This is potentially the chance of a lifetime for 3 Filipino professors and hundreds of Students. In addition, this is a ‘Pride of the Philippines’ momentum, that has yet to hit mainstream media.
The fact that one of the world premier, historical, elite universities, has finally recognized ‘Tagalog’ and Filipinos as a substantial part of the future of academia and success in the world, is a major statement. We hope, that Harvard will not make the mistake of cultural appropriation, and not recruit true-Filipino professors, and recruit real-Filipino and Filipino-American students.
The Harvard Crimson, reported that starting from the academic year 2023-2024, Harvard University will be offering a Tagalog language course! The Harvard Tagalog Language Course will be taught by three instructors. These instructors will also teach Bahasa Indonesian and Thai languages as part of the university’s effort to build Southeast Asian studies. However, we hope that someday, Tagalog will have its own focused curriculum.
Currently, Southeast Asian languages are taught within the Department of South Asian Studies in a tutorial format.
However, the university is hopefully, finally seeing the inherent value of the Philippines, and will aim to professionalize the instruction. The teaching positions will last for three years and are renewable for five more years. The instructors are expected to teach five Tagalog language courses per year and must be native speakers or have near-native fluency in Tagalog.
Article Source:
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/lifestyle/2023/3/28/harvard-university-tagalog-language-course
