Philippine English

[lllllllllllllllllllllllll]

Ok so earlier our boss, a foreigner, arrived to visit the office here to check the operations of the company in the country. He is not a native-English speaker (a Korean), though he is fluent in the language given his high educational attainment. And we were teasing him to treat us to dinner and, probably due to force of habit, a colleague mentioned "Blowout". He has the puzzled looked in his face and I can tell he is trying to decipher what it means, and I realized it is one of those "Philippine English" that other English speakers wouldn't understand, so I explained what it means and he laughed. Because he was interested to know if there are other English terms that originated (or has a different meaning) in the Philippines, he treated us to dinner (haha the slip of the tongue was a blessing in disguise I guess  ) and centered most of our discussion about the topic.

As the talk went on, I just realized that we actually have so many of these "Philippine English" and most are actually interpreted wrong. A good example would be the word "Salvage". If you read tabloids or listen to AM radio stations, the term is often used for murder or summary execution, but in standard English the actual meaning of the word is the complete opposite, which is to rescue or save someone. Our boss is quite amused and joked, "Oh so you guys have your own version of the English language, huh? I guess people haven't realized this by now but there should be 3 English versions: American English, British English and Philippine English!".

But on a more serious note, do you think we should continue practicing "Philippine English"? Considering that most Filipinos are planning, or considering, to work abroad or even work in call centers, do you think using these words or phrases could affect how they communicate in English? Because personally I do think it has somewhat a negative effect on how we talk to other English speakers and might result in misunderstandings.

[sidney]

Well I guess at this point it would be hard to correct the "Philippine English" that we are so used to hearing, so it now really depends on the person to be aware of the actual English meaning of the word and if it differs with how Filipinos use it.

[eppie]

Ok so earlier our boss, a foreigner, arrived to visit the office here to check the operations of the company in the country. He is not a native-English speaker (a Korean), though he is fluent in the language given his high educational attainment. And we were teasing him to treat us to dinner and, probably due to force of habit, a colleague mentioned "Blowout". He has the puzzled looked in his face and I can tell he is trying to decipher what it means, and I realized it is one of those "Philippine English" that other English speakers wouldn't understand, so I explained what it means and he laughed. Because he was interested to know if there are other English terms that originated (or has a different meaning) in the Philippines, he treated us to dinner (haha the slip of the tongue was a blessing in disguise I guess  ) and centered most of our discussion about the topic.

Actually the term "blowout" in the regular English language has really something to do with buying food to celebrate a special occasion like a birthday or promotion.  But here in the Philippines, we use it to urge someone to buy food sometimes (or most times  :grin:) regardless whether there's a special occasion or not. 

I think if he's an American and not Korean, he can more or less guess what it was. 

[g2narat]

I don't think we can really change it though. I mean, we're used to communicating that way and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Even when other languages are involved, there will always be certain nuances depending on the place. For example, Canadian french is slightly different than the French in France. So, personally, I think Filipino English is fine.

[skywatcher]

Philippine English is okay for me, though I really recommend that should we ever use this variety of language, we need to understand that this variant of English is not always suitable when speaking with users using other English variants. This means not only should we study Philippine English, but we should also understand its differences with other local varieties of English. It might be a hassle, but this is better instead of potentially confusing and letting others misinterpret what we mean by our words and phrases, haha!

[ang.diwata]

I agree with most of the answers here that changing or discontinuing the use of Philippine English is already moot. I think the best solution would be to improve our knowledge on the actual English meanings aside from how it is commonly used in our country.

[AExAVF]

I don't mind using Philippine English when talking to fellow Filipinos as well as foreigners who are familiar with Philippine English.  However, when we visit other countries, we have to be circumspect in the use of our own English, especially in English-speaking countries like the US, Canada, and UK.  I have a relative, my maternal uncle, who is now a citizen of Canada, and he speaks Canadian English very well.  Though he is familiar with Philippine English whenever he visits the Philippines, he leaves it here whenever he departs for Canada.