professor, Far Eastern University
7. Jose Dalisay Jr., Professor, University of the Philippines
8. Francisco del Rosario, former Ambassador
9. Victoria Z. Egan, Chair and President, Igedo Fashion
10. John Hawkins, OBE, President, Material Resources International Corp.
11. Katrina Legarda, Founding President, Abanse! Pinay
12. Warner Manning, CEO, HSBC Philippines
13. Edgardo B. Maranan, Information Officer, Philippine Embassy, London
14. Lourdes R. Montinola, Chair, Board of Trustees, Far Eastern University
15. Erlinda E. Panlilio, Chairperson, Zonta Foundation Philippines
16. Anton Periquet, Managing Director, Deutsche Regis
17. Loline Reed, Chairperson, Overseas Women’s Club, London
18. Raul Pangalangan, Professor and former Dean, UP College of Law
19. Alexandra Prieto Romualdez, President and CEO, Philippine Daily Inquirer
20. Leticia R. Shahani, former Senator
21. Jesus P. Tambunting, former Ambassador
22. Michael Toledo, former Press Undersecretary
23. Ma. Luz Vilches, Chairperson, English Department, AdMU
24. Gill Westaway, Director, British Council
25. Alfred Yuson, Columnist, Philippine Star
26. Nina Lim Yuson, Executive Director, Museo Pambata

ESU Philippines Launched Nov. 21

The English-Speaking Union of the Philippines, Inc. was formally launched on November 21, 2005 at the De las Alas Room of the Yuchengco Center in Makati City, with the Lord Watson of Richmond, CBE, ESU International Chairman Emeritus, as guest of honor.

Lord Watson was accompanied by Mrs. Valerie Mitchell, OBE, ESU Director General, and several other ESU members from the United Kingdom and other countries. They were met and hosted by ESU Philippines officers led by former Ambassador Cesar B. Bautista, Dr. Jose Dalisay Jr., Mr. Alfred Yuson, Atty. Katrina Legarda, Mrs. Erlinda Panlilio, and Dr. Ma. Luz Vilches.

The launching was the highlight of several days of activities designed to focus on the ESU, an international organization founded at the end of the First World War with the aim of promoting closer ties between English-speaking peoples.

Last Friday, November 18, a symposium on “Engagement with English: The Philippine Experience” was held at the Ateneo de Manila University, with Lord Watson delivering the keynote address on “The Asian and International Dimensions of English.” His talk was followed by brief presentations on English in the Philippines by Director Gill Westaway of the British Council, Dr. Isagani Cruz of Far Eastern University, and Dr. Ma. Luz Vilches of the AdMU.

In that same program, Lord Watson was presented with “The Loyola Schools Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Promotion of English.” Lord Watson is Chairman of Burson Marsteller Europe and Chairman of CTN (Corporate Television Networks). He advises many major UK and international companies on their communication strategies and is Chairman of the Coca-Cola European Advisory Board.

Key government and business leaders attended the ESU launch on the 21st, which was expected to spur efforts to improve the teaching and use of English in Philippine education and in the workplace.

Most Filipinos first heard of the ESU in 2004, when University of the Philippines sophomore Patricia Evangelista emerged champion in the International Public Speaking Competition in London, conducted by the ESU.

Since its founding, the ESU has grown into a worldwide organization operating in more than 50 countries, creating international understanding through the use of the English language. It was founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench and one of its first chairmen was Sir Winston Churchill.

Blond and Blue-Eyed

This was the speech that won for then 18-year-old Patricia Evangelista the championsip of the 2004 International Public Speaking Competition in London in May 2004.


When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino children all over the country wanted. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and white.

I thought that if I just wished hard enough and was good enough, I'd wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside my window and freckles across my nose!

More than four centuries under Western domination does that to you. I have sixteen cousins. In a couple of years, there will just be five of us left in the Philippines, the rest will have gone abroad in search of 'greener pastures.' It's not just an anomaly; it's a trend: the Filipino diaspora. Today, about eight million Filipinos are scattered around the world.

There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to. Maybe this is a natural reaction of someone who was left behind, smiling for family pictures that get emptier with each succeeding year. Desertion, I called it. My country is a land that has perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice.

Or is it? I don't think so, not anymore. True, there is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the other side of the world is now a twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless world, where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now. My mother is of Chinese descent, my father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a pure Filipino—a hybrid of sorts resulting from a combination of cultures.

Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of people of different ethnicities, with national identities and individual personalities. Because of this, each square mile is already a microcosm of the world. In as much as this blessed spot that is England is the world, so is my neighborhood back home.

Seen this way, the Filipino diaspora, or any sort of dispersal of populations, is not as ominous as so many claim. It must be understood. I come from a Third World country, one that is still trying mightily to get back on its feet after many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it, given more time. Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young minds who graduate from college every year. They have skills. They need jobs. We cannot absorb them all.

A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so much abandonment but an extension of identity. Even as we take, we give back. We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK's National Health Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the world's commercial ships. We are your software engineers in Ireland, your construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in North America, and, your musical artists in London's West End.

Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are. British society is itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a melting pot of races, religions, arts and cultures. We are, indeed, in a borderless world!

Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's coming back that is. The hobbits of the shire traveled all over Middle Earth, but they chose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these balikbayans or the “returnees”, those who followed their dream, yet chose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune.

In a few years, I may take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way. But I will come home. A borderless world doesn't preclude the idea of a home. I'm a Filipino, and I'll always be one. It isn't about just geography; it isn't about boundaries. It's about giving back to the country that shaped me.

And that's going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my windows on a bright Christmas morning.

Mabuhay and thank you.

Mainland gives Asia an English lesson

This is an article by Samantha Kierath from the South China Morning Post of Thursday, March 16, 2006.


The mainland is setting the pace of change for English learning in Asia as the language shifts globally from a foreign tongue to a lingua franca, according to a report commissioned by the British Council.

Applied linguist David Graddol has tracked the changes in how English is used as an international language and the demographic and economic factors driving the shift.

He has concluded that Asia, especially the mainland and India, "probably now holds the key to the long-term future of English as a global language".

In a report on his findings, Mr Graddol says one of the changes putting the mainland ahead of the pack in the region was the national decision in 2001 to make English compulsory in primary schools from year three.

"In practice, rural areas may not meet that target, while big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already introduced English at grade one," the report says. "More people are now learning English in China than in any other country."

Mr Graddol says China's focus on English as a central part of economic development has flowed to other parts of the region where there had been signs of a decline in interest in the language.

By the end of last year, Thailand, the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan were all expressing concern about their national proficiency in English and announced several educational initiatives, the report says.

But Mr Graddol also says that as English becomes a near-universal skill, its competitive advantage is eroding.

"We have been living in a world ... in which having English is a very important competitive advantage to individuals, to organisations, to national economies," he says. "But now, with English becoming near
universal across the world, you no longer get competitive advantage by having it. It's now moving into a must-have rather than giving you some advantage."

He also has found that Putonghua is one of the languages mounting a challenge to English in some areas for "educational resources and policy attention."

Zhang Lianzhong , the director of the Foreign Language Education Centre at the Central Education and Science Research Institute, says English education on the mainland still has a long way to go.

Professor Zhang says language education reform has met great resistance, with educators concentrating on form rather than function.

"People are still more accustomed to teaching the language ... with focus only on the internal structure. You should not just focus on the language itself - it has to have something else," he says. "It's important to not just to know the rules but to know how to use the language."

Professor Zhang says English will still be regarded as the lingua franca for at least a few more decades and China needs to learn an international language. "English is not just a language, it is part of your national power," he says.