**By Dennis Clemente **
New York—As this city closed (who would have thought?) and braced itself for the fierce hurricane called Irene, a close encounter of a different kind took us by surprise.
It came from the Philippines and it was called James Soriano, who caused an online storm with his Manila Bulletin essay “Language, Learning, Identity, Privilege,” in which he makes the claim that “Filipino is not the language of the learned.”
He adds, “We are ‘forced’ to relate to the tinderas (store clerks), manongs (usually the driver) and katulongs (the help) of this world.”
Click here to read more: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/13471/the-filipino-boy-who-doesn’t...