alsuave Posted June 7, 2014 Posted June 7, 2014 To Alsuave, MacBubba and those language purists: You've obviously never seen a highly educated, multi-lingual Filipina in full flight at the height of her anger trying to get her point across to you the English only speaker. Yep in a perfect world what you're saying is probably correct but in normal society but I dare you to confront SAO (degree in English and a post-grad in economics ie maths is her bread and butter) and tell her that tag/cebuan/ish makes her a lesser person. It's all about perspective. Ivory towers have nothing to do with it. Yes, I know many educated Filipinos, and their English is perfect. They are native English speakers, and don't need to use Tagalog, Cebuano, or whatever as a crutch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrettGC Posted June 7, 2014 Posted June 7, 2014 Yes, I know many educated Filipinos, and their English is perfect. They are native English speakers, and don't need to use Tagalog, Cebuano, or whatever as a crutch. In a perfect world. I'd really like to meet your lady. Her Ivory tower must be very high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacBubba Posted June 7, 2014 Posted June 7, 2014 Yes, I know many educated Filipinos, and their English is perfect. They are native English speakers, and don't need to use Tagalog, Cebuano, or whatever as a crutch. Likewise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJReyes Posted June 7, 2014 Posted June 7, 2014 Yes, I know many educated Filipinos, and their English is perfect. They are native English speakers, and don't need to use Tagalog, Cebuano, or whatever as a crutch. Americans first learn Street English and later Academic English. What you end up with is a mixture of both. For example, there is extensive use of idiomatic English in daily conversation. Filipinos learn another language at home, sometimes two. Once they start school and become native speakers of English, Filipinos tend to use Academic English only. In a perfect world. I'd really like to meet your lady. Her Ivory tower must be very high. I am not sure what the "ivory tower" reference is all about. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Peterson Posted June 8, 2014 Posted June 8, 2014 Yes, I know many educated Filipinos, and their English is perfect. They are native English speakers, and don't need to use Tagalog, Cebuano, or whatever as a crutch. Are you saying here, that you believe the Philippines, should be an English Speaking Country?? :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsuave Posted June 8, 2014 Posted June 8, 2014 (edited) Are you saying here, that you believe the Philippines, should be an English Speaking Country?? :unsure:I'm not sure what you mean. The Philippines is an English speaking country. Edited June 8, 2014 by alsuave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crad Posted June 8, 2014 Posted June 8, 2014 the Philippines is a country where English is one of the languages spoken but only in a very few cases is English the language spoken at home if you are a kano basing your perception around your spouse's English, then you are going to get a skewed impression. How many Filipino families that do not have a kano in it, that speak English at home. It is very few. Malaysia is very similar to the Philippines linguistically, there is just the odd family that chooses to speak English at home, I have never met even one Filipino that could not speak Tagalog at all when pressed, although I know that they do exist. I did know a half-Chinese Malaysian girl who could not speak Malay very well though and English was definitely her first language. I remember being amazed when I initally observed her having to make an effort and struggling to speak Malay with taxi drivers and servers in restaurants and shops. I had never seen that before, and I have never seen it since. She came from an unusual background, mom was an English teacher, they came to a conscious decision bringing the children up to speak English at home. The girl only just passed the Malay language requirement to enable to get her school leaving certificate type thing. Even when she was living in Kuala Lumpur and had never been outside Malaysia. When she went to college after that, language of instruction was English and then she got a job on an English language magazine after she graduated, where the language spoken in the office was English. She remains the only Asian person I know without any family member being a native English speaker, whose first language is without doubt English. They do exist. But they are very rare. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tukaram (Tim) Posted June 8, 2014 Posted June 8, 2014 Are you saying here, that you believe the Philippines, should be an English Speaking Country?? :unsure:I'm not sure what you mean. The Philippines is an English speaking country. Not out in the province they aren't! They learn it in school and never use it again. It is like the US kids taking High School Spanish... and never using again. I know a lot of Filipinos that can barely put 2 words together in English. :tiphat: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Peterson Posted June 8, 2014 Posted June 8, 2014 I'm not sure what you mean. The Philippines is an English speaking country. THAT! is very debatable as this Topic, is Lightheartedly trying to say. Now, when English is a First Language in the PI and Spoken Properly, I will listen to you. Other than that, I will continue to follow this Topic in the true sense it was started. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Graham Posted June 8, 2014 Posted June 8, 2014 The whole thing of filipinos being masters of multiple languages is a fallacy. Just like every other nation if you use the language you get to learn it. The two families I am close to are a case in point.. Family 1 Mother, 3 daughters 3 sons with 12 children.and numerous cousins uncles and aunts Family2 Mother 4 daughters 3 sons with 15 children and even more cousins uncles and aunts Family 1 1 brother can speak English in a way that you could class as conversational, the girl I know can get by, the rest they know Hello and that is about it. Family 2 The girl can hold a conversation in English that would leave a lot of people in england wondering what language she was speaking. Finance and Politics are one of her fortes Her mother can speak English rather well but you can see her thinking about the next word she is going to use. I always tell her to just say the word if its Tagalog Grace will translate. 1 brother who worked as a chef has really good English and the other two brothers try really hard to talk in English and as its mostly about guns and fighting cocks I know exactly what they are on about. All the rest of the family either have no English or have no wish to use English Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts