Standard of English

[IanB]

Should I be surprised at how good Mae's English is? Bearing in mind that she left school at 15 and has only worked in her family home and as a waitress. Her cousin, who is 21, hardly speaks any English.

Having spent the last 19 years with Thai women, it amazes me when Mae comes up with things like:

"I don't like her attitiude." "Just remember, I'm always here if you need me." "I will be going to church this coming Sunday." "In my family house there are no appliances."

Mae seems to be very bright, and maybe she just watches a lot of American TV?


Ian

[fred]

How good is your Tagalog?? Not very good??
Perhaps you watch too much British TV??
Next time you speak to her,try using the language that she has conversed in all her life..
I`ll wait for her comments.

[vbkelly]

Should I be surprised at how good Mae's English is? Bearing in mind that she left school at 15 and has only worked in her family home and as a waitress. Her cousin, who is 21, hardly speaks any English.

Having spent the last 19 years with Thai women, it amazes me when Mae comes up with things like:

"I don't like her attitiude." "Just remember, I'm always here if you need me." "I will be going to church this coming Sunday." "In my family house there are no appliances."

Mae seems to be very bright, and maybe she just watches a lot of American TV?


Ian

actually Ianb young kids in the philippines are already knows how to speak english and don't forget english is second language in the philippines but some people even they know how to speak in english but they are very shy to speak

[ginapeterb]

Ian, tell us about your life with Thai girls..I am interested mate.

My only experience is with Pinays so your experiences would be welcome here...

[IanB]

Fred,

That was a bit harsh! I speak Thai, having been married to Thais for so many years, but have only known Mae for two months, so my tagalog doesn't go beyond the usual romantic phrases. I also speak good French, and some German.

I have bought a Tagalog course and am trying hard. I was simply saying how impressed I was with Mae's English - I deal with people from overseas a lot, and her English is very impressive. The same is true of my filipino friends in the UK, but in that case I was less surprised because many of them are well educated and have lived here for some time.

Ian

[ginapeterb]

Ian, you should learn Tagalog pretty quickly, I had the problem that my girl is an Ilonga, so I had to learn ilongo, no matter how good I think I am, and we speak broken Filipino in he house, wait until they get with their freinds, they speak at such a pace, you cannot keep up with them.

Most words spoken in our house is


1. Bobo

2. GAGA

3. Boba

4. GAGU

5. Ano Ba ?

6. Aray !

7. Cige na !

Apart from the above....the conversation is somewhat limited.

[joebloggs]

my wife speaks,reads and writes excellent english, got a mark of 6.5 on IELTS (International English Language Testing System ) at her first go, but my 18yr old stepson, can understand english really well, has a little trouble sometimes picking the right words to use in english when speaking and he speaks more with a tag accent than his mom. why such a big difference, i've no idea

[IanB]

There is one really big advantage of learning Tagalog over Thai: the script - I can read Tagalog but never learnt how to read Thai. It also seems pretty much a wysiwyg language, unlike English, of course.

I'm looking forward to learning Tagalog but I fear it will never be as good as Mae's English.

Ian

[bornatbirth]

fred must be having a bad day or hes drunk?

you shouldnt be surprised how good some of there english is,my gfs english is better than mine at times and her nephews are excellent!
people thinks its just a poor country and they are all out in the jungle,oh boy are they so wrong?

[andypaul]

There is one really big advantage of learning Tagalog over Thai: the script - I can read Tagalog but never learnt how to read Thai. It also seems pretty much a wysiwyg language, unlike English, of course.

I'm looking forward to learning Tagalog but I fear it will never be as good as Mae's English.

Ian

If only your Parents had sent you to a school where you were taught in Taglog

Many Phills can speak good English but are shy or like us somedays with french or german it just flows others it doesn't. I would speak to some of my younger cousins and some days we would have quite complicated and in depth convos other days it would be to much so we would keep it simple.

[joyce]

When my husband told his friends that his wife is a filipina, they asked him, did she knows how to speak english? My husband told them very well....Some think that we filipino don't know how to speak english. How can we communicate with our foreigner husband if we don't know how to speak english?

[eula mackay]

ordered a drink in a pub on my first night here as a tourist. ME: "may i have a bacardi diet coke, please" BARTENDER: only if you tell me where youre originally from ME: philippines BARTENDER: your english is very good, when did you get here ME: this morning. but if service would take this long i dont think id stay long. may i have my drink please?...lol.

[IanB]

"How can we communicate with our foreigner husband if we don't know how to speak english?"

As pointed out by someone earlier - this is a two way problem, so the answer might be to get your husband to speak tagalog! My two former partners were from Thailand. One sppeaks poor English, the other one is very good. both have lived in the UK for many years. But neither have the range of voabulary that Mae and you other ladies seem to have. I hope I am not being patronising - just trying to be complimentary!

Ian

[Bridget]

I remember when I just met my fiance four years ago.
I told him, " please help me to improve my english" .
And he replied
" ahh you want to learn english and speak proper like what I does"

[bigtombowski]

haha
i have a comprehensive vocabulary, and i did study the dictionary for a long time, despite which, sometimes i need to get a dictionary to understand a really technical word in english that mar says! wow! and it's not like she uses midwifey terms (That's wot she studied ...) ... i would be ok, coz i did biology! She's just really really smart! lol

yet her parents don't really speak any english!

I am amazed when mar can understand my kind of nothern ireland patois of ulster-scots/english with grammar derived from irish gaelic!

she's amazing

[andypaul]

"How can we communicate with our foreigner husband if we don't know how to speak english?"

As pointed out by someone earlier - this is a two way problem, so the answer might be to get your husband to speak tagalog! My two former partners were from Thailand. One sppeaks poor English, the other one is very good. both have lived in the UK for many years. But neither have the range of voabulary that Mae and you other ladies seem to have. I hope I am not being patronising - just trying to be complimentary!

Ian

Thais will generally from what i have seen watch thai films or have them dubbed ( i don't know many, only one mates had a few girlfriends and a wife from thailand) all prefered thai films or at least there own language.

Phills will generally happily watch english films. I have also noticed Phils are generally very good mimics, Phills realtives whose english is like my tagalog once they start singing can do a varity of english and us accents and read the words as the come up on the video screen at a rate i can barely do once i have had a few sm's.
My Wife now has a posh english accent, a london street english accent and a phill english accent for when she speaks to phills in english because i or other brits are in earshot. Im sure many of the ladies on here have the same.

[bigtombowski]

i know of some filipinos here in belfast who have made a conscious choice not to acquire the local accent! lol

[andypaul]

i know of some filipinos here in belfast who have made a conscious choice not to acquire the local accent! lol

They are sensible people

[bigtombowski]

says the geeeza fwom LANDAN innit!

[JAMZ]

Better not to be seen or heard as trying hard speaking the Brit or N.Irish accent than being myself... It's just a bonus when they tell me that am already acquiring the accent... But the default accent a Filipino might get is the American accent because that is what is being taught in school...

Whatever accent it is, we Filipinos cannot hide our features and we're proud of it...

Whatever accent it is, as long as you are understood and can speak good English, that is enough... hehehe... Filipinos are flexible anyway.

[bigtombowski]

actually, you are acquiring the belfast accent a LOT ... quite scary actually ... but i think it sounds cool

tom

[andypaul]

says the geeeza fwom LANDAN innit!

OIIIII

[JAMZ]

Nyaaaahhhh!!!

Me? Belfast accent? I don't think so... I don't wanna claim that, ...
Belfast-ians might get angry and protest when they hear me speak and question my accent,

Kidding!

[bigtombowski]

OIIIII

Nutta?!

[GaryFifer]

I am glad with Filipino English I think its great. There is such a difference in the English language its interesting to observe the useage.

Excuse the rude,but I just proving a bit of useage of common slang

If we are being aggressive or threating we use words that imply friends "Listen to me now PAL. YOUR ASKING FOR IT PAL. I'm going to nut you pal" Or in London. "alright CHUMM, I gonna get you CHUMM" Americans are always "buddy boy, buddy boy" Austrialians its always MATE.

When we are being friendly to people we know we INSULT THEM "How you doing ya old poofter?I missed ya" Alright Tam you old geit.Where you been? Dave you ******!

Americans use 8 words when one will do. "I had a cup of coffee, you know what I mean?" err. well I can figure that out.

Londoners use the phrase "You don't say?" err well who said it??

Americans say **** alot except for what it really means.Americans under George Bush will say doo doo. A grown mansteps in it he says Ahhhh shittt I stepped in dogs doo doo!!

I sit in the bar..and Americans will say to you in sneaky way "do you want buy some ****??"

I look at him "err ****???!"
"**** yeah"
"Yeah...Columbian ****? Yeah its best **** in the world"
"You bring it all the way from Columbia?" "You have it on you?"
"How much on you?"
"About 3 pounds?"
"You are walking around 3 pounds of **** in your pocket?And people give you money for it??? How much you get? 50 dollars and ounce.

"**** I'll be a millionaire in a week!"

[bigtombowski]

gary2jessica that was funny and crazy at the same time lol

hmmm

Jamz,
you have our belfast accent in wee bits here and there, i can hear it in ur voice! it's charming

u said we may "protest"?

when have u ever known a BELFAST person to PROTEST? hehe


(o yeh, i forgot about the whole 40 years of war thing lol)

[GaryFifer]

maybe that why they say "methinks the lady doth protest too much." The belfasts protestant too much. DUCKS IN CASE OF IAN PAISLEY

[bigtombowski]

or bigtombowski

ian doesn't protest any more , the uk government have paid him off! lol

[andypaul]

I am glad with Filipino English I think its great. There is such a difference in the English language its interesting to observe the useage.

Excuse the rude,but I just proving a bit of useage of common slang

If we are being aggressive or threating we use words that imply friends "Listen to me now PAL. YOUR ASKING FOR IT PAL. I'm going to nut you pal" Or in London. "alright CHUMM, I gonna get you CHUMM" Americans are always "buddy boy, buddy boy" Austrialians its always MATE.

When we are being friendly to people we know we INSULT THEM "How you doing ya old poofter?I missed ya" Alright Tam you old geit.Where you been? Dave you ******!

Americans use 8 words when one will do. "I had a cup of coffee, you know what I mean?" err. well I can figure that out.

Londoners use the phrase "You don't say?" err well who said it??

Americans say **** alot except for what it really means.Americans under George Bush will say doo doo. A grown mansteps in it he says Ahhhh shittt I stepped in dogs doo doo!!

I sit in the bar..and Americans will say to you in sneaky way "do you want buy some ****??"

I look at him "err ****???!"
"**** yeah"
"Yeah...Columbian ****? Yeah its best **** in the world"
"You bring it all the way from Columbia?" "You have it on you?"
"How much on you?"
"About 3 pounds?"
"You are walking around 3 pounds of **** in your pocket?And people give you money for it??? How much you get? 50 dollars and ounce.

"**** I'll be a millionaire in a week!"

You don't say and chum Only Chum i know is the one people feed their dogs lol

Mate, geezer, broth or blood more like, Chum would be my grandads time.

[ervenescence]

Me..no spek englis, me no understan englis...me no go home Pilipins.

HELP