Kimchi (published in the Baguio Midland Courier)
“How could learning history upgrade the economy of a country?” A tetchy student may ask.
In Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, he mentioned he was colossally influenced by a certain history teacher. Well, many factors had molded Hitler to a monstrous fuehrer. But everything started when the powerful words of this history teacher sowed a patriotic seed in the young Hitler’s heart.
To such tetchy students, learning history doesn’t simply change the economy. It does change history itself.
During my three years of tutoring Koreans, history is inevitably touched by our English lessons. But this time, Philippine history has to be one of our subject matters with my Korean neighbor/friend/student, Cholong, since it’s one of her summer class subjects.
As much as I could recall grade school, high school, and college history, I tried to recount the Filipino plights under the Spanish hands for 333 years.
“So do you hate Spaniards?” Cholong asked after my lecture.
I paused for a while. I knew I had to say no. For a moment, I hesitated to say no because I expect a bigger follow-up question.
And yes there is this- “Why?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged my shoulder as I usually feel comfortable appearing stupid to people, even to my students. “Probably, because the Filipinos just don’t care. It has been long gone and-”
“But-” Cholong knows what I would say. She compared the situation with Korean and Japanese. The Koreans today are, in a sense, trying to ask for a compensation for their ancestors’ sufferings during the Japanese invasion. Now, the Japanese scions are trying to make it up for the mistakes of their ancestors.
Nationalism. It is such a substantial thing that binds a nation along its ups and downs. Rizal fought for the Philippines. Bonifacio also did along with many other patriotic guys.
Thanks to my Korean student, Cholong. Now, I am more history conscious and more patriotic than I used to. As for Cholong, she wants to master English for many reasons, one of which is to help change Filipino thinking, by discussing history, in one way or another.
There must be a drastic change in Philippine history books. The names and dates are not supposed to be highlighted. History exam questions should ask for explanations, reflections, causes, and effects.
It’s never the when, where, who, nor what that explains history. It’s the why, how, and what now?
