I am a Speech Communication graduate and damn proud of it!
Two of my friends and I had a recent talk and I realized, it was not just me who feels dejected at the thought that many people, when they ask us what our course in college was, they stare at us in the eye and as if total innocents at a new language we’re giving as an answer, ask, “Speech? Communication?”
This is also a huge part of the story of my life. Read on.
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“It’s in the genes,” my interviewer said with a smile during my first screening for the position of language trainer in one of the better known call centers in the country. She was referring to my citing that both of my parents are journalists; my dad being a senior correspondent for Manila Bulletin for more than two decades now and a media consultant for prominent personalities such as Senator Mar Roxas and Laguna Vice Governor Edwin Olivarez, and my mom being a former feature writer and a famous disc jockey for a local radio station in Lucena City in Quezon province.
I’d like to think of it as just a lucky coincidence with a hint of Divine Intervention and a lot of hard work
“Grammarian” Discipline
Sure it was to my advantage that I had an early start in the field of communications. While my second grade English teacher was making me and my classmates stand for the rest of the period because we could not memorize verbatim the rules of changing singular nouns to plural, my dad was even more strict, demoralizing and tearing into bits and pieces what remained of my young, innocent mind (I’d like to think of it now more as “brooding pride”) every time I would proudly show him an essay I’ve painstakingly written only to end up castigated and with my paper full of red ink because of my poor grammar.
In fourth grade, I became the first and youngest member of our writing club to ever have something published in the school’s student paper. One stinger though, whoever retyped my grade level made it “Grade VI” instead of “Grade IV”. Well, whoever he was, maybe he was doubtful that a fourth grader could write something like what he saw. He’s partly right. That very short and sweet poem, which, by the way, garnered an international acknowledgment from poetry.com (it’s not just an e-mail notification, it was among some hundreds or so poems that were published in a hardbound book compilation of poetry that unfortunately I was not able to purchase because of the cost), wasn’t all mine. The original concept was written by me. But it was rewritten (translation: corrected/edited) by our club’s adviser.
Having been guilty of carrying and owing only to myself that “little” accomplishment all those years, I persevered. My dad primarily trained me in formal writing, i.e. journalistic writing, speech making. Every morning, he would make me read aloud not just his published articles but editorials as well. I have to admit that he “forced” me as I was much too defiant in adhering to his suggestions, which were, at that time, more like a command, that I observe the style of writing of journalists like him. This was because I found it so mean that when elementary students my age were learning how to rollerblade, which, up to this day, remains a frustration, I was stuck at home learning on my own how to spot and recognize the writing styles of broadsheet writers.
To add to the tyranny of my father dear to his unica hija, every time I would ask him the meaning of words, he would oftentimes shoo me to look it up in the dictionary. This routine which I would lazily perform through the years, had me develop the thinking that, maybe, this idol of mine, isn’t Superman after all. That is, at least with words.
In sophomore year in high school, I was reduced to tears after barely passing a quarterly exam in English. I had a 78 when normally I would have a 90 and above. The activity was about dissecting complex sentences. I found it so unacceptable that I, the associate editor of our high school publication and who was to compete in the prestigious Division Secondary Schools Press Conference, would receive a grade like that. To add to that blow on my ego, that same year, while training for the aforementioned competition, my dad gave me his harshest critique ever. “You’re in high school and you write like an elementary student. Your style of writing when you were in fourth grade is, up to now, the same. You never improved.”
I was crushed. But I know I could not let that comment pull me down. I had yet to win my first title in the press conference. The whole school had its eyes on me as they knew of my father’s reputation as a political writer and publisher. Clearly, they expected much of me that on just my third year, I became the editor in chief to the seniors’ disgust, or maybe, envy, according to my friends. That same year, I became the president of the communication arts club and started competing for Rotary Club’s annual extemporaneous speaking contest. Said responsibilities added to the pressure of perfecting my grammar. I thought, I knew the rules, I just had to be a little bit more conscious in applying them.
I reached my peak of consciously applying the rules of grammar in fourth year. I had no choice. That was my last year of proving that I was worthy of my place in the school publication. Though I was named “honorary editor” and another colleague took my place as editor in chief, our school paper adviser who was also my extemporaneous speaking coach, would often introduce me in competitions as the school’s editor in chief. She said it was not demotion that in that year’s press conference, I had to, of course, give way to the editor in chief in writing the editorial and competing for the editorial writing contest. I had to, instead, compete under the feature writing category of the competition. She added that since I was elected the mayor of our student government, the pressures of responsibilities would be considerably lessened if I would concentrate in something of which, she observed was more of my strength.
And she was right. That year, I won fourth place and earned the right to be among the seven representatives of the province of Laguna to the feature writing competition in the Regional Press Conference. Though I did not win first place like most of my co-staffers (that year, our school placed second overall in the Division Press Conference) or even grabbed a place in the Regional Press Conference that followed, that alone was enough for me to have a real sense of accomplishment. Never mind that during the entire four days of competition, my co-staffers kidded me for having nightly vigils in the nearby church. What mattered was I knew my hard work finally paid off and that my dad was, for the first time, genuinely proud and happy for his daughter though she didn’t exactly follow him in his footsteps as a traditional writer; that she instead became more like her mom as an established feature writer.
The Rule of the “Phonics”
My mom was telling me that ever since, I was really good in speaking in English. She told me that when I was in nursery, I was given the “Best in Phonics” award. Though I could barely remember that, I never really rebelled nor defied the idea of improving in English speaking. Mom, was, by the way, also my perfectionist mentor in diction and intonation. How strangely coincidental was that!
I know I have to credit the schools I attended for what I am now or at least my parents for their choice of schools. Except for my first year in high school, I never had a year without a speech subject. My entire life, since first grade up to college, involved mastering the distinctions between short and long vowel sounds, or simply, the rule of the Phonics.
I couldn’t resist not recalling that in first grade, on the very first day of my first ever speech laboratory class, our teacher commended me for having a good reading voice. Obviously I was pleased that I have to admit it kind of got stuck in my memory bank, okay, in my head, that during the years that followed, I always knew that I had to excel in my speech classes. Of course, it also didn’t hurt that I was closest to and often considered my second mom my speech teacher, who was also the adviser of the writing club in grade school that I mentioned earlier.
It was funny how I never really considered speech as my favorite subject in elementary and in high school. In those cute autograph books that became a trend especially for my girl friends in grade school, I would always write either history or science as my favorite subject, never speech. God, I never imagined myself being a speech teacher someday!
Though that was the prevailing condition that to my thinking was not even apathy, I would always look forward to the times when the entire class had to leave the old classroom to head to the high tech speech laboratory.
I also find it weird that in high school, I learned and memorized the relatively difficult and confusing International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols with much ease and with much enjoyment, if I may add, that it even surprised me or more appropriately, freaked me out. This happened considering I knew I have always hated formulas and symbols that are “alien” in form, let alone memorize or at least master them.
Then came my teacher in biology telling us that each of the brain’s two hemispheres controlled different skills; that depending on the development of either of the hemispheres, this explains why some people are good in numbers, formulas and logic but poor in the arts and letters and vice-versa. This study holds true for me ever since as evidenced by my disgraceful performance in the math part of the University of the Philippines Law Aptitude Exam (UP LAE) and my better standing in the English sections of which, people were saying, was significant in helping me grab a slot in UP Law. Then again I’ve always wondered why, in high school, I utterly excelled in chemistry that my teacher had me compete in a provincial chemistry contest and eventually, won. But that’s another story I dare not try to justify or even discuss.
Speech Communication, not Mass Communication
Since Broadcast Communication was, and still is, a quota course in UP Diliman, my dad thought it better to put as a first choice course Speech Communication to increase my chances of entering the main campus of the country’s premier institution. He and I were convinced that both courses were related and could help me become a newscaster someday like my childhood idol Loren Legarda. However, what puzzled us both was why Speech Communication and Broadcast Communication were part of two different colleges, the former from the College of Arts and Letters, and the latter from the College of Mass Communication. Again, that’s another story that is not within my jurisdiction to discuss. Hehehe.
When I eventually learned that I was successful in entering UP Diliman, the plan was to take Speech Communication for a year and afterwards, shift to Broadcast Communication. Said plan was never realized not because of the fact that I never really made it to the quota of shiftees but because of a changed perspective on the nature of both courses.
UP Diliman is undeniably one of the best institutions that produced most of the broadcasting industry’s finest and most prominent radio and television talents. Network giants and other media institutions often indicate as an advantage if job seekers and applicants are mass communication graduates of the country’s top universities of which include UP.
This predominance of the course, or at least the name “Mass Communication” drastically overshadowed the fact that this area of specialization actually came from the field of Speech Communication. A realization of this fact during one of my major subjects ever since made me to always come to the defense of technically, my first choice course. To those who would raise their eyebrows and question why I never tried again my luck in Broadcast Communication unlike two of my blockmates who “tried and tried until they succeeded”, I would confidently inform them of this basic fact and that taking this course would help me find a job in any industry where communication plays an important role, including broadcasting or newscasting.
An overview of Speech Communication would reveal that this field is really “holistic” in a sense that its presence can be felt anywhere. It altogether embraces the fields of psychology, political science, religion, etc. It implies that the art of communicating exists everywhere, in every field, thus the emergence of areas of specialization in the study of Speech Communication namely Political Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Intrapersonal Communication, Oral Interpretation, Psychological Communication, Religious Communication, Speech Education and yes, Mass Communication or Mediated Communication.
In the United States and the other parts of the world, moreover, the World Communication Association - an elite group of communication authorities who are otherwise known as “communicologists” - recognizes Speech Communication as the field to take if one wants to practice or become an expert in TESOL or Teaching English as a Second Language.
All of these are not to say who’s who or which is which in terms of communication courses. It’s just plainly irritable and derogatory if Speech Communication students, professors or graduates would hear the course being compared as inferior to either English Studies or Broadcast Communication.
An online forum I often go to once had a thread discussing which is a better pre-law course - English Studies or Speech Communication. Again I went into the defense of my course saying that it is an ideal pre-law course as all the pre-requisites to law maybe taken and recognized as part of the curriculum’s
electives. Furthermore, speech electives such as argumentation and debate, parliamentary procedures, and public speaking allow the pre-law student to learn and apply relevant lawyerly skills that are not, contrary to public perception, just “oral” skills. Major speech subjects give the student a chance to espouse credibility as a principle as it requires him to be precise and absolute in what he has written and researched for his speeches and presentations.
Breeding Ground for BPO Babies
In my thesis presentation, I stated that the Philippines was once the third largest English speaking country in the world. Despite the fact that either India or Nigeria has arguably taken its place due to conflicts mostly concerning a distorted sense of patriotism, it is now steadily trying to gain back its old glory.
The Business Process Outsource (BPO) industry or what is popularly known as the call center industry (it should be taken into account, however, that BPO does not only and exclusively mean “call center”) has, in the past decade, opened numerous job opportunities for employment-hungry Filipinos. Foreign investors found it appealing that since Filipinos consider English as its official second language, they only have to tap this advantage and turn it into an expertise for full use in their companies through training and retraining in the said language.
It just so happened that while all these were gaining popularity, I was in my third year in college and all bent out in pursuing my dream of becoming a broadcaster. My plan was simple. Since Speech Communication allowed my presence in any industry, I joined a lot of communication-related activities and institutions that I knew could hone all of my communication skills. I became UP Diliman’s correspondent for Chalk Magazine. That further established and honed my written communication skills. It also didn’t hurt that Chalk was part of ABS-CBN, the company I was eyeing to be a part of as newscaster someday. The added perks had me appearing on television as a talk show guest for shows such as Y Speak and Breakfast not just once, twice or even thrice, but seven times! I also became a disc jockey for Wave 89.1. Again, that was following in the footsteps of my mom. It helped me practice the skills essential for my radio subjects and had me grabbing another career option: that of an events host with the opportunity of mingling with famous local and foreign singers. And finally, I became an information secretary for Speechpower.
The abovementioned job fitted perfectly in my plan. However I never came to know immediately how perfectly it fitted as I was really aiming to carve a niche of my own in the mediated part of communication. But in fairness to it, regardless of my original dream, it helped me in many ways. First and foremost, Speechpower is one of the speech communication development institutions in the country recognized by the World Communication Association so immediate relation to my course was not a problem. Second, my stint there, though actually low-key unlike my previous activities, cultivated my public relations/people skills and gave me the necessary experience in office work. And third it gave me the opportunity to have annual training updates in communication thereby implying that being an information secretary did not simply mean immersing in the usual secretarial tasks. It meant having a job similar to that of call center agents only that, I was required to speak in straight English to a mostly Filipino clientele via phone or walk-in inquiries.
Needless to say, I continued holding on to my dream of becoming a broadcaster without the slightest intention of letting myself be carried away by the call center job trend that seemed to close in on me as it was also one of the most practical and lucrative careers a Speech Communication graduate could be at par with. What was more, my professors were somehow embittered at the idea that their students end up confining themselves as mere telephone operators and telemarketers, who, in the years that followed, became no different from graduates of other courses from other schools as the call center industry further opened itself to jobseekers with at least the minimum qualification of being able to fluently speak in English.
Call Girl
Then again, who was I trying to kid? I eventually found myself, right after graduation and in the early part of my first semester as a UP Law freshman, conducting telesurveys for clients of one of the country’s leading call centers.
Friends who previously heard me say that I did not take Speech Communication to become a mere call center agent ultimately heard me changing my line and saying that the job wasn’t so bad after all. Competition was fierce as opportunities for growth were endless. Growth meant promotion to corporate positions. Corporate positions meant distinction, achievement, acceptance, recognition and of course, high salary. High salary meant helping my already frail parents and supporting myself all the way through my five years in law school. More importantly, it was the only immediately available job that enabled me to balance my time for law school, for my family and for myself.
A visit to Speechpower where I eventually got promoted as a project-based oral communication consultant (otherwise called as speech trainer in call centers) and worked for a year before becoming what my friends fondly dub “call girl” once again shook my senses. A co-trainer made a bet that I wouldn’t last more than six months as both a “call girl” and a law student. I begged to disagree; that there was no need for a bet as I was determined to last because I needed to. But I was proven wrong.
Not that I eventually grew tired. A lethal combination of sickness due to lack of sleep and 24/7 exhaustion, family problems (both of my parents got sick all at the same time and I’m an only child) and poor performance both at work and at school despite what I perceived as the best of my efforts, not only confirmed the bet, it was cut in half. I only stayed for barely three months in the said company to my depression.
During that time, I would have countless fights with my dad. In one of those fights, I cried in despair. I reminded him that what I wanted to become was a broadcaster, to be in mediated communication, not in non-mediated communication as a lawyer and as a call center agent and a speech teacher on the side. I stopped short of blaming my dad for indirectly manipulating my career and leading me to a situation where I didn’t know anymore where to go and what to do when I experienced hearing and seeing him frail, calling me in the middle of an important class, asking for my help as he could barely walk due to complications of his illness. The situation of my mom having dementia also didn’t help my dad, the lone provider in our family ever since my mom got sick and since I had myself terminated from my job. My dad, the genteel dictator but nevertheless my idol, wasn’t Superman after all. He was human.
Fluency vs. Proficiency
As if by Divine Aid, one of my former officemates asked if I could hold a corporate speech proficiency training for her fellow faculty members of the Industrial Engineering department of Adamson University.
“Why me?” I asked.
“Why not?” she said. “Your credentials are enough plus I trust in your abilities.”
When I was still an information secretary at Speechpower, our finance officer, one of the executives of the company, kept on coaxing me to teach already despite being an undergraduate at that time. She said my proficiency in English did not go unnoticed among the Speechpower clientele and with Mr. Jose Mordeno, the founder-president of the company. True enough. During my interactions with Speechpower students, I would usually get flattering commendations from them. I then later found out, from the files of information secretary applicants that I was one of the two trainees who received the highest evaluation scores from Mr. Mordeno.
An incident involving a student launched my career as a trainer while still an undergraduate and primarily an information secretary. That led me to being asked to have a formal Speechpower training for consultants/trainers. Everything followed suit. The next year had me formally teaching mainly oral communication courses (conversation, pronunciation, accent, public speaking, oral presentation).
The communication training I got in the call center I worked for was a plus for me. Combined with my knowledge as a Speech Communication graduate of UP Diliman and my experiences as an oral communication trainer for Speechpower, I finally earned the right to call myself a speech trainer by profession.
During the two-day speech seminar I conducted for the Adamson University professors who, by the way, hold MAs and PhDs and who could already be my parents, to my terror, I made a distinction between the words “fluency” and “proficiency”.
In terms of communication and second language learning, I mentioned “proficiency” implies a trained skill while “fluency” is merely being able to smoothly speak a language. While painstakingly trying to explain this idea, one of the older professors rattled me with his question:
“So you’re saying that Americans are not proficient?”
“Yes. They are not proficient. Since English is their native language, they are naturally good in the delivery of the language and therefore sound proficient when in fact, since they commit a lot of mistakes in terms of grammar and are not too meticulous about it unlike us Filipinos, they are, in fact, only ‘fluent’”.
See how long my answer, er, my sentence was? Successfully explaining that to a curious and doubtful (of my abilities, I guess) professor was a big “whew” on my part, more like a fishbone pulled from my inflamed throat.
But I was not really trying to badmouth the Americans. What I was trying to espouse was something I learned during my thesis days.
Stephen Krashen, a renowned communicologist who developed the Theory of Second Language Acquisition, mentioned that the theory encourages second language learners to continuously apply, practice and speak the language being learned, primarily unmindful of the structure, i.e. grammar. These learners should be focused on the content or simply, the message they are trying to send across. Also, a conscious application of the technicalities may become a hindrance or a barrier to the “fluent” acquisition of the second language.
This, however, does not mean that grammar should altogether be ignored. One of the components of Krashen’s theory implies that for as long as the second language is practiced, the sub-conscious will naturally incorporate the proper grammatical structure over time.
But I was also a hypocrite. Because of the privilege of receiving extensive training first from my dad, then from all those I mentioned, I knew I was proficient and sometimes therefore critiqued harshly those who committed mistakes in grammar, intonation and pronunciation, you know, the technical stuff. My know-how, as if by instinct, made me always pinpoint mistakes people commit. Hell, even one of my dad’s bosses never escaped me. In his speeches he’s always given a warm applause and sometimes, standing ovations, due to his ideas that are excellently and clearly delivered. Listening to him gives one the impression that he’s an educated man who sounds credible, good, confident and very proficient in English. But carefully listening to his words would reveal that he’s like the Americans, fluent but not proficient in terms of speaking in straight English.
One night, while complaining to my dad how hard it was to edit his boss’ recorded speech, he told me that what mattered was people understood what he was saying. Trying to fight the urge to say that wrong grammar and pronunciation may lead to misinterpretation, my thoughts turned again to Krashen’s theory and to the fact that not all really had the privilege of receiving the kind of training I got. The least I could do is to help others achieve the kind of credibility my dad’s boss has.
Simple words, appropriate terms, confidence, accurate facts, and the very least, proper pronunciation and diction and intonation commensurate to the idea being presented - these all imply credibility and yes, fluency.
Trainer
Ever since I started working as a call center agent, with the realization of what my experiences could bring, I have always eyed the position of a trainer in a full time corporate set-up.
It was just recently that one of my friends who now works in the same call center I used to be a part of told me that if someday I would be given a chance to return to the company, I am very qualified to apply as a trainer as she reminded me that, before, I excitedly told her that I almost got a perfect score during my communications training. The human resources personnel mentioned that a score of 95 was all trainer aspirants needed. I had a 97.
As if also by fate, two of the senior trainers in that company were also Speech Communication graduates from UP ahead of me by only two years, one of whom is a personal friend of mine as she was likewise a former Speechpower information secretary who eventually became a consultant. Both of them are reportedly earning P40,000-P59,000 a month!
This radical change in my career plan seemed the very answer to all my prayers. My dad relaxed his reigns on me right after he realized my potentials of making it big in the speech training industry. He told me that though he still wants me to become a lawyer, he would not want to see me lose my prime as a trainer.
Though I am still trapped in a gridlock of endless applications and its processes, I am not complaining. Things, right now seem to fall in the right place. I found out, with the help of dad, that I do not have to give up law school after all as I could still push through with a minimum number of units with a schedule that would not interfere with a full time job that has a shifting schedule. Of course I do not want to give up UP Law, for Christ’s sake!
With a job that has a probable minimum pay of P18,000 which could skyrocket to P59,000 or more, I know, this time, I could finally be of real help to my family.
But the best thing is, I am at peace with this career. I know I already have a place to go to and a thing to do that is carved from taking control of the surprises my own fate brought and maximizing my own God-given potentials that were honed through my dad and my mom, the institutions that I’ve been with most especially the Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts of UP Diliman. Who knows? Maybe I could still become a broadcaster or a talk show host someday.
To those who dare question the importance of Speech Communication, come up to me and I’ll tell you the story why I’m a Speech Communication graduate and so damn proud of it!
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The author was one of the dozen or so “Cum Laude” graduates of the Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts of UP Diliman in the 2005 University Commencement Exercises. She is currently a freshman, part of the working/evening class of UP Law, has parttime jobs as legal researcher for the House of Representatives, freelance corporate speech trainer and oral communication consultant for Speechpower. She is praying that she’ll finally be granted a full time job as a trainer.
