I have seen a post on Facebook that earned the rants and raves of younger Filipino users. It was about a Korean actress who mimicked American, British and Filipino English on a TV (talk) show. They consider the whole video clip insulting especially as not all Filipinos speak English that way. With the influence of the media and internet young Filipinos can more spontaneously speak English with the accent of a native speaker, even when they have not set foot on the native speaker's country.
But of course there is a generation of Filipinos who speak English differently. Blame it on the inadequacies of the educational system of their time, the lack of facilities and their having to sit under teachers who are also non native English speakers. But the video to me was not necessarily insulting. On the contrary, I feel honored that unknowingly, we are evolving a different kind of English but which is understood and accepted by other people. For a people who are multilingual, with every region having a different language, to be considered as having a language that is peculiar to us is quite an honor. The nationalists may frown at this, but it is a fact that if two Filipinos don't understand each other in their respective languages, they resort to English. That is regardless of whether or not they could produce the appropriate sounds of the language.
And who knows Filipino speakers of English may just asawell in the future influence how the language is spoken globally. For a language that is dynamic and growing, change is inevitable. Only dead languages can not change. As for English which is an international language, and is the language of science and technology nobody can really tell which direction it is changing. Nowadays one can observe many indicators of these changes. Some can be attributed to the advent of technology and which hard core grammarians may find objectionable.I have heard from many, utterances like "Please message me if you need any help" "I texted you but you did not reply" "Please accept my invite." and many more. Well I am naturally treading on the more subtle changes of language as influenced by technology. More fearsome is the development of jejemon, which is internet slang, prevalent among internet users and text message senders not only in the Philippines but other Asian countries.
And while the video clip referred to the varying accents of British, American and Filipino users of English, not to changes in semantics or syntax and other aspects of language, I would say it is still part of the way we use the language here in our country. We may influence language change or be influenced by the menacing comments others have about the way we speak English. So what? It is still English, regardless of how far different it sounds from American or British English. It is Filipino English. What is important is that it serves its purpose of communication whether at the local or international level.
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