菲律賓的國語是塔加祿語（Tagalog）、中國的國家通用語言文字為普通話、臺灣的官方語言為標準漢語／華語，不論是宿霧語（Cebuano）、廣東語（Cantonese）或臺語（Taiwanese），這些語言都在各自的國家裡，表面安分地成就了「老二哲學」，但實際上目前仍然活躍在各自的土地裡。決定一個語言成為該國的官方語言，其決策的因素具備多重面向，而時空背景為主要關鍵因素。此三地的語言歷史成因極為不同，卻陰錯陽差地都選擇了不是「使用人口數最多」的當地語言為官方語言，其背後真正的理由是什麼呢？鑑於上述考量，本文將就語言決策歷史背景及決策過程、定案後所遇到的困境及現況等三大部分為主軸，並以表格進行一系列的詳述比較，進而探討其語言活力是否足以形成「語言戰爭」或是因為官方地位的確立而謹守「老二哲學」的本分。

Tagalog is the Philippines' national language, just like Putonghua is for China and Standard Hanyu (Chinese) for Taiwan. However, in these countries, Cebuano, Cantonese and Taiwanese are unofficial but widely-used languages. They are all ＂second languages＂. There are many considerations when determining which language will become a country's national language. In particular, heritage and history often play the most important roles. The stories of how the three national languages above were chosen are all different. Why did the Philippines, China and Taiwan choose these three languages, even though they were not spoken by the majority of the population? What were the underlying reasons for this phenomenon? This research is divided into: 1) discovering the historical background of how these three countries determined their national languages, and 2) how they went about doing so. After setting the context, the research will explore three main areas: 1) the challenges faced, 2) the current circumstances, and 3) a comparison table. It will also discuss the vitality of the second languages and whether they have enough support to start a language 'war'. If this happened, would it be because of the government's decision to keep these languages as second languages?