cultural misconception//

Since last week, I've been thinking of a common stereotype of Filipinos. I've actually asked a few people about it and they all gave me a bunch of different answers which I find hard to explain because I don't relate to what they said. But last Wednesday while I was with my new found friend from our village, she told me something that actually gave me an idea of what to write about. And our conversation went like this:

Friend: Where are you from?
Me: Philippines.
Friend: Nice. So how many years have you been here in Abu Dhabi?
Me: I've only been here for a month.
Friend: No way.
Me: Yup. I've lived in the Philippines since I was born.
Friend: Well, for a person who has lived in the Philippines her whole life, you're good at speaking in English and you don't have the common Filipino accent.

Okay to start off, there's no such thing as a "Filipino accent". It just happened that some Filipinos were not used to speaking in English in the Philippines so when they start speaking in English in another country, they sometimes mispronounce or say some of the English words incorrectly. For example, imagine you or a foreigner trying to speak in Tagalog. There will be a big difference between how you and I pronounce the words. As for me, I grew up speaking that language so I can pronounce the words correctly and as for you or the foreigner, you are not used to that language so the tendency is you'll say the words differently. Plus why do some people expect us, Filipinos to suck at speaking in English?

There are approximately more than 170 dialects in the Philippines. The most common dialect is the Tagalog which is mainly spoken in the capital of the Philippines which is where I came from. English is actually considered as the second language of the country since majority of the people in the capital can speak English fluently. Now the thing is, not every Filipino you meet is from the capital. Some are from the remote or rural areas of the Philippines and most of them only knows how to speak a little bit of English since learning how to speak it is not really considered as a priority in their area.

In the Philippines, Filipinos usually speak to each other in Tagalog. But when it comes to documents, papers, ads and presentations for work, we use the English language for formality. So basically, some Filipinos do not practice speaking in English as much as they use it for other things. Which is why sometimes we Filipinos are not used to speaking in English so we may seem to pronounce or say words differently.

Anyway, here's a funny tutorial about the so-called Filipino accent.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

about the enigma//

Image
Ola! My name is Nicole but you can call me..... anytime. *wink* Nahh just kidding, you can call me Ikah. I've been existing in this world for 17 years now (but i literally look like a 10 year old) and I was born in Las Islas Filipinas also known as the Philippines. I loooove eating and yes, I know it's not that obvious but I really do. I play the ukulele, guitar and a tiny bit of drums (I just started). Sportswise, I play badminton, volleyball, golf and now I'm trying to learn how to play basketball although I'm pretty sure it'll be hard for me cause DUH i'm like 5'3. I also do boxing and muay thai so I'm preeeeetty vicious and deadly lol jk. So basically I've lived in the Philippines since I was born and I just moved here in Abu Dhabi last August 1st to study and be with my parents. I'll probably stay here in Abu Dhabi for 2 years (If I do well in school) just to finish Grades 11 and 12 then move to the United States to go to a university and ...
Read more

my name//

Image
Hello there earthling. My name is Nicole and I’m guessing you already know that because my name’s like everywhere in my blog. Ironically, I’m not used to people calling me by that name because back in the Philippines I had a lot of nicknames. The people from my previous school calls me Ikah, Iks, Chinita or Niknik. While my parents and relatives call me Nika which is like my OG nickname. My first and second name is Nicole Anne. I never really thought that there would be a meaning behind my name because I thought that my name’s very simple which is why I actually used to hate my name. So apparently, according to my mom, Nicole is a Greek baby name which means “People’s victory” while Anne is an English name which means “God’s grace”. My parents chose those names because according to them, since I was their first child it felt like they won in life when they had me and that they consider me as a gift from God. 
Read more

education//

I think David Foster Wallace’s theory on education basically says that education doesn’t only include academic knowledge but also having knowledge of reality and of the things around you.  One of the many things he said which struck me the most was “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.” His whole speech talks about how we have the freedom to think and do what we want and with this freedom, we tend to just be in our own universe and we tend to just think about ourselves unconsciously. However, it shouldn’t be like that. This quote is saying that the best kind of freedom is having to think...
Read more