English 148 Critical Response Paper

How we think about English

• What did you use to believe?
The way I see it, English Language has become a standard of knowledge in
our society. It became a common ability in labeling who’s intelligent and who’s not.
When we hear someone who speaks fluent English, we are immediately impressed.
Personally, for as long as I remember, I was once like that too. I assumed
that being good in English, means being smart. I'm always in awe, whenever I hear
someone speaks in fluent English. As an English teacher who's not so good in
speaking and writing, I felt the pressure. The pressure to be good and well-known
in using this language.
When I was in my high school years, I fell really in love with this language. I
love how the grammars work in composing sentences. And that's what I thought,
that English Language is only about grammars, and vocabularies. But as I studied
it deeply, I realize that English is just English. It's only a language, like our language
which is Filipino, it serves as a helper for us to express our thoughts. It does not
matter if you said it in perfect grammar or not.
• What do you now believe?
Now, as I encounter English in my classes, I realized that English can be a
standard but it is not solely the only way to say that someone is smart. English is
one of many languages that we can learn and use to express ourselves. We should
not limit our capabilities and labeled ourselves by grading how well-known we are
in one language. English itself is broad. It has many faces. It does not stick to one
accent, one meaning, one language. English itself has many languages.
• How will you apply this change?

For a long time, I believe that English is only English. I may be aware that we
have different accents, or ways how we say and use it. That there’s only one way
how we can use it. But now that I’ve encounter in our class what English we teach,
how we teach, test and think about it, I will keep in mind that whenever I, people
around me, or my students use different English, there’s nothing wrong with it.
Whether they said it in Filipino accent or American accent. And that English can
give us privilege to gain more knowledge, but we should not use it as a standard
of knowledge. We can still express ourselves even if its not in English language.