Acquiring an American Accent for Spanish & Filipino Speakers

[zmwaiting]

btw, those 170 that u mentioned are dialects

[zmwaiting]

Thanks! I'm a Filipino who's been learning American accent

[KevNSuraj]

Im Filipino Spanish Mixed! But I have a East Anglian British accent

[chargonchar]

Why on Earth would anyone want to sport an American accent? I don't want to sound like Mickey Mouse chewing Wrigley's chewing gum all the time. If any, I would attempt a true ENGLISH accent.

[yujjinn]

@chargonchar Hey, you already have that snotty attitude so why not, right?

[iNESADRIenne]

Very good tutorial. I just wish the word "Tagalog" didn't sound/look so painful coming out of the mouth. ^.^

[rebeccalinquist]

@jizzy2k Sorry, I think I was just trying to say it correctly, and probably didn't at that!

[redcomusic]

Everybody just please shut up...really! This video is an instruction on "acquiring and American accent for Spanish and Filipino speakers." It does NOT say..."how to speak English the right way" or "this is the best way to speak English." (The US itself has different regional accents; this video teaches what's called General American so it's really practical).

So stop arguing and attacking each other's personal lives or [distorted] sense of history. Yes, distorted...I went there, get over it.

[triggerman13]

@sirach Actually, Tagalog and Spanish have linguistic similarities. That is, we have TONS of borrowed words from Spanish. The Spaniards after all, colonized the Philippines for 333 years. Grammar-wise, however, it's way off. I know this because I speak both languages. :)

Phonetically, it sounds similar because Filipinos pronounce every letter in any word. We only have five vowels (a, e, i, o, u), e.g. ship and sheep are pronounced the same. There's no stress timing like in English.

[josquine]

first and foremost, majority of the filipinos don't need this. because, they've already mastered the american accent, the intonation and the stresses. anyways, this video is so good and informative. this is a big help for the minority of the filipinos.

[missy1727]

@sirach I believe my grandmother pronounces those words like what your granny did. IMO, Filipinos nowadays are more Americanized unlike in our granny's generation. Mostly uneducated filipinos pronounces english that way.

[missy1727]

@sirach I'm a Filipina and I don't pronounce star as "estar" neither speeding as "speeding" XD

It has to be a relation between the Philippine Language and Spanish as I grew up speaking tagalog and spanish words as we have loaned words from spanish. I've talked to native spanish speakers, I can understand them and roughly translate from spanish to filipino.

[rebeccalinquist]

@dirtylittlepigboy Take coaching from an American Accent Coach - that's what we specialize in.

[aljasmid]

I have tried learning accent for a long long time but my Filipino Accent would always show. So I tell my listeners to deal with it. I am a Filipino. I speak english to be understood and that's enough for me. I don't have to bend too much for anyone.

[danfelbm]

the thing is that we tend to make jokes very often hahaha

[ToddLovett09]

Haha...it's June 19th 2011...and Fathers Day. Funny I come acorss this video.

[p3rucha0]

you are the best :)

[rommelfernando]

I like your accent. It's really very american.

[carlingskie2]

@rommelfernando She's American, that's why. lol

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Yeah, I know that, didn't you know there are a lot of chinese terms in our language? The difference is that they actually enrich the language, didn't you read that article?

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach you can deny it as a real problem all you want, but the rest of us see the huge damages in our culture... So it is pointless to deny something that is present, it is only merely ignoring it, but the problem will never subside if you just deny it? Exactly...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach If the tagalogs will try and attempt to spread out their language like that, enough to push a lot of other filipino languages like mine into endangerment, they should at least check the integrity of their own first, and if not, then push for making the changes the tagalogs in the academies were once doing... If they don't want to use the original terms, then they don't realize the beauty of their own language...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach More than likely if it wasn't that, then they just lacked the initiative like they do now, unlike their bretheren in the academies who at least did have the initiative to try to fix their language, tagalog. Why is it when the other day when my family were out shopping, there was a perfume store, and they tried so hard to find a native word for it? Perhaps their parents or their parents parents should've listened to the nativizations, now the language is still very unorganized...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach I don't believe Koya and Kuya are or were pronounced the same, if Atchi and Ate were not, if that's what you were aiming for, but regardless, there's at least some or a significant distinguishment between these 4, and yeah, I know you know that already, but your convenientally leaving that information out...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Again, you don't get it, English is put in a very different situation than Kapampangan, if you were Kapampangan, you would definitely be able to know what I'm talking about, why not you quit with the crab mentality and go read the damn article...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Im not telling you to, if you truly have spanish blood in you, then be proud of it, but don't use it to try to make a hispanization of us, as not all of us have spanish blood, infact whoever said that most of us did? Yeah, around 300 years of colonization, Mexico's was a little shorter than us, yet they have more of that blood than us.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Hmm actually, perhaps that was a modernized separation of e and (as in, made by researchers like Mike Pangilinan)i, but Sulat Kapampangan apparently has a way of changing the i sound to e, even back then. As of now, I am not sure if they at first didn't distinguish the i and e, or if they simply didn't care to separate the two character wise. Nontheless, they are distinguished in our terms, yes even the native terms...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Also, reading further into our writing system, kulitan, the E and I are separated. This is also especially obvious in some of our term, like Siuala can not be accidentally screwed up into "Seuala", or the sounds are also different from Ing and Keka, we never accidentally use "Eng for Ing" or Keka for Kika, so the e and o and e and i were already distinguished in some languages.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach No, the distinguishment of e and o, according to all the pre-spanish terms and the writing system of some languages, were already present in a lot of languages. The distinguishment of e and i was probably not until the spaniards came, but your underestimating a lot of really developed languages in the Philippines, as you said, not all Philippine languages are the same. Like when us Kapampangans say Koya(tag:kuya), we didn't say "Keya"???

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Barely coming off from being a colony, you should understand that colonial mentality was probably still strong during those times, now? They don't have this mindset anymore, the fact that the terms are not nativized is perhaps because they don't know another alternative, I mean cmon, how many know old tagalog? Do you even know the origial terms before we used tito and tita? I'm pretty sure today if they KNEW these more native alternative terms even existed, they would use them!

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach You don't get it... Seriously, you should stop trying to argue with everything I say, read Mike Pangilinan's "Kapampangan Lexical Borrowing from Tagalog: Endangerment

rather than Enrichment", explains everything. Lexical borrowings can lead to a language's endangerment.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach I believe even in Pampanga they would do the same thing with their time, but most likely it was a lexical borrowing from tagalog speakers, and lexical borrowings is what is killing my language, making it endangered... This is why I don't like replacing terms that is already there.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach No, I know they are foreign words, Im just telling you that this evolution of the distinguishing of the d and r did not come from the spaniards :P And as for that native calendar, even if that one were to be a hoax, there has to be a native one somewhere, it doesn't make sense that our ancestors pre-colonial were already far too advanced to not have something like that. And yes, tagalog makes use of the spanish numbers for telling time.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach And im pretty sure we picked up on the difference between r and d a long time ago, not even from the spanish, in the case being my ancestors in luzon had to distinguish between the titles Rajah, like Rajah Sulaiman, and Lakan Dula, there is no mention of them saying "Lakan Rula".

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Lol, the first one to that other person was a mistake, but how can you blame me for getting mad at his ignorant statement? The Japanese people and the Filipino people, historically, were friends and even had good connections, especially through trade. The statements that you keep mistaking, are mostly on you, I've been repeatedly trying to clarify myself.

[NotAWarPerson]

@sirach They're related when it comes to vocabulary. Our numbers, days, etc. are in Spanish. :)

[ThtOnePinoy]

@NotAWarPerson Actually, our numbers are not spanish :P we share the number system with a lot of our s.e. asian bretheren, like for example, malaysians too use "lima" as number 5 if im not mistaken. Tagalog for one is isa but sometimes uses una when describing as something being first, while us Kapampangans just use metong. I am surprised that we don't have our own ancient calendar, or perhaps we do, but we never found out or for some stupid reason we did but we don't use it...

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach Repeating myself does not mean I am trying to establish a stronger connection. Why don't I make that mention? Well first off, if you weren't paying attention, I was responding to someone who thinks Japanese and Filipino shouldn't be together, I was trying to show him/her some of what we have that are similar. Second, the correlations between us and those scripts are pretty obvious, but it was not the current topic, if it had been, I would obviously point this out.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach I JUST SAID Katakana is Syllabary, unlike our sulats which is Alphasyllabary, no point in repeating what I just said? Nontheless they will obviously share some things in common, as in which character produces which sound.

Yes, and the calligraphy system present in Kulitan(Sulat Kapampangan) I believe also came from the Brahmic script as well.

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach That is true, and plus Katakana is syllabary, while our sulats are alphasyllabary, but nontheless it and Baybayin, or most of the other filipino sultats, like Kulitan, Hanunoo, Buhid, etc. share things in common with Katakana. Also don't forget the brahmic correlation, Sulat Kapampangan(Kulitan)'s calligraphy system is said to have come from that script, if im not mistaken.

[jg26phi]

mexico-mehico spanish-el spania philippines-pilipinas

[rebeccalinquist]

@sirach Exactly! I'm so glad you "get it!"

[ThtOnePinoy]

@sirach I was referring mostly to Baybayin, obviously Japanese and Tagalog are worlds apart as well, but Baybayin and Katakana share similarities, again those are writing systems, not language.

To be honest I was annoyed at that last person's comment saying why are Japanese and Filipino together, why wouldn't we be? We're neighbors...

[ragan2nik]

we filipinos and spanish have the same accent when we speak

[ThtOnePinoy]

@ragan2nik Hardly...

[matikorn]

I just wish I had money... but I dont so I can't take any classes :(

[starsoverthere]

How does the American language sound to non-native American speakers?

[Phltau4]

Tagalog is more likely in Spanish but when it comes to other languages here in the Philippines you will see a lot of differences.I know these because I'm a Maranao half Waray and I also speak Bisaya, maranao language is similar to that bahasa indonesia but the sound is a little bit scary because when you try to pronounce them it will go on a loud voice this because we adopted the tone of Arabic since we're at grade school.

[elenavlada]

YOU ARE AWESOME!

[giankarlo18]

Thank you...

[buscapleitosNo1]

To Spaniards, tagalog sounds like SPANISH in many ways, and American English sounds to us like somene with a nasal problem eating hot potatoes...

[cjize]

Hi! I'm Cj, a Filipino. I just saw your videos and I believe it will help me a lot. I'm working in a call center and the callers are having trouble understanding me. This is so cool!

[randzTP08]

WOW! You helped me a lot. I appreciate it. 

[emmashur12]

@shinreyzala: if you are filipino, you pretty much know that your language has a mix of spanish...just saying!!!!!

[emonatica07]

can u make something about TH....tree, three

were, where, wear

[poofkaboom]

@emonatica07

Lol I have trouble with those words xD

[bongmanding]

Dear Rebecca, One of the most common mistake among Filipinos is using pronouns. We tend to use he instead of she and vice versa.This is because Tagalog does not have pronoun equivalent for these words. We use "siya" which can be used for both genders. Just an FYI.

[gilbertmigs]

@bongmanding tumpak

[JAARYgirlz]

ok y are people japanese and filipino together? i see no relation with both languages.. i'm filipino and my best friend is japanese.. so different.. i find it hard with the japanese pronounciations.. and same with french.. i've been learning french for 3 years and i find the words really hard to say..

i find spanish easier cuz of it's similarities with filipino.. 6000 words.. come on..

i have a friend who speaks spanish and it's quite easy to understand :)

[ThtOnePinoy]

@JAARYgirlz Native tagalog words are worlds apart from spanish, you find spanish easier because you have probably picked it up easier, I don't, I find english easier than spanish. You should consider key things, besides the many other Japanese loan words that are also in tagalog(Haba, daan-daan, Kampay), 1. Many words besides loan words sound alike or similar(Kasama, Kasuwato, Itsura, Mura, Kay), 2. Alphabets are alike, such as how both katakana and baybayin make use of syllabary/alphasylabry

[everythingasian17]

Thank you so much. My dad is having a problem, with not saying words longer like you said. -Filipino

[bocanada81]

she compares Spanish and FILIPINO.

[FARYCC]

can anyone help me?? I am into acting and I need to learn the american accent as soon as posible! my native language is spanish...

[SenkanYamatoMaru]

I used to train accent reduction for Filipinos working in a BPO company servicing the US...This here is an excellent video. Good insights and very useful for people in my field. :)

[kittyautomatic]

This is such a big help. :) Keep it up, Rebecca!

[xtinejai]

Hi, Thanks a lot for this video, I am a Filipino.

[patelame]

can u make video for indian people?...

[rebeccalinquist]

@patelame There are several! Check out my channel.

[melkyloco]

how to I learn Spanish? im talking about really good spanish where they can understand me well. I was thinking of going to that beutiful place Costa Rica they have really good spanish schools..

[evilnarc]

filipino people should study manila accent instead! lmao.

[gudlukinguy]

@evilnarc LOL some filipinos from south of manila can speak with a manila accent. its not hard at all. we watch tagalog teleserya every day duh LOL

[shemmyen]

THANKS!

[guilbertz0430]

fillipino was heavily influenced by spanish. read the history, they were first colonized by spanish for a long period of time. so, some native filipino could actually speak fluently in spanish and they call it chabacano. it's a heritage as well i guess.

[kofo65]

Thanks for this video,It's very helpful.I'm a Filipino and 'm working with a British.He said to me that my accent sounds like an American and Spanish accent.I'm doing my best to improve my American accent for me to be understood in the workplace.I totally agree with this video. Salamat po!

[shemmyen]

@kofo65 You should study a British accent not an American.

[kofo65]

@shemmyen ,thank you very much for you advice.Yap,I think I'll practice British accent.

[shemmyen]

@kofo65

[ernesto987]

There are no spanish languages ! There´s just one spanish language with regional variations (not languages). Likewise there´s not canadian english language, nor australian english language !!

[mazinger8000]

i had that problem too....:- [

[shinreyzala]

so does that mean it'd be easier for Filipinos to speak spanish?

[rebeccalinquist]

Maybe ... I know a lot of Filipinos who speak Spanish fluently.

[maryel07734]

coz Spanish used to conquer Philippines before

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@rebeccalinquist Our family has been speaking Spanish for generations and when the Americans came at the turn of the century, our ancestors also learned English. At the moment, our generation know both English and Spanish and could speak both with the exact intonations, pronunciations, etc. and as if we were Americans when we spoke English and Spanish when we spoke Spanish.

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@ronjacobcalumpang (continued...) Basically, its on which language you are most common and that which you grew up with. Cebuano for one is mostly patterned after Spanish intonations/pronunciations with its hard Rs and soft Zs.

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@ronjacobcalumpang (continued...) Basically, its on which language you are most common and that which you grew up with. Cebuano for one is mostly patterned after Spanish intonations/pronunciations with its hard Rs and soft Zs.

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@ronjacobcalumpang (continued...) Basically, its on which language you are most common and that which you grew up with. Cebuano for one is mostly patterned after Spanish intonations/pronunciations with its hard Rs and soft Zs.

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@ronjacobcalumpang (continued...) Basically, its on which language you are most common and that which you grew up with. Cebuano for one is mostly patterned after Spanish intonations/pronunciations with its hard Rs and soft Zs.

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@ronjacobcalumpang (continued...) Basically, its on which language you are most common and that which you grew up with. Cebuano for one is mostly patterned after Spanish intonations/pronunciations with its hard Rs and soft Zs.

[ronjacobcalumpang]

@ronjacobcalumpang (continued...) Basically, its on which language you are most common and that which you grew up with. Cebuano for one is mostly patterned after Spanish intonations/pronunciations with its hard Rs and soft Zs.

[CysticJI24]

@rebeccalinquist THATS TRUE WE CAN SPEAK SPANISH FLUENTLY

[snizer06]

@shinreyzala yes...more than 100 Spanish words are use in Filipino language

[SenkanYamatoMaru]

@shinreyzala Filipino here...and "Yes" is the answer to your question.

[amihan99]

i think this video should be watched by call center agents in the philippines. where do you teach madame?

[eklavospice]

Thank you so much.

[iSPaLiTo]

Interesting video but I'm spaniard and I prefer Acquiring english accent. For europeans USA accent not sound well, on that way, mayority prefessor of english natives are british here like we prefer.

Sorry, my english is horrible, i hope you can anderstand what i wrote

[LaEspriella]

This is a great video and very, very helpful. I am Spanish and I wish you could be my mentor. However, thanks very much for putting the videos.

[cowboyjayy]

could you do a video for italian accent? please

[slidemasterx]

Besides, the point of the video was to show similar mistakes that Hispanics and Filipinos make. As you can see with original poster's comment below, Many Spanish and Filipino speakers have similar word stress issues.

[yanina143]

Maybe true but tagalog is pronunced like japanese. So japanese should be included as well.

[shinreyzala]

it's true,it's easy for us to say japanese words as long as it's written in Roman Alphabet.

[yanina143]

why is she putting spanish beside filipino when the language has no commonality. there's no spanish or english in tagalog.

tagalog is more prunounced like japanese

[rebeccalinquist]

Many first language Filipino speakers devoice sounds like Spanish speakers and have similar word stress issues ... Japanese and French also have similar word stress issues ... when you study languages linguistically, you start to see a lot of interesting trends!

[slidemasterx]

Yes there is. There are 4000 Spanish words in Tagalog and countless english loan words. Spanish speakers and Filipinos often make the same mistakes with V/B sounds.

[yanina143]

Actually there's no english or spanish in the tagalog language. Filipinos commonly mix the languages up. Give me any spanish word you think is tagalog and I'll give you the real tagalog word. I studied tagalog in the Philippines for many years and the text books have not a single spanish word.

Japanese speakers mix alot of english words in their daily vocabulary, does that mean there's alot of english in japanese as well? I don't think so.

[slidemasterx]

That's not really a fair comparison since english words used by Japanese are part of pop culture while spanish words used by Filipinos have been there for hundreds of years that Filipinos don't even remember the original tagalog word for it.

I'm aware tagalog has been established before the arrival of the Spaniards. Who speaks tagalog without any mix nowadays? Would a foreigner to learn Tagalog from 400 years ago? I think not. Tagalog learners learn it as it is spoken today.

[yanina143]

That's what I'm saying, japanese speakers mix up their language too. What I'm saying is CORRECT tagalog has no english or spanish in it. Correct japanese doesn't have any english in it either. Would a foreigner to learn japanese from decades ago? I think not. Alot of them would understand my english words even though they don't speak english.

[hettycutie97]

@yanina143 for ur information us filipino have some words like spanish...for example: the spanish numbers

the greeting sounds the same too example: kamusta(filipino) como esta?(spanish)

[nenabunena]

@yanina143 Spanish & english may not have an influence on traditional tagalog but the language has evolved now into Filipino (like English did 100 years ago) & has adapted not only Spanish & English, but also the other local native languages into it.

[SenkanYamatoMaru]

@yanina143 Tagalog a.k.a Pilipino uses hundreds, if not thousands of borrowed Spanish words. Tagalog has the same "rolling R" of the Spanish. You will find that Filipinos would learn to pronounce Spanish words more easily than English. A legacy of our Hispanic and colonial past.

[leejaedi]

@yanina143 filipino and spanish sound the same actually...

[deepsweech]

@yanina143 If you are talking about OLD tagalog you might be right (It is closer to the Malay language, I'm familiar malay or melayu) but nobody talks that way anymore or else you will sound funny :). Modern tagalog or street tagalog usually use borrowed words (usually Spanish) maybe that's why modern tagalog is closer to spanish than to english.

[pekengbot]

@yanina143

you do not know what you are talking about. rebeccalinquist was right in addressing the spanish and filipino speakers at this video for the commonalities in the two languages. more than 300 years of spanish occupation in the philippines had greatly influenced the filipino language.

i, myself, find it easier to speak spanish than english.

[gudlukinguy]

@yanina143 you probably dont know anything about tagalog. english is our second language and there's english in tagalog

[ichesmeister]

@yanina143 filipinos also use spanish accent when we say a borrowed spanish words. philippines is colonized by the spaniards for almost 400 years.

[buratmo13]

@yanina143 that's completely wrong. Tagalog is a mixture of many languages including English. In fact, it is the only place in south east Asia whoa has this distinction. To site an example, "Gobyerno (government)" is also the same in Spanish. All Filipinos I know can also count in Spanish. Test it next time you speak to a Filipino. Second, most Filipinos will talk in TagLish or Tagaog ang English. The origin of the word "boondocks" is Filipino in origin taken during the first world war.

[acousticLU]

@yanina143 cuz most of the filipinos speak Filipino which has a mixture of tagalog and alot of spanish words and sometimes.. english.. tagalog without spanish words is really old and is not as commonly spoken by the general public.

[pelikan1100]

@yanina143 you r soo wrong next!!!

[3mot30]

@yanina143 do u know ur the most racist stupid fuckin dumbass i know???

[fonsucu]

@yanina143 No Spanish in Tagalog? Learn Spanish , dear! You already know fifteen thousand words!

[khristeene]

This is perfect for call center agents in the Philippines and Dominican Republic. (I work for a multinational company.) Thanks Rebecca

[flip0ass]

ohh yes! those callers from the Philippinea re annoying!

[soulrnbmusic]

seriously, this woman is amazing. ;-)

[dominicbalabat]

@soulrnbmusic SUPER AMAZING!!

[Nonymous77]

Great video for Language training

[junniesalud08]

I'm a Filipino and I must say that you really are well-knowledgable about how we speak the English Language, especially the vibrations that you were talking, we're really having a hard time pronouncing that and some filipinos think that pronuncing "please" with vibrations is wrong because we often tend to pronounce words as exactly how they were spelled. I hope you do more videos about the FILIPINOISM (on the English Language) especially the p/f b/v articulation, we often interchange them

[gennygyra18]

The only problem I have is that I can't say the word "important" correctly. It's freaking weird. When I try to say it my tongue gets all messed up.

[benadrian21]

thank you so much!!!

[reasonableskeptic]

I want you to be my teacher in Linguistic! :)

[pasukngpasuk]

Brilliant research!

[aciyana23]

helped me a great deal...thanx rebecca!

[rq554]

Awesome vid! Thank you!

[siminona]

Fascinating! Great video. :)

[MyriamCPP]

thank you so much for all of your great videos!!! :-D :-D :-D