Chat Rooms & Pen Pals

Having recently been asked to assess 2 Masters degrees from Australia, the quality of expression therein makes me suggest that we don't need to restrict our critique to that of Filipino written English. I am sure the same is now true of the quality of expression in most ISG members' countries of origin.

I also suggest that some of the regular posters on this board periodically post statements that border on semi-literate, with a host of typos, miss-spellings and poor expression.

As one of my former professor-mentors said to me just last year when I showed him some funny paragraphs written in Filipino english :

"I still bet that their attempt at written English was way better than any of your attempts at written Tagalog".

His cutting comment made me re-assess my critical stance.

My point? I think we need to cut some slack to people who try hard to express themselves in English, especially when we don't make any corresponding attempt to express ourselves in Tagalog in case someone might laugh at us.

[QUOTE=Red Kilt; 1429352]Having recently been asked to assess 2 Masters degrees from Australia, the quality of expression therein makes me suggest that we don't need to restrict our critique to that of Filipino written English. I am sure the same is now true of the quality of expression in most ISG members' countries of origin.

I also suggest that some of the regular posters on this board periodically post statements that border on semi-literate, with a host of typos, miss-spellings and poor expression.

As one of my former professor-mentors said to me just last year when I showed him some funny paragraphs written in Filipino english :

"I still bet that their attempt at written English was way better than any of your attempts at written Tagalog".

His cutting comment made me re-assess my critical stance.

My point? I think we need to cut some slack to people who try hard to express themselves in English, especially when we don't make any corresponding attempt to express ourselves in Tagalog in case someone might laugh at us.[/QUOTE]An appropriate question becomes: How well do filipinos write tag / bisaya? Its tempting to say that because it is their language, any way they speak it or write it it corretc. However, that's not true. A corresponding analogy: spanish, written / spoken by latinos in the US, is often terrible. As generations of latinos pass, the written / spoken spanish continues to deteriorate / change. It is becoming a spanglish, much like taglish. Worse, later-generation speakers write it terribly, while earlier generation speakers might not be able to write a paragraph (in much the same way, my hillbilly grandfather signed his name with an "X").

So, while an educated pinoy struggles with written english, does he write well in tagalog? Does he know what conjugation is? Does he mix up the corresponding 'he' and 'she', 'him' and 'her', as he does in english? When he speaks in tagalog, does he mix up the 'b' and 'v' sounds as he does in english ("My phone its bivrating.")?

[QUOTE=Red Kilt; 1429352]Having recently been asked to assess 2 Masters degrees from Australia, the quality of expression therein makes me suggest that we don't need to restrict our critique to that of Filipino written English. I am sure the same is now true of the quality of expression in most ISG members' countries of origin.

My point? I think we need to cut some slack to people who try hard to express themselves in English, especially when we don't make any corresponding attempt to express ourselves in Tagalog in case someone might laugh at us.[/QUOTE]I agree with RK's sentiment. I frequently contend with the writing of Americans with two layers of degree after their names, and I am amazed, but no longer surprised, at their spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage errors, let alone poor paragraph construction and inability to lace together a coherent essay.

Where Filipinos' confusion between be and v is concerned, I think there is a logical explanation. Prior to Spanish colonization, Tagalogs used an Indic alphabet with three vowels and 15 consonants. The Spanish imposed the Latin alphabet, and both they and Americans introduced substantial vocabularies of foreign words, many of which persist. But modern Filipino has dropped a number of consonants (c, f, j, q, v, x, and z) which were found confusing because, within the colonial languages, they either had multiple pronunciations or pronunciations similar to other letters. Obviously where many of the Spanish words persist, they are respelled in Filipino in ways that are phonetically consistent with the local language. For some words originating in other languages, like avenue and boulevard, however, some of the old spellings persist. But the modern Filipino alphabet no longer has a phoneme for the letter v as pronounced in English. Hence we get abenue and boulebard from them. Given the history of foreign alphabets and vocabularies imposed on the several native languages in the islands, it doesn't seem surprising that many have created their own unique Taglish and other language blends. It's little different than the way Americans (and probably Brits as well) import French and German words and butcher them with English pronunciations.

And I am guilty, as RK acknowledges, of having been too dependent on Filipinos' English skills to bother to learn enough Filipino to be able to speak sentences in their language. And yes, those who know me well feel quite comfortable laughing at me when I mispronounce their words.

I agree, for the most part, with RK and Skip. However, in an ever globalizing world in which "international" English is the medium of communication, the ability to secure employment in growing areas of the economy-think call centers, back office operations and Internet dependent employment sectors-often depends on English language skills. The lack of sufficient skills is a persistent problem here and may be an investment-limiting factor. I don't argue with the notion that the ability to write English coherently has deteriorated in the States and perhaps elsewhere, but that's a different phenomenon and has little to do with the impact of the dearth of skills here.

I'm not disparaging the attempts of Filipinos to write in the language, and freely acknowledge that almost any of their attempts to write or even speak English would be far superior to similar forays into Tagalog or Visayan on my part. The difference however is that my employment horizons are not limited by my lack of such skills.

GE

[QUOTE=Red Kilt;1429352]My point? I think we need to cut some slack to people who try hard to express themselves in English, especially when we don't make any corresponding attempt to express ourselves in Tagalog in case someone might laugh at us.[/QUOTE]Good point, Red. I do know a little Tagalog and sometimes this impresses my GFs there. More importantly, how many other Eastern countries, particularly monger destinations, speak English more and better than in the PI? None that I have visited. Hell, in California (where I live) , there is more Spanish than English.

I love you GE, but I have to say that your employment horizons are limited by old age. As are mine.

[QUOTE=GoodEnough; 1429433]I agree, for the most part, with RK and Skip. However, in an ever globalizing world in which "international" English is the medium of communication, the ability to secure employment in growing areas of the economy-think call centers, back office operations and Internet dependent employment sectors-often depends on English language skills. The lack of sufficient skills is a persistent problem here and may be an investment-limiting factor. I don't argue with the notion that the ability to write English coherently has deteriorated in the States and perhaps elsewhere, but that's a different phenomenon and has little to do with the impact of the dearth of skills here.

I'm not disparaging the attempts of Filipinos to write in the language, and freely acknowledge that almost any of their attempts to write or even speak English would be far superior to similar forays into Tagalog or Visayan on my part. The difference however is that my employment horizons are not limited by my lack of such skills.

GE[/QUOTE]

GE, I just can not stand the thought of hearing your voice when I call about my broken D-link router."Did you try to restart the router you stupid f*ck!"

Or you pushing me to register with my credit card on this "amazing and totally free dating site".

But maybe you consider the call center career due to the social benefits related to working with 800 teenage females in a room with no windows? Hell, come to think of it I will sell off my shit and join you.

[QUOTE=Red Kilt;1429352]Having recently been asked to assess 2 Masters degrees from Australia, the quality of expression therein makes me suggest that we don't need to restrict our critique to that of Filipino written English.[/QUOTE]I see. Are you by any chance the charitable fellow that the Cebu Province penal administration has put in charge of trying to find some useful and redeeming things to do for a couple of their Aussie inmates? Until their cases are adjudicated that is.

Educated Filipinos appear to me to have a reasonably good command of English (except for some who still have problems with masculine / feminine and he / she which they cannot seem to overcome) at least equal and sometimes above the level of many of the scholars who somehow manage to graduate from our superior high schools (New York State) , duh.

And of course there are a few words which they use with a different meaning for example tomboy (lesbian) , come again (simply repeat what you just said and not what you think, also used in Singapore) , thrifty (miserly I. E. Kuripot like me).

[QUOTE=Hibukhibok;1432756]And of course there are a few words which they use with a different meaning for example tomboy (lesbian) , come again (simply repeat what you just said and not what you think, also used in Singapore) , thrifty (miserly I. E. Kuripot like me).[/QUOTE]"Come again" is a colloquialism in use in various parts of the USA.

She is a school teacher and I could have her job but her name is Grace she tried to scam me 2 times, sad for a school teacher but the jungle runs deep. First time we had sex it was I love you I love you I love you I love you.

Nice lithe body.

Dumb as a post! Here a hint when they happen to have pics like this and masturbate on line like a porn star, hmmm possibly not their first time!

PP

[QUOTE=Pinaypounder; 1432785]She is a school teacher and I could have her job but her name is Grace she tried to scam me 2 times, sad for a school teacher but the jungle runs deep. First time we had sex it was I love you I love you I love you I love you.

E!

PP[/QUOTE]Next time, tell them that you know that school teachers arent allowed to be pregnant. Yes there are some very antiquated laws in Philippines whereby single teachers in government schools are not allowed to be pregnant. Fired if they are. Good moralistic type law, no doubt inspired by some good old priest with a young boy fetish.

After chatting reasonably the babe enquired if I could loan her $ 20 K.

I dropped out of chat, is it normal or she thought I did not go to School.

[QUOTE=FreebieFan; 1432819]Next time, tell them that you know that school teachers arent allowed to be pregnant.[/QUOTE]Nor are university students. At least the ones I've met.

[QUOTE=Wandere; 1432952]After chatting reasonably the babe enquired if I could loan her $ 20 K.

I dropped out of chat, is it normal or she thought I did not go to School.[/QUOTE]Very recently I had a "normal girl" ask me for 50, 000. The then called me kuripot and I haven't heard from her since.

Have you noticed how so many women in either text or chat say "Can I ask you a question?" or "Can I ask you something?" or "Is it OK if I ask you a question?"

It is very common in my daily interactions.

I respond in all sorts of ways ranging from treating it as rhetorical and ignoring it through to the extreme response of "Just ask. Don't ask if you can ask".

I don't know where they have learned it from. I have tried the flippant "No you can't" which is always misunderstood. I have also said "Yes as long as it is not asking for money".

Many times the question is really innocuous like "how old are you?" or "what is your work?".

Another strange foible of the filipina.