Republic of the Philippines

Pangasinan State University

Urdaneta City Campus

Introduction to the English Language System

CONCEPT PAPER

Submitted by:

Cherilyn S. Ferolino

ABEL-1B
 THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE DEALING WITH COVID-19 PANDEMIC

OBJECTIVES

This paper aims to:

 Spread awareness concerning the wide spread of misinformation.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The importance of Language Dealing with COVID-19 Pandemic in terms of:

a) Giving Right Informations about the Disease

The fact that Covid-19 is pandemic; many countries and even individuals are suffering from this disease.
Where did coronavirus really came from? Some people are saying it came from bats and other animals;
some says it is made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.

This disease emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year, that caused a large scale of Covid-19
epidemic and spreaded in more than 70 countries. According to the findings in the journal Nature
Medicine, coronavirus is a product of natural evolution.

Moreover, according to Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology
at Scripps Research, "By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains
we can firmly determine that SARS-Cov-2 originated through natural processes."

"Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause illness ranging widely in severity. The first
known severe illness caused by coronavirus emerged with 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) epidemic in China. A second outbreak of severe illness began in 2012 in Saudi Arabia with the
Middle East Repiratory Syndrome (MERS)."

As the coronavirus spreads wider and wider, people need right informations right now. A reliable public
information must originate from the field of work of the public sector body; must be in the body's
possession; and must be contained in a certain materialized form. These Information originating from
the field of work it occur in the form of a document, case, dossier, and many more.

To avoid contacts with other people, governments from different countries are making safety measures
like SOCIAL DISTANCING and ENHANCED COMMUNITY QUARANTINE. Social disntacing the need of a
person to distance himself to another person over 1 meter or 3.28 feet. While Enhanced Community
Quarantine helps to isolate a community with other community to avoid entries of a person from other
places who maybe a carrier of the virus.
Also, as a linguist student, I think language has something to do in dealing with COVID-19 Pandemic.
Langugae is a medium to communicate with others, it is also an instrument to easily utter a word and
understand what other people say. It unifies certain community, it colors us as a person and/or group.
Let yourself think if we don't have language to utter in times of needs like the crisis we are facing right
now, coronavirus. It will be hard for us to communicate, to give and receive informations, to implement
rules, guidelines, safety measures and to enforce Enhanced Community Quarantine & Social Distancing.
Our life depends on what we hear and say that may lead us to our beliefs, studies, theories and laws.

Let us use Language to fight COVID-19 Misinformation

"We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic." Said Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO)

"Misinformation about COVID-19 identified by BBC Media Action includes rumors the disease can be
prevented by shaving beards or drinking salt water, and that people can self diagnose by holding their
breath."

TWB or Translators Without Borders working to translate reliable information to prevent

Misinformation leads people in danger, we receive a lot of informations that sometimes it causes us
confusion because the article we have read is different from the other article that has the same topic.
Even our languages have a different translations with different usage of words so, language has a big
impact in our daily lives even in every crisis we are facing. Language can help us deal with COVID-19 with
the help of reliable information and translation from TWB.

With proper translation of language we could get the right information. Language is very significant in
times of crisis, that we are not able to provide right informations without it. Inaccurate translations and
information will mislead us, it can harm people especially those who have not proper education; that's
why we have language that can use depending on your status in life, for them to easily understand the
news---- legitimate informations they desrve.

It is good to have Translators Without Borders who identifies key terminology that people use to talk
about COVID-19 as well as commonly-used technical terms to provide easily-understood information, to
help stop the spread of rumors and inaccurate informations. This will help public health experts better
combat misinformation. This pandemic is not just a battle against crisis, but a batlle against
misinformation. It is very clear that Language is very significant to lead us in a right information.

"Language is what makes us human" Do you think Language can shape us the way we think especially in
this current issue?

A quotation says, "The more words you know, the more thoughts you can have." How can you talk
about a "stone" if you do not know what stone is; is it soft, rough, smooth, pink, thin, big or small?

When we utter a word from a different language, and if it sounds the same with other word we know,
our concept on that certain word will change, not unless we already know what's the real meaning
behind that word. "If you don't have a word for something, you can not talk about it." This statement is
a bit weak, we can actually talk about something even if we don't have word for it but, it is easy for us to
catch up when we have a term for something. Let me rephrase the statement above, "If you don't have
a word for something, you can talk about it less."

Having a large vocabulary can make us easily-remember certain things; it can help us easily-understand
what an individual saying. Moreover, when we talk about "Enhanced Community Quarantine" or even
the 'Quarantine' itself, how can we be able to think something about that, when we don't actually know
what it means? That 'Quarantine' can easily explained by using the word "Isolate". Language can shape
the way we think, and it obviously really make sense; from basic terminologies we hear, from getting the
news from television to the comments we say, it really make sense. Having a language can help us
formulate ideas and concepts in our minds and that is what World Health Organization using right now
to give updates about Covid-19 Pandemic.

Linguists have a terminology so-called Semantics which means, the study of meaning, and what makes it
shape the way we think is the terminology, Pragmatics basically, it is the context associated with the
meaning. Learning a language is not just about saying it, but it is also about analyzing and applying it.

So, language is applied in so many ways in our daily living; even before, until now. Language is now used
to enforce guidelines and safety measures about the disease. We are slowly losing hope in controlling
the virus though we are still waiting for the vaccine that will terminate covid-19. Many times had been
wasted because we are lacking of covod-19 test kits and governments are doing the best that they can
to flatten the curve of this Coronavirus. Our current focus must be flattening the curve-slowling down
the virus spread, and save lives. They say that two of the best way to do it is through social distancing
and enhanced community quarantine.

I could say both are needed to flatten the curve but many individuals are not responsible enough to
follow these guidelines. Language is very significant in this kind of situation because we need a lot of
encouragement, explanation and infromation. People are not following simply because they don't know
what are the possible consequences, but with the use of language we could easily get the news we need
to know, we could easily understand the explanation about the real situation of our country, selves, and
the possible effects of Covid-19 Pandemic. Enhanced Community Quarantine and social distancing will
not terminate this crisis alone, we also need cooperation as citizens in our respective countries. We
should also consider those health workers and other frontliners who were still doing their job and
obligations to help people, and the only way for them to communicate with their co-workers is only
through language. Imagine life without language, imagine frontliners doesn't understand each other.
Life would be as hard as it should be if we do not have a language to speak. Imagine this kind of
situation, the medical experts, authorities and even citizens doesn't have a language, the fewer the
possibility we can survive in life especially in this kind of crisis.

Covid-19 is pandemic, spreading quickly that any tally of infections and deaths rapidly becomes out of
date. This battle is not just about helping others but also helping yourself and your own community,
wash your hands regularly, keep 1 meter distance from others, do not go outside home if you do have
unimportant thing to do, watch, listen, read or search for news updates, as much as possible, confront
your neighbors who do not follow rules such as ECQ or enhanced community quarantine, eat nutritious
foods to improve your immune system, do this for the sake of yourself, your family, and your
community, share your knowledge with the use of basic terninologies that others could easily
understand. These tips could help you flatten the curve from your community, if it is possible to a small
community then, it would be also possible in bigger communities, the spread of virus is so quick but with
the small things we do, it could have a huge impact in our cummunity. It is better to do something even
if it is slow than to do nothing, at least we are trying, we are moving, we are contributing to flatten the
curve. Stricter measures are necessary.

Now, we are facing a lot of dilemmas that causes us hardship especially in flattening the curve. Over
more than 6,000 Covid-19 positive cases here in the Philippines, there are so many things that runs into
the mind of the Filipinos and by the fact that this case is pandemic which means it is uncontrollable and
a large area in the world is affected. It causes hard to choose over what information we should believe
in, there are so many rumors that spreading and it causes panic in each individual. As a citizen who live
in a country where covid-19 is present I currently experience this dilemma where I do not know if I'm
going to believe and trust the news I'm receiving and to the people I encounter. Many people lie just to
protect themselves from discrimination, which I think the real opponent here, it's hard for us to know
who are the people that have a travel history or what. In the part of the authorities, it's hard for them to
think for a possible or for an effective ways and moves they are going to do just to control or lessen the
cases that keeps on spreading. Are they going to extend this quarantine or not? Or are they going to
sacrifice the wealth of the country just to provide the needs of the people or not? There must be so
many "what ifs" that runs in our minds, and yes it is really hard to cope up with this pandemic disease.

Flatten the curve also means, balancing the clamour of people between the rules of lockdown. For me, it
is about being obedient, selfless and positive. People are just making noise simply because they are
panicking and they are worrying for their basic needs, they even having anxiety and depression through
this lockdown. We should lessen our rants because talking about every little irritation only keeps the
fires of anger going. For us to maintain the good relationship to the authorities we should be very
careful in our tone yes, it is important to have something to say, but it is equally important  to say it well.
Anger, is what other people feel right now, because of the lack of goods and support they are getting.
Anger is not wrong yet it can be like a fire out of control we should stay calm despite the fact that it is
indeed a hard situation. The right thing to do is to discipline ourselves disregarding our emotions,
following the rules is far better than complaining. Let us not just sacrifice our hours, days, weeks and
months for nothing we should also learn how to obey because obedience is better than sacrifice.

We could only flatten the curve if we know how to flatten misinformation, discrimination, and bad
attitudes. It is time to help simply by educating people on what to do, what could be the possible effects
of covid-19, who is our real enemy in this battle by the use of language.

This paper's assumption is that, language has something to do dealing with covid-19 pandemic.
Therefore, I conclude that language has a lot of significant implications in any crisis like it unifies a
certain community and even different individuals, it also help people to have a peaceful living through
proper communication and understanding enough each other such as informations, ideas, messages &
studies. I believe that you and I, all of us can and will conquer Covid-19 Pandemic, let us use our
language in good ways, like use it to communicate with God through prayer. We can't beat the disease
by just providing guidelines and safety measures but we will beat this, using our language; pray to God
because he is more powerful and bigger than anything in this world.

Reference:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm

https://www.ip-rs.si/en/freedom-of-information/access-to-information/what-is-public-information/

https://www.languagemagazine.com/2020/03/17/use-language-to-fight-covid-19-misinformation

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-language-shape-what/

https://www.edge.org/conversation/lera_boroditsky-how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-covid19-global-academics-insights-pandemic/