Why I Love the Filipino English Accent

hey guys it's jessica here through the years of my youtube live there have been lots of comments regarding my english accent most of it was about me having a filipino english accent despite me being a korean this for me is quite obvious because i learned my english in the philippines from my filipino english teachers and do i hate my accent or the filipino english accent in general my answer is a bold no generally there are lots and lots of prejudices regarding one's english accent implying that it is always better to have a certain accent in worst cases some ignorant people can even belittle you as a person for having a certain accent but for me i honestly don't care what kind of accent my kind of english accent one has one's accent is a great way to express his or her unique identity such as their life background and or the culture that they practiced and just like how there are no right or wrong life background there are no right or wrong accents as well as long as you can understand each other however i do believe that there are certain accents in which one would feel like it's pleasing to hear or understand this accent for me is the filipino english accent when i first went to the philippines at the age of nine i did not have any knowledge when it comes to the different kinds of accents out there english was just english all i knew was that i could not understand it well because i wasn't able to speak english fluently by then as i began to learn english from my english teachers in the philippines i naturally started to speak english the way they did again hence the reason why i have the filipino english accent i never consciously realized that i had a certain accent that i had a filipino english accent until i had this experience when i entered the k-pop industry in korea this is a rather sad one but i think i have to share it with you guys before i elaborate on why i really love the filipino english accent during my first year of being a k-pop trainee in korea there was a time when i had to showcase my skills in front of the people in my company that unique skill for me was the ability to speak in english so i introduced myself in english in front of them there was even a camera and a lot of people in front of me it was kind of like an addition then after the showcase one of the staff went to me and said well you know how to speak in english but you have the filipino english accent he said this in such a way that my english wasn't good enough just because i had a filipino english accent as a young girl you know i was only like 13 by then i was quite offended by his words and i started to feel ashamed of the accent that i had when i didn't have to that was a time when i began to watch a bunch of american or british films and dramas just so i could change my accent i'm sad to admit that there are some views that the american or british accents are the ones that are associated with a person's english literacy in korea hence the reason why i began to consume american or british entertainment media to change my accent by the time but now i've worked hard enough to become conscious of that unconscious bias in me that is why at some point i came to realize that there was absolutely no reason for me to make such efforts to change my accent because there is nothing wrong with having a filipino english accent in fact it was something that i could even feel proud of why first of all the filipino english accent is known to be very easily understandable because they pronounce each syllable very clearly and evenly they would evenly pronounce all the syllables and i could understand it very well for example my dad is also not a fluent english speaker so he finds it very difficult to understand those english especially when it's spoken in a very quick way but with a filipino english accent although he may not understand the meaning of each words used in the sentence he could still grasp the general context of the people's words because it's easily comprehensible this is also the reason why i got to learn english very quickly when i first settled in the philippines here i want to point out that i'm not trying to say that the full english accent is better than all the other accents out there i just want to highlight its characteristic that makes it easier for the big majority of people to understand and also learn english and for that reason i do think that the filipino english accent is very attractive i am very thankful that i got to learn english in the philippines for my english teachers and also i would like to thank everyone who taught me english in the very beginning i think it's very important to ask the question of why some things happen to be the way it is since we're talking about accents it's very discouraging when there's someone who is just judging you as a person your whole life or even discriminating you for having a certain accent i do get a lot of comments uh especially from filipinos themselves saying that my accent is the filipino english accent and implying that it's not it's not good well i'm here i'm very proud you know i'm very proud when people say oh you know what i can understand you very well like even if i don't speak english that well because i try to speak you know as clearly as possible instead of just like flying all my words out if you know what i mean so i guess before i end this video i would like to tell you guys that there is nothing absolutely nothing wrong with having a certain accent as long as you can understand each other and it's the people who judge you for such shallow reason that are very ignorant so yeah i just wanted to leave that out here even if i maybe no one to say that always always always stay confident and do not let yourself down i hope you guys enjoyed today's video and i'll see you guys in my next one [Music] you

Channel: Jessica Lee

Views: 651,602

Keywords: filipino accent, tagalog, filipino english, filipino culture, korean culture, korean in the philippines, south east asia english, philippines korea, jessica lee, foreigner in the philippines, why i love filipino english, lee seul

Id: gOoPte3IXUg

Length: 6min 39sec (399 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 20 2020