thisjustin:

Word of the Lourd: Slang

One of my colleagues sent me this video with the message, “I think this will help you understand Pinoys even more”. This couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, since my frustrations with Filiipino management/business practices are escalating with each passing day. With the issues that I’m having at work (which I presume are arising from a clash of Filipino and American culture), I think this provided a nice insight on the Pinoy psyche — as well as touching on even larger issues of colonization, post-colonization, cultural/linguistic adaptation, diaspora, etc. I mean, in th end, it doesn’t make me any less upset about my work-related issues, but it’s still an interesting and important perspective to hear.

In short, this video discusses the issue of accents and the Filipino pronunciation of English words. In this instance, “slang” refers to speaking with an American accent. It questions whether Filipinos should strive for a “better”/slang accent or be content with the Filipino way of speaking. I’m still processing my thoughts, so I don’t have anything substantial to contribute, but I just wanted to share this nonetheless. My apologies to non-Tagalog speakers, though.