The Philippine killer floods take their toll in flawed journalistic English

[Jose Carillo]

October 3, 2009

Dear Fellow Communicators in English,

Understandably, major natural disasters like Typhoon Ondoy’s killer floods take their toll in flawed grammar and syntax if not outright cockeyed news reporting. This was evident in the flood-disaster reporting of one of the major Metro Manila broadsheets, where a misplaced modifier reared its ugly head—to use an ugly cliché—right on its front-page headline story, followed by the paper’s imprudent if not impudent decision to directly quote a high-ranking government official mangling his English while making a major announcement. It’s really in the worst of times like this that reporters and editors could be a little more understanding of other people’s flawed English and a little more compassionate in their reporting, but sadly, the propensity of some of them to put the country’s high officials down appears to seethe unabated come hell or high water.

  

I discuss this regrettable state of journalistic affairs extensively in this week’s edition of My Media English Watch in Jose Carillo’s English Forum, but on a more positive note, I’m happy to report that our special forum on education and teaching in the Philippines is now on its fifth week of lively discussions—and its discussants now look forward keenly to feedback from the country’s education officials on the ideas for educational reform taken up in the Forum. Of course, there’s a lot more to learn and enjoy from this week’s Forum, as can be seen from this story lineup:  

THIS WEEK IN THE FORUM (October 3-9, 2009): 

• Special Education Forum: Deafening Silence of Education Officials Perplexes Discussants (Here’s hoping we’ll hear it straight from the horse’s mouth!) 

• My Media English Watch: A Newspaper Flubs Its English in Its Flood-Disaster Reporting (Foul weather takes its toll in flawed grammar and syntax)

• Pour Out Your Mind in English: How Much of a Problem is Our English Proficiency?(Does good English actually translate to economic success?)

• Essays by Jose Carillo: “Like” and “Such As” are Such Slippery Grammar Trippers(Some prescriptions for not taking the tumble when using them)

• News and Commentary: Only the Young Can Engage With Techno-Savvy Pupils, Says Expert (But should young teachers now be appointed to top teaching posts?)

• Readings in Language: Bumper Crop of Thought-Provoking Readings on the English Language (Five writers make separate explorations of the nature and vagaries of English and of current yardsticks of English proficiency)

• Time Out from English Grammar: Polymaths—A Many-Splendored But Highly Endangered Species (Has their loss affected the course of human thought?) 

• You Asked Me This Question: What’s the Proper Tense for “Do” in the Negative of a Statement? (Remember the rule: It’s the helping verb that takes the tense!)

• Media Release: Jose Carillo’s “Give Your English The Winning Edge” Now Available(You deserve that edge after working long and hard to master English)

See you at the Forum!

With my best wishes,

Joe Carillo

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