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Tongued-Tied Three

I recent blogged about a Journalism student who sent me a list of questions that had a whole lot of grammatical mistakes.

Several people reacted to my blog and the most recent one was Vicky. Here’s what she posted: *Ouch* I was researching for some information about comic books in the Philippines too when I came upon this blog. Talking from a college student point of view, do you really think it's that important to learn correct English grammar, especially when you are not an English major? I admit that my English is also not too good, but not having a perfect knowledge on correct grammar doesn't make a person brainless, especially if they can express themselves in other means. I also think it's quite unfair to say na "katamaran" lang kaya sila nag-email. Sometimes even if we had researched on the material, i.e., considering the lack of papers written about a topic, we need a resource person to back up our claims. Yun lang po, I wish you could be nicer to the students, estudyante rin naman po kayo dati. :-)

I typed up a response on the comments board but later decide to just reply to her here in the main page.

Vicky asked: Talking from a college student point of view, do you really think it's that important to learn correct English grammar, especially when you are not an English major?

My answer to that is, “Yes!” Consider that the student who emailed me was taking up Journalism, I sincerely hope she will be the type of journalist who would know how to spell and not make grammatical errors. Looking at the way her sentences were structured, it really looked like she thought about her questions in Tagalog and translated it as best she could and it just came out awkward—much like Japanese Engrish. I’d have no problem if someone emailed me questions in Tagalog. Just don’t email me in Spanish, French, or Latin.

Vicky then made this comment: I also think it's quite unfair to say na "katamaran" lang kaya sila nag-email. Sometimes even if we had researched on the material, i.e., considering the lack of papers written about a topic, we need a resource person to back up our claims.

I didn’t really make a general comment that ALL STUDENTS WERE LAZY. Again, if you look at the questions that were sent to me, it seems like she had not just even begun to research about Filipino comic books. The student asked me, “When and where does comic-making start in the Philippines?” That’s like going to the President of the Philippines and asking her, “Ma’am, can you tell me the entire history of the Philippines, up to the point you became President.” I exaggerate. I am being sarcastic. But do you see my point?

And there is no such thing as a “lack of material” these days. The student found me through the internet, meaning she could’ve easily Googled a dozen other sites which had the information that she was looking for, which she could’ve read before emailing me any questions. There was no such thing as a “lack of material” ten years ago. Back then, when there was no internet, I found dozens of articles, reviews, essays, papers in academic journals about comic books. I spent hours in the libraries of the Ateneo and the University of the Philippines, as well as rummaging through the back shelves of National Bookstore to find my resource materials. Only after I read all of those materials did I begin to formulate my questions and interview people.

In the past couple of years, I have been interviewed by many students for their research or thesis paper. This was the first time I ever blogged about it because I got concerned with the ability of a Journalism student from a big university to communicate in proper English. This was the first time I ever blogged about it, because this was the first time anyone has ever sent me a questionnaire written in such a manner.

And to answer Vicky’s concern about me not being nice to students, I don’t think I’ve ever turned down anyone who’s ever requested for me to be a resource person. I emailed that Journalism student. I answered most of her questions and for all her other questions, I gave her websites to visit and titles of books to find.

Yes, I was a student before and I know all about the hardships of putting together a research paper. Which is one of the reasons I set-up http://komix101.blogspot.com because it’s one of the things I wished existed during the time I was doing my research.

I hope this has cleared things up and will not offend anyone else out there.

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