Comments on: I Choke on Taglish

By: Owen

Owen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:31:18 +0000

Tama na yang panggagamit ng taglish! Na kakainis at sobrang sakit sa tenga!

By: Marienne Brommenschenkel

Marienne Brommenschenkel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:51:10 +0000

I agree with you kika. I was born in the Philippines. My mother, an english teacher decided to speak english with us since birth but some friends and relatives had a hard time coping up with it. We switched to tagalog when I was about 8 yrs. old. That was really very difficult for me and for my 4 brothers. I´d been communicating with everyone “taglish” since then. Now I´m almost 31 years in Germany. Golly, I didn´t know communicating in english (or purely in tagalog) would one day really hopelessly confuse me and the person I´m talking with. My brother in Houston, Texas would look at me as if I´m talking like/ with E.T. Lol! What a shame, sometimes! One thing I realized: If I´m with filipinos, I´m allowing myself to speak taglish, they will understand me. If I´m with foreigners, I speak english automatically just acceptable for them to understand me.

By: jamie anne

jamie anne — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:56:10 +0000

Im a full-blooded filipina who grew up and studied in Geneva Switzerland.
My native languages are english, french and taglish- I speak, read and write the two first better than most of my peers but i fall short in tagalog and can only converse in taglish.
Which, truth be told, i find shameful to the utmost.
What I don’t understand is that english seems to be elevated to such a level whereas tagalog is to be spoken only with the yayas… why is that?
No one speaks straight tagalog anymore: and it’s such a pity, it’s a beautiful language!
I can only wish to go home for a year or two and take Filipino and philippine history.
I know english is one of our official languages but no one speaks of the general decline of the proper use of tagalog.
More than english, i think we should be focusing more on the loss of our own language.

By: jane

jane — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:54:37 +0000

Great post. I think this is one reason why the Philippines’ proficiency in English had been declining. I think one major contributions is that the comission assigned to develop Tagalog and other languages don’t do well with their job. Constant changing of alphabet(we used to have c, v, j, z, etc.. but they got rid of it. I think some extremeist even wanted to use the alibata/baybayin) and rules(are we going to loan words or create funny words like salumpuwit? Are we suppose to call bras salungdede? Pardon the vulgarity. Hehe). They can’t make up their minds. It’s like they want to create seemingly native words that even Tagalogs themselves can’t accept to use and there comes the confusion. Nothing wrong with loan words. Other languages do loan. English for example has massively borrowed words from Latin. it even borrowed the Tagalog word “bundok”(boondocks)

But then, this mixing of language syndrome seems to be limited to Tagalog. The Manila Tagalog to be exact. My cousin has a friend who hails from Rizal and they use a more pure form of Tagalog and even words that the mainstream media never use. I speak Ilocano and we don’t mix it the way Tagalog speakers(esp in Manila) do. We don’t say “Manu ti money mo” unlike in the Manila-Tagalog “Magkano money mo”. We do use English LOAN words but we do not substitute.

I think the main cultprit aside from the government is the MEDIA. They keep promooting conyo speaking celebrities – celebrities who are neither good in English nor Tagalog(they only pretend to be good in English with their funny and fake accent. if you listen closely they commit a lot of blunders to and mispronunciation of the English language). They only have status because of their ‘pilipit’ FAKE accent. The pretensions that they cannot roll their ‘r’. Unless they’re Cordillerans(native or not, as long as they grew in the Cordilleras. ), I will see their inability to roll ‘r’ fake. In colloquial/Taglish term: ‘pacute’

By: kikas_head

kikas_head — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:11:07 +0000

No! I love taglish. Without it, I would be more lost than I already am. Since my Tagalog is horrible (I am not good at learning languages) that is the only thing that allows for my communication with a lot of people. If I am in a group speaking taglish, I can usually glean enough information from the few English words to get by. If it was straight tagalog, I would be screwed.
kikas_head´s last blog ..Why yes, I am Martha Sterwart

By: John Moxford

John Moxford — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:04:58 +0000

It is always good to speak the language the way it is meant to be. You either speak >a href ="http://www.langocity.com/learn-tagalog-course-comprehensive.html">Tagalog or English, NOT Taglish. It is horrible. Check the online resources available to learn Tagalog the easiest way.

By: kristine0019

kristine0019 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:07:23 +0000

I agree that we should avoid the use of “Taglish.” Given that BPO is one of the major industries here in the Philippines and that hordes of OFWs leave the country everyday, we should know the proper usage of th English language. Sad to say, mass media is the number one champion of “Taglish” – it projects the language as “sosyal.”

Well, here’s an eye-opener for you: “Taglish” is never “sosyal,” even if it is being spoken by Kris Aquino. If we keep on insisting on the usage of “Taglish,” we have no right to complain how come the BPO industry in the Philippines is dwindling. Neither should we send OFWs abroad anymore.

By: Anton Deleon

Anton Deleon — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:11:37 +0000

I grew up on Sesame Street and other english based programs that helped mold my english speaking proficiencies. My generation attritubutes their english speaking skills on the same reasons as well. Now that i am a parent to a precocious three year old kid, and living abroad also, we chose to hone him in the same tradition..via child friendly english programs. We speak to him in English and do not intorduce tagalog words. As far as im concerned, he can learn tagalog later as he grows older. I do not believe in the use of taglish. If speken in english, answer in english.If one can not address correctly, then speak tagalog instead, but dont mix it with english phrases and words.
Anton Deleon´s last blog ..Sharjah Aquarium experience

By: steff

steff — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:13:49 +0000

i just remembered, when we got back here from Papua New Guinea, my parents won’t let me and my siblings speak in tagalog.. I guess that’s why I had to take my filipino2 3 times in college.. LOL! that’s when we just allowed to speak tagalog at home.. LOL!
steff´s last blog ..deliberating these goddesses

By: M

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:10:08 +0000

Hi, I concur, we should get rid of Taglish! The problem with Taglish is that it messes up our syntax and grammar as well and its prevalence has hurt our English-speaking skills. We did a study on English speaking in the Philippines back in 2006 and we were surprised to find that despite the booming BPO industry in the Philippines because of our supposed fluency in English, very very very few of those agents accepted by BPOs actually aced the test. Surprising because English is considered one of the official languages in the Philippines (check CIA World Factbook if you don’t believe me). A lot of agents fell short of what was expected of us, the only reason they were accepted was the need for manpower and our easy understanding of American accent and culture. How many aced the English skills tests? A whopping 5%, wow!