Posts tagged language

I really took the diversity of the United States for granted.

That whole “The United States is the melting pot” business they taught us in school means a lot more to me now that I’ve spent 4 months away from it all. I heard it all the time and thought “yeah yeah, I get it”. It’s really incredible thing if you look at the rest of the world though. Aside from a handful of mostly expats and Chinese, almost everybody in the Philippines is a Filipino. Everybody has black hair. Everybody has a certain darker shade of skin. Everybody is short. They all speak local dialects as their 1st language. They all enjoy approximately the same food. Religion is far from diverse - 90% Christian (About 90% of which is Catholic), 10% Muslim.

You are out of place if you don’t match even one of these characteristics.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s an amazing amount of indigenous diversity (over 180 indigenous ethnic groups, over half of which represent unique linguistic groups) in the Philippines that is rivaled by few other nations. But it’s a different kind of diversity.

It makes the culture interesting, but as a place to live or hang out in for a long time, it can get old. Definitely made me miss my insanely worldly-diverse Austin, TX.

English is by far the “universal” language here. No matter where you come from, it’s the language that everyone tries to use if you don’t share a first language. I am lucky for it to be my first language.

Because it is almost everyone’s second language, it becomes a different from what I’m used to. It is a simplified version mixed with the native quirks of the speaker. As a result, I try to modify my American English so that it is more easily understood by all. Some examples of modifications I make depending on the skill level of the person I’m speaking to:

- Idioms, euphamisms and slang are useless. Even simple things like “Sure”, “Alright”, “Fine”.
- I remove all complex words from my vocabulary. Basically, don’t use words you learned after middle school.
- I remove contractions
- I remove verb tense
- I remove verb conjugation
- I try to speak in single, independent clauses.
- Little things you don’t even think about as part of the language start to disappear.. “Mhm”, “Uhuh”, “Nuhuh”.. because nobody understands them or they mean different things to others.
- You start to get rid of the simplest of things. “Hey” and “Hi” become “Hello” instead. “Yup” and “Yeah” become “Yes”.
- Swearing is not well understood by many as people of other cultures oftentimes don’t even swear in their own languages.

My speaking speed has also slowed down a lot. This is probably the best thing I have done to make myself more easily understood and it will probably help me in the US as well - I generally talk rather fast.

In the beginning, it was a conscious modification to my speech; now, it’s just how I sound naturally.

I’ve met a few younger people who have traveled a lot or who live here and found that their English is significantly different as well. They sound like the locals with a sort of broken English, but with American, British or Australian accents.

I don’t expect that this is anything permanent. It’s just interesting that I find myself speaking this way even when I’m talking to a native English speaker.