Continued from Tony Perez's Electronic Diary (October 19, 2018 - March 12, 2019) http://tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook41.blogspot.com/

Photo by JR Dalisay / April 21, 2017

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Varieties of "English" in the Philippines:

Teacher Trainer/Educator: All consonants exaggerated and unduly stressed, such as pronouncing "transformational education" as "CHranSHformaSHUnal eJUcaSHun". 

International School: Confused hodgepodge of East Coast English (usually New York) and West Coast English (usually San Francisco).

Balikbayan: Caricature slang, frequently with a twang.

Call Center Supervisor/IT Tutor: Slow and overly clear, as though directed to a subordinate in an insincerely friendly manner.

Broadcasting Auditionee: With a conscious and deliberate effort to introduce variety of rhythm and texture.

Visayan: Pronouncing "short o" as "short u" and "short u" as "short o".

Konyo Male: A lot of obscenities mixed in.

Konyo Female: Sing-song and with a pretentious Spanish accent that comes across as Italian.

Engalog: Peppered with Tagalog words and expressions such as "ano", "kuwan", "nga", "naman", and "eh".

In all my 70 years I have never met anyone who speaks "American English" and "British English"--maybe because no such things exist. Even the American officers at the Embassy spoke in different ways when I was there.

I find that "American English" and "British English" are mainly a matter of spelling, syntax, and idiomatic expression. Therefore, while I have never met anyone who speaks "American English" and "British English", I have READ many authors who WRITE in "American English" and "British English". SPEAKING "English" is an entirely different matter, and cannot be judged as right or wrong because of the speakers' culture, historicity, and frames of reference. As such, none of the eight varieties I mention above are "wrong", they are simply different.

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