Pacquiao becomes technical sergeant in the PI ARMY.

[flipside]

This thread had me in stitches reading the first page, now this.

its a fact though. what other country that has english as a second language speaks better than pinoys? it aint no wonder why the BPO industry in the states are moving to the PI and india.mainly in india for very very low rates.

[Chups]

This thread had me in stitches reading the first page, now this.

Besides the British and American/Canadians....what other country speaks better English?? Nobody comes close except for educated Indians (dot not feathers). Even our boxers who are mostly elementary school dropouts knows the language.

[loui_ludwig]

This thread had me in stitches reading the first page, now this.

I am not saying Filipinos speak better english than Mexicans, Brazilians, or Thais, Japanese, or others. More Filipinos tend to learn english more.

In Europe, Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and others, some work force are imported. In the Middle East, some jobs such as electrician, maintenace, engineering, are being held by Filipinos, cause they can speak english. Just look at the foreing workers in the Middle East, its mostly Filipinos, compared to Malaysians, Thais, and Indonesians. There are Pinoy engineers too in Singapore, my cousin's husband used to work there. My father, whose highest education is high school but learn maitenance on the job, worked for almost 10 years in Saudi Arabia. He and other Pinoys like him, have to communicate in english to their supervisors and co workers who are either Arabs, Europeans, or Asians.

Growing up in Philippines, i learned the english version first of the ABC before the Pinoy version. Philippines economy is not great, for other Filipinos, in order for their family to survice is to work overseas, so they need to learn the english languange.

[grayfist]

The claim has been made that the Philippines is the second biggest english-speaking country in the world--next only to the US-- essentially because it has a population bigger than Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The claim has been made for decades and none has been heard to dispute it.

The Filipino way of speaking english is acknowledged by many institutions as a kind of english vernacular-- much like pidgin english is, or with respect to French, much like Provencal is, or, in the case of Spanish, much like Mexican-South American spanish is, or, in the case of Chinese, much like Mandarin, Cantonese and Fokien are. Among those institutions or corporations that classify Filipino english as a distinct language pattern derived from a mother tongue (or vernacular) is Microsoft, which lists "Filipino English" or "Philippines English" as one of its language options. American, British and Australian vernaculars of english are also listed.

Webster however considers pidgin and Filipino English as a "jargon", as it similarly does the so-called Black streetspeak, which is, like Filipino English, a type of english that deviates from the established norms of the language.

[miron_lang]

The claim has been made that the Philippines is the second biggest english-speaking country in the world--next only to the US-- essentially because it has a population bigger than Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The claim has been made for decades and none has been heard to dispute it.

It's that simple. unless you hate the Philippines

[grayfist]

It's that simple. unless you hate the Philippines

Hi there Miron, ol' buddy!

It amazes that Filipinos have taken to english after only about 50 years under the American flag better than they have to Spanish given that Spain colonized the islands for more than four hundred years.

I guess improvements introduced by the Americans in mass communications (more newspapers) and modern transportation as well as a better thought out and implemented educational system can be credited for that.

Also, when the Americans arrived there they brought in radio broadcasting stations with them and radio programs were in english--american songs, english-speaking disc jockeys, english newscasts, etc. That spurred the wide use of the language, I assume, and pushed off Spanish from use, except in those exclusive enclaves of the old rich.

[IwatchBoxing]

Filipinos learn English over Spanish because English is the most universal Language today..

[grayfist]

Filipinos learn English over Spanish because English is the most universal Language today..

Hi there I watch...

Yea, english is dominant today. But when majority of Filipinos started speaking the language in the late 1890's, Spanish was spoken by more people throughout the world. The fact is, only the Philippines was an American colony--The US's first experiment at being a colonial power.

America granted the Philippines independence after WWII but American music and American language and culture remained dominant in Philippine society, as they remain today. A case in point: it was only recently that signs in english (posted on airports and a few streets) bears translations to Korean and Japanese even as English labels are made more prominent (including signs for the Men's and Ladies' Rooms). None are in Spanish and for well over a hundred years now, there never had been many Spanish signs in Philippine cities. At least, not in the cities that I have seen. The Spanish words that one encounters are those that have found themselves integrated into the local dialect and not really treated as parts of a foreign language. Example: The word table is referred to in Cebu as "lamesa" (one word) and by Tagalogs as "mesa."

Philippine vernaculars borrow, like most others, words from other languages. Some Chinese and English words can be easily heard running next to Malayan words and Sanskrit.

This is the same as English borrowing from Spanish (example: "rodeo"), Tagalog ("abaca"), Arabic ("coffee"), Latin ("mental" which evolved from "mens"), French, etc. etc.

English words have also found themselves into the Japanese language. E.g., baseball is called "bisboro" in Japan.

With all these said, I still find it fascinating that Filipinos, by and large, have taken to English in such a scale as to have evolved their own so-called jargon or vernacular (or whatever linguistic sub-set one labels it) of the language. That despite having been under American rule for "only" half a century, compared to Spain's four centuries.

By the way, Filipinos also had the change to learn the British version of the language, as they were under British rule for some 40 years. One has to look very hard to find a Filipino spelling words and pronouncing them the way the Brits do. (Filipinos who spent time in England don't count of course). They also had the opportunity to learn Dutch or Flemish as the Dutch claimed dominion over them for (I think) a quarter century. I still have to meet a Filipino who speaks either or both Dutch and Flemish. A handful may, but it's a sure bet that they spent some time in The Netherlands or Belgium and did not get that from the Dutch occupation of the islands.

Good to see ya, buddy. Great chance to exchange some thoughts with you.