Too much cartoons, telenovelas blamed for Pinoys' poor English

Two young lawmakers on Sunday blamed the influx of foreign television cartoon shows and telenovelas in the country’s TV programming for Filipino students’ poor English. Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara and Laguna Rep. Justin Marc Chipeco said these shows have diverted the attention of pupils and high school students from their studies. “We now have so many foreign TV carton shows and telenovelas that have stolen the interests of our young students from their studies," Angara said. “I think it is now time for our local television networks to reduce airing these programs and for the parents to closely keep an eye on their children studies." The Aurora lawmaker recalled that during the martial law era, then President Ferdinand Marcos ordered TV networks to refrain from airing the popular Japanese cartoon “Voltes V" because it distracted young students from their studies. Chipeco also decried the proliferation of canned TV shows, saying: “We have been flooded with foreign TV cartoons and some foreign telenoveleas wherein Korean, Chinese and Spanish soap operas are being dubbed with Tagalog language." “These do not contribute to the learning capabilities of our young students," Chipeco said. He added: “We also have many local variety shows that do not provide educational or cultural values for our students." The Laguna representative said the Department of Education should restore English as medium of instruction in schools. “Our high school graduates nowadays are having a hard time reading English materials. What more if they are asked to speak the language," he said. He said the government should not waste the available employment opportunities for many of our unemployed graduates as there is now a need for some 4,000 available jobs every month for the recently established local call centers. - GMANews.TV