How come Malaysia which eliminated English as an official language is richer than Philippines?
Philippines still uses English as an official language but is much poorer than Malaysia which eliminated it. And many Filipinos still justify that English makes them have an advantage when it does not give them any advantage whatsoever.
To say that Filipinos are favored in US or Canada as maids is an insult because if the Philippines was rich they wouldnt have to work overseas in the first place, and secondly there is nothing proud in being a domestic helper or maid that is the lowest of low jobs.
If Filipinos can not speak English as many of them do today, they will surely be worse than they are now!
Practically every SE Asian nation other than Laos and Cambodia have raced past the Philippines in terms of economic progress. Cambodia and Laos will probably do in the next 15 years.
To get back to your question, the reason the Philippines flounders against its neighbors has nothing to do with English, but it has everything to do with the flogging it received from the Spanish for over 400 years (their culture, language, minsdset and all).
If you had noticed, the one thing that all other SE Asian nations never got the “privilege” of was Spanish colonization. Put 2 and 2 together and what’ve you got?
To insinuate that Malaysia’s strong economy is an offshoot of eliminating English as an official language is very short-sighted. Since the mid-60s, Malaysia had consistently and vigorously implemented 5-year plans and it paid off. Remember that time when they imitated (70s) the four Asian Tiger economies (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore)? Malaysia committed itself to a transition from being reliant on mining and agriculture to an economy that depends more on manufacturing. With more foreign investments (notably Japan), heavy industries flourished and in a matter of years, Malaysian exports consistently grew and sustained the country’s economy.
They are what they are today because they made things happen!
FYI, although English is not the medium of instruction (in the public schools, up to the secondary levels), Malaysia is not blind to the fact that English is still one of the most “influential” languages in the world. As a result, English is the medium of instruction in most of their tertiary schools.
***Unfortunately for us, Filipinos, our (repeating) 5-year development programs were not as vigorously and consitently pursued. And not because we decided to keep English as an official language!
Because we have more corruption and i guess they’re more strict with the law.
did malaysia get rich right after they eliminated english? wow di ko alam yan. the 3 poorest countries in asia have their own native language as their only official language. no english for them but they are still very very poor. wala sa language yan but sa husay ng government.
It is only because the Philippines retained the English language that it hasn’t sunk into the murky depths of its polluted rivers.
It is the English language that gives many of the OFW’s an edge over many other applicants and is also the reason for the many call centres that are sprouting.
most countries that were influenced / colonized by Britain are now they have better economy (Malaysia, Hongkong, etc..) compare to those countries which are so called allies of USA.
After they eliminated English (which was a great idea) they had only one language left – Bahasa.
Philippines has a number of languages and not everyone speaks Tagalog. You need ONE language to be successful.
By the way, the advantage English does give the Filipinos is when they travel abroad to work because they can’t get work in their own country. The reason they travel abroad is because the economy is stuffed, partly because they are trying to run a country where not everyone speaks the same language. A bit of a catch-22 situation.
The Filipinos justify that English is an advantage but fluency on English language doesn’t mean that they will be better than other nationalities or expected to be richer compare to non speaking English country it doesn’t work that way you have to understand how the economy works then you will find the answer. The justification of the Filipinos for having an advantage is referring to the opportunity to work outside the country. A communication tools to speak & understand the English language that will help them for a greener pasture and capacity to find a job related to their skills or professions the currency conversion will give them an advantage in terms of monetary gain . This is an individual endeavour means the micro that can be turn into macro.
There is no direct relation to the use of language to the success of a country.
who says english language makes you rich? & what’s your proof that english doesn’t give the filipinos advantage whatsoever? thousands of american call centers are now flocking in the country giving employment to lots & lots of Filipinos. hundreds of filipino teachers are teaching english in Thailand, Korea, China, Japan, & many other non-english speaking countries.
yes, Malaysia is a rich country but it has nothing to do with english. or the Philippines being poor. this is a very shallow analysis of yours. i challenge you to present your data to support your proposition before i applaud your opinion. until then, i strongly disagree with you.
really? then how come Filipino domestic helpers are prefered here in Canada than the Malaysians due to the reason that they speak better english. tsk! tsk! tsk! what a shame.
I agree that Malaysia is richer than Philippines is not because of the official language, instead, the main reason is due to political stability.
Philippines is a country of freedom, which used to be strongly influenced by US on this area. It may be a direct or indirect cause for the numerous coup and regular protest going on in the country, which makes the political environment extremely fragile. Under such environment, even that the people brought in the best candidate as the president into place, he/she could do very little by now playing the “rule of the game”, which power is associated with corrupted (and then personal wealth).
I am not saying that Malaysia has a very good political environment (and far from saying that it is corruption-free), but what I was trying to say is that it is relatively stable here – and the country could grow when the resource is adequate (or in better case, more than adequote) to feed the greed from corruption.
It gives Filipinos advantages you know, compared to neighbouring countries, when they work abroad they easily communicate with people through English. During the American colonization America opened public schools and enforced the use of English, but before that the British has already introduced English and before that the Dutch, Portuguese and the British kept fighting so that they’ll colonize us too =P but only the British succeeded and colonized Manila for 2 years, and now the Philippines is the leading Asian country in English proficient, India however has 300-400 English speakers but that’s only 10% of their population, almost the whole of the Filipino population understand English however only 55% speak it fluently or intermediately. Today it has ESL schools that many Asians attend to learn English =P, many Europeans and Americans study here because English is widely understood and spoken and fees are cheaper =P
The reason why Malaysia’s economy is growing more than the Philippines is because of its government and policies, the Philippines was the 2nd largest economy in terms of Economy in the 1960s but because of corruption and martial law GDP growth declined however compared to its neighbouring countries, the Peso remained strong in the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the fastest currency to recover and one of the least few countries to be unaffected of the crisis however made a collapse in the aviation industry of the Philippines, later then in the 2008-2010 crisis, the Philippines had low inflation rates and the least affected in the world however growth slowed from 7% growth on 2007, it dropped 4%. The country is the list of the Next 11 countries as well as G-20 Developing nations. If people were poor, then why do I see more buildings in Metro Manila than in Malaysia? You’re just busy posting Filipino hate comments than reading our history books. Even though our GDP is lower than Malaysia, atleast we’re the 2nd happiest country, we’re contented and satisfied, Malaysia might have money but they’re not happy, then what is life for when u only have money but u dont have happiness? =P And we have more Joie de Vivre than the Malaysians do
Filipinos are favoured in Western countries because they work hard and they treat their boss as their family and when they work, they’re laid back and have a sense of humour however they tend to be hard working. There’s nothing proud of being a domestic helper or maid however being a maid or a domestic helper doesn’t make you less of a person. It makes you less of a person when you keep downgrading someone who’s making a living to raise children back home with dignity, without maids, no one will clean your ass for sure.
I’ve noticed, why do Malaysians keep attacking Filipinos and comparing Malaysia to the Philippines? I’ve seen these debate with almost every Asian attacking Filipinos questioning either if they’re Asians or not =P but actually those Asians don’t know that we were almost to be the 51st state of America but the President denied the offer, and some think we’re better off with Europe or America because our culture, language, religion, etc. is European. I have a feeling the whole of Asia is making a group or so whatever to kick the Philippines out of Asia. Keep downgrading people and you’ll surely get Karma (that’s what we learnt from our Indian ancestors
) Btw, we’re a diverse country with cultural roots from Malaysians, Indonesians, Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese, Thais, Vietnamese, Persians, Arabs, Japanese, Europeans, Americans, Aztec-Mexicans. Don’t questioning us when you haven’t even touched our history books neither have you been to our country or even have known a Filipino and lived with Filipinos. 
THE LOWEST OF ALL JOBS IS DOWNGRADING PEOPLE, WHEN ACTUALLY YOU’RE LOWER THAN THEM BECAUSE YOU KEEP DOWNGRADING THEM.