A Filipino family on vacation in Boston visited us during the holidays. They had three kids - a girl and a boy in high school and the third one in elementary. As I understand, they go to private schools in Manila. But what I didn't understand is they can't speak english very well, including the parents. They always include some tagalog in their sentence which sometimes me and my friends couldn't fully understand - like "let's play Wii na", "i like that jeans talaga", "I'm busug already", etc. It seems it was hard for them to speak all english in one sentence. I was surprised because my parents always told me that Filipinos speak good english - like americans. But a friend of mine from Vietnam speaks much better english.

^^ we call those kind of people "mag-arte" here in the Philippines. hehehehe peace!

You are actually right, Mars. These are people who talks in a way to let the listeners think that they are from the upper class of society. I blame mostly the parents who talk to their kids with this kind of "taglish" since they were kids. They think that by doing that, their children will learn how to speak english at an early age. Next, I blame the teachers who doesn't do anything to correct the problem. Some teachers themselves talk to each other and to their students the same way. It goes on and on.... evolving into some kind of national dialect that doesn't do any good but twist our tongues.... resulting in an ugly version of the english language.

heheh .. that's english in "pinoy-style" !!!

Whenever you hear a pinoy speaking english, wherever that might be in the world, you will always hear immediately if that's a pinoy, just by his/her accent and the way he speaks ..

As a foreign writer once said about Pinoy English, “The creative confusion between language and culture leads to more than just simple unintentional errors in syntax, but in the adoption of new words.”

With some 10 percent of the population working abroad, in the constant struggle to survive, Filipinos’ bizarre ways of using English have sometimes been denigrated. At the same time, they have been a unique source of humor for foreigners and Filipinos alike.

TAGLISH for short

...but we pinoys are still lucky that almost majority of us knows how to speak english...
...it does'nt matter if its crooked...
...as long as we know how to speak english...
...some countries does'nt know how to speak or even how to understand english language...

Dude.... if your english is crooked, then you don't know how to speak english.
I'd rather just speak my own language than try-hard and sound like an idiot.



Like what country?

"Taglish" is okey if you are talking to your own people --- I don't think misunderstanding will be an issue. Talking to other nationalities will be a problem though --- and 2xdx is right --- they will not fully comprehend what you are saying and you will sound like an idiot. In other words, you can't use your limited english or "taglish" when you go abroad --- or get a job in a local "call center" in Tacloban. What I don't understand is why not just learn how to speak english the proper way rather than learn it the crooked way? Does speaking taglish make you look more classy and cool?



I don't know about that. My mother told me that this might be true during their time in the Philippines when they could only speak in english in classrooms. Teachers were strict. English was widely spoken and Filipinos were good at it. But that was then --- a long time ago.

WHY DO FILIPINOS SPEAK CROOKED ENGLISH?

diri man nga tanan...peace!

IMO, the best english speakers here in the Philippines are those from the Visayas region..I grew up in manila and when my family moved here in Tacloban, I noticed that people here speaks better english compared to Tagalogs..when i worked in Cebu, I realized that Cebuanos are even better english speakers..but the funny thing is Cebuanos are not very good in Tagalog as compared to Waraynons..hehe

It's a pity that a lot of us (I admit I am guilty of it too) laugh at those who can't speak good English. I think it is a reflection of the country's quality of education. It just shows how it's gone from good to bad.

nice comparison

as to my experience .. it doesn't matter where they come from .. just give them some beer or tuba and they won't stop talking anymore until the next morning ..