Husay sa Math at English makikita sa sukat ng daliri

By: Bhaby See - Guhit Ng Palad

NAPAPANSIN n’yo ba na may mga batang mag-aaral na mahusay sa math habang ang iba naman ay hindi? May ibang bata naman ay mahusay sa English at ang iba naman ay nag-e-excel sa math?

Malalaman mo agad mga giliw kong magulang kung Math-inik ang iyong anak o mahusay sa English sa pamama-gitan ng di kanilang mga daliri.

Sang-ayon sa pagsasaliksik ng mga psychologists, ang husay sa English at math ng bata ay nakikita sa sukat ng kanilang daliring hintuturo at palasingsingan.

Ang mga mag-aaral na mas mahaba ang palasingsingan o ring finger ay sinasabing mahusay sa math habang ang may maiikli naman nito ay mas interesado sa English o sa literacy.

Ito’y dahil, ayon sa paniniwala ng mga scientists, sa level ng testosterone at oestrogen habang nasa sinapupunan pa ang bata.

Ayon kay Mark Brosnan, na nagpasimula ng pag-aaral na ito sa University of Bath sa United Kingdom , ang testosterone ay tumutulong sa development ng ilangbahagi sa utak ng tao na sinasa-bing associated sa mathematical skills.

May kinalaman ang hormones na ito sa haba ng palasingsingan at hintuturo natin. Malalaman natin sa sukat ng dalawang daliri na ito ang exposure ng bata sa hormones habang nasa sina-pupunan pa. Sa pagkakataong ito, agad na mahuhulaan sa sukat ng kanilang daliri kung saan sila mahusay -- sa Math kaya o sa English.

Sa isang research project na inilathala sa British Journal of Psychology, 75 mga pitong-taong gulang na bata ang sinukatan ng daliring mga scientists, partikular na kinuha ang sukat ng hintuturo at palasingsingan.

Hinati nila ang pagsukat sa hintuturo sa sukat ng palasingsingan para makuha ang ‘digit ratio’ sa bata.

Ang mga adult na kababaihan ay karaniwang may ratio na 1 -- kung saan ang hintuturo at palasingsi-ngan ay magkapareho ng haba. Ang sa kalalakihan naman ay mas mababa na nasa 0.98, dahil maraming lalaki na mas mahaba ang ring finger kaysa sa index finger.

Nakita sa mga batang sinuri na may mababang digit ratio -- mas mahaba ang ring finger at mataas ang pre-natal exposure sa testosterone -- ay mas mahusay sa math kaysa sa English.

Ganun din sa mga mag-aaral na mataas naman ang digit ratio -- mas maikli ang ring finger at mataas ang pre-natal exposure sa oestrogen -- ay mas mahusay naman sa English tests at nahihirapan sa math. Ang mga batang lalaki na mas mahaba ang palasingsi-ngan ay napatunayan din na mahusay at nakakuha ng mataas na marka sa Math.

Decision marred by faulty English

By Jose A. Carillo - Manila Times

It’s most unfortunate that the Sandiganbayan decision on the Estrada plunder case, a landmark document in Philippine jurisprudence, should be marred by far from impeccable English. Many sentences in that 84,257-word decision violate the basic rules of English grammar and usage, and would have greatly benefited from more judicious copyediting and competent proofreading.

That decision’s very first sentence is an ill-crafted, bewildering piece of English: “Republic Act (RA) No. 7080 as amended was approved on July 12, 1991, creating and introducing into our criminal legal system the crime of ‘plunder’.” The qualifying phrase “as amended was approved on July 12, 1991” is missing the comma that would have properly set it off from its subject, “Republic Act No. 7080,” and its poor syntax has actually given rise to a run-on sentence. And from the logic and tenor of that sentence, its operative verbs would have done a much better semantic job if they were in the simple past tense, “created” and “introduced.”

So here’s how that problematic sentence might have been improved: “Republic Act (RA) No. 7080, as amended and approved on July 12, 1991, created the crime of ‘plunder’ and introduced it into our criminal legal system.” (But come to think of it, since the law had not really intended to create plunder from thin air and foist the crime on us, wouldn’t it have been more advisable to use the verbs “defined” and “incorporated” instead of “created” and “introduced”?)

The decision’s second sentence is grammatically erroneous and structurally problematic as well: “This law penalizes public officers who would amass immense wealth through a series or combination of overt or criminal acts described in the statute in violation of the public trust.” The verb “amass” in that sentence doesn’t need the verbal auxiliary “would,” and the phrase “in violation of the public trust” is a misplaced modifier that wrongly modifies the noun “statute.” And the whole sentence itself, by stacking so many improperly linked prepositional phrases to modify “public officers,” has such a garbled construction.

Here’s a clearer and more readable version of that sentence: “This law penalizes any public officer who, in violation of the public trust, amasses immense wealth through a series or combination of the overt or criminal acts described in the statute.”

Similarly marred by infelicitous word choices, fractured syntax, and faulty sentence structure is the quoted opening statement of the majority opinion in the case of Estrada v. Sandiganbayan (G.R. No. 148965, February 26, 2002, 377 SCRA 538, 555). Take its very first sentence: “Our nation has been racked by scandals of corruption and obscene profligacy of officials in high places which have shaken its very foundation.”

The verb “racked” in that sentence (roughly meaning “tortured”) should instead have been “wracked” (meaning “utterly ruined”) or “rocked” (meaning “disturbed greatly”), and the relative clause “which have shaken its very foundation” doesn’t only dangle but wrongly uses the nonrestrictive relative pronoun “which” instead of the restrictive “that.” The result is another run-on sentence that suffers semantically from carrying so many poorly linked modifying phrases.

Here’s a simpler, more readable rendering of that opening sentence: “Our nation has been shaken to its very foundations by so many scandals involving the corruption and profligacy of high officials.”

The sentence that follows the quoted majority opinion’s opening sentence, apart from being overwrought, mixes and mangles its metaphors: “The anatomy of graft and corruption has become more elaborate in the corridors of time as unscrupulous people relentlessly contrive more and more ingenious ways to milk the coffers of the government.” The peculiar clause “the anatomy of graft and corruption has become more elaborate in the corridors of time” probably would have made better sense if “anatomy” were changed to “mechanism,” and “in the corridors of time” to the literal phrase “over time.” It’s also very likely that the writer of the decision mistook the figurative phrase “corridors of time” for the more semantically appropriate “corridors of power.”

But this much simpler construction of that sentence would have done much better: “Over time, graft and corruption have become more elaborate, with unscrupulous officials contriving more and more ingenious ways of milking the government’s coffers.”

Many more instances of inadequate English are to be found in the Sandiganbayan decision, but the point has been made: Along with many of the English-using sectors of Philippine society, there’s a crying need for the country’s judicial system to improve its English.

How many Koreans are really here? Almost half a million? BI officials say only 11,889 are documented

Koreans are the top tourist arrivals in the Philippines.

The Department of Tourism’s figures show dramatic rise in Korean visitor arrivals from 489,465 in 2005 to 572,133 in 2006. The surge continues until the first quarter of the year.

From January to March 2007 there were 171,716 Korean tourist arrivals. This means there will at least be 684,000 by year-end. But the DOT—because it is carrying out a campaign to woo more and more Koreans to our shores—feel there will be much more.

The influx to Koreans come to become legal residents has also grown. According to the Korean Chamber of Commerce, from barely 7,000 in 1980, the number grew to 70,000 by 2005. Koreans living in the Philippines today are estimated by Korean sources to be more than 100,000.

Other estimates—including those of the Bureau of Immigration Intelligence Department—give a much higher figure of up to nearly half-a-million. Most of these are of course illegal and undocumented.

The tourists are starkly visible in the country’s major destinations—like Boracay, Davao, Cebu and Bohol.

Makati’s Barangay Poblacion is the most famous “Korean village” in Metro Manila. But there “Korean villages” and strings of Korean stores and restaurants also in Quezon City and even Cainta, Rizal.

Most of the resident-population, whether legal or not, are students—mainly studying to speak and read English.

Korean travel agencies have organized partnerships with Filipinos or fellow Koreans with legal residence in the Philippines to open English-language schools. Koreans of all ages then come to the Philippines as tourists with one-month visas or longer. During their stay, they do almost nothing else but attend English classes. Their teachers are Filipinos.

A similar course in Korea would cost them 20 times more than their expense for their tuition and plane tickets and lodging in the Philippines.

Then there are Korean students with proper visas to earn bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in Philippine colleges and universities. Many of them are enrolled in the provincial universities—like the ones in Bulacan, Bataan and Pam-panga here in Luzon.

The Philippines has also become a favorite destination for Korean retirees.

Korean retirees—just like their still business-active compatriots living and working here—are in almost all of the Philippines major urban areas. They are in Baguio, Subic, Angeles, Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

Korean restaurants and grocery stores cater to them. Signs in Korean Hanggul script advertise their Korean names. There are Korean Protestant churches, hotels and bars.

They have for Koreans-only restaurants and subdivisions.

Most Filipinos welcome them. Some, who write to the newspapers, call up radio talk shows, damn them for being loud and noisy, rude and stingy.

Some Koreans came years ago as children and grew up here. They speak Tagalog and the regional languages. Besides English, they are particularly well versed in Ilokano, Ilongo, Capampangan and Cebuano.

Attractions such as cheaper English education, resorts and golf courses and wider business opportunities for those with some capital (much more than local small and medium size enterprises have) as well as Korea’s relative geographic proximity to the Philippines are the prime reasons behind the phenomenal rise of the Korean population here.

The hospitality for which the Filipinos are famous also drew them in.

Some records from the Bureau of Immigration indicate that Koreans come back after their first visit. Numbers of them return many times over and over again. They find and grab business opportunities. Koreans here are in tourism-related investments such as travel agencies, resorts, hotels, restaurants and spas that continue to sprout and grow in the major cities here.

Marketing initiatives, relaxed entry formalities and budget airlines as well as flight frequencies have also facilitated the Korean invasion.

The government is looking forward to reaching as high as 800,000 Koreans by the year 2010.

Meanwhile, as far as the BI data is concerned there are now 240,000 Koreans living in the country but only 11,889 of them are properly documented.
By Julia M. Fabon --With William Depasupil - Manila Times