The Philippines: You can check out but you can never leave

[Rayj]

I love to eat so I’ve always liked cooking. Lately I’ve picked all the cooking for dinner since I’ve retired. My wife is easy. She’s content with broccoli , cauliflower , all vegetables. And she does not eat very much as she is small. Last night was salmon and asparagus, tonight is cauliflower in mayo/Dijon/cheese sauce with spinach sautéed in garlic for a chaser. I figure she’ll keep me around for a few more years.

[Mark Berkowitz]

Yesterday, my wife and I ate Lechon at a Fil-American friends's house, and it was just as good (or even better) than the Lechon back in the Philippines.  We had an enjoyable time since the friend has been living in the US for over 15 years and is fully fluent in American English* as well as remaining fluent in Tagalog and Kapampangan, which made our conversation very easy for all of us there, especially since my wife is new to American English.

* So, for example if my wife didn’t know the slang word or understand the idiom,  our friend was able to explain what I was saying in Tagalog (and Kampangan) very quickly, as opposed to me taking a longer time to explain, which was nice for a change, and enabled all of us to have a very deep and nice conversation about everything going on in our lives with adjusting to life in the US.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Mark Berkowitz
clarification

[hk blues]

4 minutes ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

Yesterday, my wife and I ate Lechon at a Fil-American friends's house, and it was just as good (or even better) than the Lechon back in the Philippines.  We had an enjoyable time since the friend has been living in the US for over 15 years and is fully fluent in American English, as well as remaining fluent in Tagalog and Kapampangan, which made our conversation very easy for all of us there, especially since my wife is new to American English.

 

What exactly do you mean fluent in American English?  Yes, some of the words are different but not that many to make it hard to understand surely?  If you are talking about accent, or pronunciation even, that would vary even within the US, wouldn't it? 

[Mark Berkowitz]

19 minutes ago, hk blues said:

What exactly do you mean fluent in American English?  Yes, some of the words are different but not that many to make it hard to understand surely?  If you are talking about accent, or pronunciation even, that would vary even within the US, wouldn't it? 

Mostly slang words and idiomatic speech will vary from Country to Country in the English speaking world, especially when comparing the English that is spoken in the Philippines to the English that is spoken in native English speaking countries. 

As far as the Philippines, my Americicanized slang and English idioms were not always understood.  Yesterday, I was able to converse with a Fil-American who knows all of the slang and idioms, regardless of whether or not they are univerally accepted and used throughout the English speaking world.  Sorry if my use of the term 'American English' is confusing. 

As far as accents and pronunciations within the US, the differences have been minimalized over the years, thanks to Televison in a large part.  I've lived in 12 different US States in different regions of the US and I find it very hard to notice too many differences in accent and pronunciations nowadays (as compared to how things were 50 or 60 years ago).  JMHO.

[hk blues]

30 minutes ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

Mostly slang words and idiomatic speech will vary from Country to Country in the English speaking world, especially when comparing the English that is spoken in the Philippines to the English that is spoken in native English speaking countries. 

As far as the Philippines, my Americicanized slang and English idioms were not always understood.  Yesterday, I was able to converse with a Fil-American who knows all of the slang and idioms, regardless of whether or not they are univerally accepted and used throughout the English speaking world.  Sorry if my use of the term 'American English' is confusing. 

As far as accents and pronunciations within the US, the differences have been minimalized over the years, thanks to Televison in a large part.  I've lived in 12 different US States in different regions of the US and I find it very hard to notice too many differences in accent and pronunciations nowadays (as compared to how things were 50 or 60 years ago).  JMHO.

Thanks for explaining - I'm still struggling with the general term "American English" when used to describe a big country such as the US as I'm certain the idiomatic expressions and pronunciations you mention vary from state to state, especially when looking at West coast v East coast and North v South.  If TV has resulted in a more homogeneous US due to TV, then surely that same impact will have happened in the Philippines and the UK i.e. English should have become more standard globally rather than only in the US?

[Mark Berkowitz]

5 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I'm still struggling with the general term "American English" when used to describe a big country such as the US as I'm certain the idiomatic expressions and pronunciations you mention vary from state to state, especially when looking at West coast v East coast and North v South. 

I'm also troubled by the term "American English," but I never coined the term.  English should just be known as English... but unfortunately this type of terminology has been used with other languages as well.  For example, in Canada, the French that is spoken (mostly in Quebec) is called "Canadian French" instead of simply being known as "French."  The same thing goes on with the "Portuguese" language that is spoken in Brazil, which is identified as "Brazilian Portuguese."

Since I don't really agree with the term "American English," I would hate to see the language further fractionalized by coining additional terms, such as "East Coast American English," "West Coast American English," etc.

Hopefully, all languages will entually be known with a singular name.

5 minutes ago, hk blues said:

If TV has resulted in a more homogeneous US due to TV, then surely that same impact will have happened in the Philippines and the UK i.e. English should have become more standard globally rather than only in the US?

I haven't really seen this happen in the Philippines yet, but that's just my opinion.  As far as the UK, I can understand most (but not all) of what the Brits are saying, thanks to TV (and films), but quite honestly, there are areas of the UK where I would never understand one word of what was being said... since I've watched many Brit TV shows (or should I call them programmes?)... just joking.... and I believe that some of the regional dialects are unintelligible to most Americans (at least to me) without subtitles (and there were none).

[hk blues]

9 minutes ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

I'm also troubled by the term "American English," but I never coined the term.  English should just be known as English... but unfortunately this type of terminology has been used with other languages as well.  For example, in Canada, the French that is spoken (mostly in Quebec) is called "Canadian French" instead of simply being known as "French."  The same thing goes on with the "Portuguese" language that is spoken in Brazil, which is identified as "Brazilian Portuguese."

Since I don't really agree with the term "American English," I would hate to see the language further fractionalized by coining additional terms, such as "East Coast American English," "West Coast American English," etc.

Hopefully, all languages will entually be known with a singular name.

I haven't really seen this happen in the Philippines yet, but that's just my opinion.  As far as the UK, I can understand most (but not all) of what the Brits are saying, thanks to TV (and films), but quite honestly, there are areas of the UK where I would never understand one word of what was being said... since I've watched many Brit TV shows (or should I call them programmes?)... just joking.... and I believe that some of the regional dialects are unintelligible to most Americans (at least to me) without subtitles (and there were none).

I wasn't so much troubled by the term as curious, as I'd never heard it used in such a specific way i.e. to say someone was fluent in it.

I understand what you are saying about regional accents in the UK, and can understand that many foreigners would struggle with them but I also think they would equally struggle with many of the accents in the US - the southern ones in particular.  

As for the Philippines, well - nothing annoys me more anywhere than fake accents regardless of where - there was a huge number of locals in Hong Kong using them and we have our fair share here too.

[Mark Berkowitz]

7 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I also think they would equally struggle with many of the accents in the US - the southern ones in particular.  

At one time, I moderated a global forum with a different purpose than our Expat Forum, and several English members had traveled to the Southern US.  These forum members claimed to have no problems at all with understanding English in the Southern US, and were amazed that some of the Southern US words were identical to the ones that are used in England, such as 'reckon' and 'yonder.'

Can you please give examples of what types of things would be problematic for foreigners to understand in the Southern US?

[hk blues]

12 minutes ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

At one time, I moderated a global forum with a different purpose than our Expat Forum, and several English members had traveled to the Southern US.  These forum members claimed to have no problems at all with understanding English in the Southern US, and were amazed that some of the Southern US words were identical to the ones that are used in England, such as 'reckon' and 'yonder.'

Can you please give examples of what types of things would be problematic for foreigners to understand in the Southern US?

The Texan drawl for one thing,   and I find the Florida speaking pace a little fast.  Just a couple off the top of my head.  As a native speaker I don't find it overly challenging, but I can imagine Toshio from Tokyo landing in Georgia struggling a little! 

[Mark Berkowitz]

2 minutes ago, hk blues said:

The Texan drawl for one thing

Thanks for your explanation .

I currently live in Texas, and maybe it's just me and where I live (San Antonio), but I don't hear any "drawl" from anyone over here.  For what it's worth, I was born in the Northern US, and I have lived in many US States (as well as other countries), but I haven't heard a drawl in Texas in recent years.  However, I do remember hearing it in the Texas of the 1970's (when I traveled through Texas as a visitor).