English Is Not Measurement of Intelligence

Before we go into the minutia of this argument, let us give some context about
ourselves, especially for those who do not know us. We are Students of Masbate National
Comprehensive High School (SHS), one of the best school here in Masbate, which has a
good quality of education. Modesty aside, with a lot of Students that has academic
excellence.

Let Us go back to the topic at hand—is English proficiency a measure of

intelligence? First, let us elucidate intelligence. Acceding to Merriam
Webster, intelligence is “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying
situations” or “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one has environment or to
think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests).” Simply put, it is our ability
to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. In psychology, human intelligence is defined
as “the intellectual capacity of humans, which is characterized by perception,
consciousness, self-awareness, and volition”. Through their intelligence, humans possess
the cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, apply logic, and reason,
including the capacities to recognize patterns, comprehend ideas, plan, problem solve,
make decisions, retain information, and use language to communicate.”

According to Marco “English is just a language not knowledge nor intelligence”

(2019).

English is a language that is spoken and learned internationally by more than 50

countries. It is a language that humans learn from their environment but it must not be
used as a basis of one’s intellectual (Magallanes, 2019). Most people tend to believe that
a certain person is intelligent since he or she talked so well and fluently in English. Yes,
some of them are intelligent but English is not only the basis of intelligence (Bajar,
2019).

We as a human, we tend to question our English Speaking Ability. Indeed, English

is the universal language. We have to study how it works or how are we going to make it
work. The accent, the grammars it should be accurate and it should be in the right place.
We're living in the world that full of hypocrites, where in, the measurement of
intelligence is the ability of speaking English. How toxic attitude it is. English is
important, but we don't have to make it as an excuse to judge and humiliate someone
(Magayoga, 2019). We are just a human, we have our own mistakes and weaknesses.
English is the best example of someone's weakness. According to Meriam Webster
weakness is "a quality or features that prevents someone or something from being
effective or useful." Weakness can be our strength, as well as strength can be our
weakness. We can make things work out. We can't skip from any judgement, but we can
prove them wrong, that we are capable of speaking English without any grammatical
errors and such (Capinig, 2019).

We Filipinos have been anchored in such an awkward mentality that we only

measure intelligence in a specific way—mostly through the numbers we see in report
cards, not what we are capable of doing in real life through different media. Because we
are second language speakers of English, we tend to be aggressively defensive that our
ability or inability to speak the language is not a measure of our intelligence, when it
actually is in some ways. We need to be more open-minded that intelligence comes in
different forms and they are measured differently.

You see not all people are the same. We cannot just judge someone because of
their race, their culture, their appearance or etc. We are made unique. Learn to respect
others uniqueness and do not just judge someone without knowing them, like the famous
quote says “Do not do unto others what you do not want others do unto you”
(Confucious, Respect others if you also wanted to be respected. 
 GRADE 11-APOLINARIO MABINI
(SHS-GAS)

MEMBERS:

ARIEL MAGALLANES
CARLA MAE MARCO
DANTON FAUSTUS ALTICHE
REY BONIVENT REFIL
SHARRA JOY BAJAR
SHARON MAE CAPINIG
KRYSTEL GARCIA
ROCHELLE MAGAYOGA
MARVIN RIVERA
 Reference List

Sunstar. APA style. Retrieved from https: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1697963

English Is Just A Language. APA style. Retrieved from https:

https://poojasoha.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/english-is-just-a-language-not-knowledge/

My Personal Blog. APA style. Retrieved from https: https://blogjob.com/personal/2016/02/10/english-

is-a-language-not-a-measure-of-intelligence/