On Being a J3j3mon. Or Not. 2

Then again, grammatical and misspelled blunders could always be corrected and refreshed.  What was really more disturbing was the flow of thoughts and ideas in the essays.  Or more accurately, the lack thereof.  They were disappointing considering these were college-level essays.  At best, the writings were poorly strung together in terms of clarity and cohesiveness.  At worst, they were a jarring read: paragraph after paragraphs that were almost non sequitur in nature.  I couldn't help but shake my head and wonder, "How in the world did these students even pass the English portion of the college entrance test?!"

Ting Ting and I would eventually end up talking the night away.  We would share how we were as students.  Sure, we did come from the same university.  Sure, we once were also college freshmen.  But definitely, we'd like to think we weren't of this level when we entered college.  I won't venture to say I'm perfect with my English skills; neither would Ting Ting.  But by the time we entered college, we had more than a rudimentary grasp of the English language, both in the written and the oral form.  We weren't just random isolated cases though.  I can vouch that I had  a whole slew of classmates who were far more superior in writing and speaking than I was.

So does it all boil down to that generation thing then?  Or is it a symptomatic of a wider malaise in the Philippine education system?  I have no idea how it is with the Filipino language, but if it's also in this state, then there's certainly a huge problem going on.  Good writing and speaking in any language is a major fundamental in effective standard communication. Lose the fluency, and you lose a very important means of putting a message across. Somehow, I imagine that if there is a breakdown somewhere along the road, it would probably look like this:

n0 10q, yäW Q j3j3Møn sPiK~~jejeje!!!

Oh.

Wait.

It does exist in real life.

Well, until that kind of communication becomes the medium, no, thank you,  I think I'll pass.  I'd  be pretty much sticking to the standard English or Filipino language. Nothing beats writing and speaking the proper way, after all.