Do people in the Philippines speak English very well?

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MumbaJumba

Like most colonies of English speaking nations ( such as the US, Oz, Nz, UK), they speak their language at home, but are taught in English at school, and it is the language of the work place. The ones who are nearly native would be all those who went to college which, if I am not mistaken, is somewhere around 25-30%. The ones who cannot speak beyond just a few words, are somewhere around 20%, the rest are somewhere in between. Because school and college curriculum is copied after the US. those who go to school, learn everything in English ( unlike in, say, Vietnam, where the medium of instruction is VNese)

Because Filipinos can speak English, they are given preference in overseas hire and are sent/invited to other English-speaking ( countries/or places that were UK colonies such as HK, USA ( lol) Canada, Singapore, even the Middle East (which was not, arguably,truly colonized, but where college education is also in English).

Filipinos have no prejudice against English as a rule, and do not equate speaking it with losing their national culture. They were quickly able to adopt English and use it very well,unlike say, the other US Commonwealth -Puerto Rico where very nationalistic "natives" practically refuse to learn it and insist on keeping shools and work place Spanish- speaking.

Curiously enough, because most Filipinos shuttle back and forth between home, the US, HK, Singapore and the ME, they often form an illusion that well, the entire world speaks English, and that English is universal. They think that places like Japan and Taiwan are strange because of lack of English fluency. This is clearly a misconception because the majority of the world ( some 65%) is still non-English-speaking, and many countries very zealously protect their culture against "the Anglo Saxon imperialism".

Most also do not know the little known fact that there are more English speakers in Asia than in Europe. It leads to funny situations where a Filipino whose English skills are poor feels shy to talk to a white person for the fear of embarrassing him/herself in front of a native speaker. But very often the white person is a German whose English is even worse than that of the Filipino, and both are now shy to express themselves, each one thinking the other to be the "real" English speaker.

Most Filipinos have never been to Eastern/Central Europe, Korea, China, Latin America and other huge areas where English is still not popular.When they do go to those places and stay there for a while, they begin to feel lonely, and upon seeing English speakers, they run to them to greet them as their brothers-in-tongue.

Because of English fluency, Filipinos seem to have more affinity with Western, English-speaking nations than with many supposedly sisterly Asian nations such as Thailand or Cambodia of which they seem to know very little.

M J

well , they speak what they have been taught to speak and sometimes it is not correct . Individual is a common word that is usually butchered to indewiduel . There are some others

Joe

Those with college education can usually understand english even if they don't speak it very well. Regarding the census data presented above; being able to say "Hey Joe" and "Give me money" does not constitute being an english speaker.

STL Biker

Yes they speak English

Sandy

In Bagio , many speak good English , in other places it is a cross between English and Filipino . I will say that many speak it , but very many are far from fluent

â˜†Encantadiaâ˜†

MOST Filipinos speak AMERICAN English. In NCR( National Capital Region), everyone uses it. Even in Malacanang(President's house {like White House}), the president and other political members speak English.

But in the other regions(not all regions), they don't speak Tagalog very well.

But, The Republic of the Philippine Islands is the THIRD-LARGEST (AMERICAN) ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

Hope I helped. :)

Zack B

yes they speak english well and tagalog well

Moocy

the philippines is the third largest english-speaking country in the world. does that answer your question.

Burrito E Â®

american english. filipinos are so americanized.

iscikedelic

This is from Wikipedia:
Philippines 45,900,000 27,000 42,500,000 Total speakers: Census 2000, text above Figure 7. 63.71% of the 66.7 million people aged 5 years or more could speak English. Native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew Gonzalez in The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487-525. (1998)

To quote: age 5 years old above can speak English....

We are fifth largest speaking country according to Wikipedia, maybe we once has been 3rd but all I can say we can do both accents even the Brit's rolling "rrrrs".

kahlan nynaeveÂ®

yes, we filipinos are quite fluent with the english language. we are also very adept at learning accents and languages that we can speak with a british or american accent. in my workplace, we have an english only policy but when out of it, i speak filipino to my colleagues. at home, we speak a combination of english, filipino and our dialect which is akeanon.

monique d

YEAH. ENGLISH.
WE USE ENGLISH NOT ONLY IN OUR WORKPLACE, ALSO IN OUR SCHOOL. THERE'S A LOT OF SCHOOLS WHERE WE CAN'T EVEN SPEAK TAGALOG.. WE SPEAK ENGLISH VERY VERY GOOD

Juan C

many do (mostly, only those who are educated)...

English, as it is taught in the Philippines, is very similar to North American English... English was imposed by Americans during the U.S. intervention and colonization of the archipelago... English is used in education, churches, religious affairs, print and broadcast media, business, tourism, court affairs, government and politics, etc...

English, the other official language (aside from Filipino), is widely used as a lingua franca throughout the country...

boris

There are a plethora af dialects in the phillipines..It depends on which island you are on in determining the most common dialect. So in their homes and workplaces, they would speak the dialect of their specific location. I have found however, that all the people from the Phillipines that I have met, have been able to speak Tagalog.. So I'm ASSUMING that is the most common overall. Many can speak English, though it is not their main language. It is common for the people of the Phillipines to be fluent in more than one dialect as they are quite similar. Don't quote me but I think it may be Spanish rooted? When they speak english, It is generally American English due to the infiltration of American media.

PawS

Philippines uses English as a second language. MOST people here (I dunno the exact figures) understand English. The problem I think is the confidence when it comes to speaking it. But nonethless, most can speak English. Some Filipinos speak English well and some do not (because I think some are not confident/ comfortable enough in speaking it). There are those who are very conversant in English especially those who are English teachers, call center agents and the likes. Mostly, we use American English. British English are seldom used. It depends on their 'workplace'. If the workplace requires speaking it, then we use it. Examples: call center industry, offices, schools etc.

kamagong

Pacific Storm has concise and correct answer. Let me add this - while we do use the American English, we don't enunciate the vowel sounds the way the Americans do. In the Philippines, we pronounce cap, cop and cup the same way. Depending on the context of our sentence, we know exactly what we're talking about. Here in the States, if you order a cup of coffee (and you say "kap"), they would look at you in wonderment!

Tori

I'm a Filipina and I"ve been to the Philippines before. Almost every person speaks English there, American English. Usually they learn it in school.
Whether or not they use it in their workplace depends on their job, I guess. But ask any Filipino to speak English and most likely they'll know how. Though I know that many can speak better English than others.

SERIOUS JOKER

american english is the style we use. some are very good, some are medium, some are lousy. at work english at meetings & tagalog at lunch break.

Pakipot

some do, some don't. but most can understand english. we use american english. in the workplace, i'm sure they speak mostly in tagalog.

metallhd62

yes, no difference last time I checked, yes, yes

Jay C

That depends. If you are in Manila/ Makati or dealing with any tour operators, then you will have no probem with English speakers. If they have a full education then they can speak some degree of English. When you start going out into the provinces, it gets more challenging. It would definately help to learn some basic Tagalog (luzon, Palawan) Cebuano (cebu) or Hiligaynon (Western Visayas) - depending where you are travelling (just hello, thank you, etc.)

The Philippines speaks American English due to their occupation for so long. Education used to be provided in English and the presidents inagural speach used to be in English (until Estrada changed the tradition due to his poor English skills).

There is a lot of Spanish in Tagalog, so that helps if you understand that. All in all, being Monolingual myself, I have never had major communication issues in the Philippines using English. But like any country - it is always challenging at times. Good luck.

pacific storm

The Philippines is the largest English-speaking country outside of U.S./Canada and the United Kingdom. Because of U.S. influence, American English is the norm. The degree of fluency varies by region, with Manila, the capital, having the most fluency.

Prophecy of Crazy Cat!

if you come across someone who is from a country which mother tongue isn't English, you can expect the person to speak English with some accent. Haven't you heard how the Chinese speak English, or the Indian speak English? What about the african accent? the italian accent? the mexican accent? No??? Never heard??? Then you need to watch the "Discovery Travel & Living" and "Lonely Planet" channels. They take you to every corner of the world and learn about other people's way of living and cultures and food and languages.

In some countries, like India for example, they already set up a special class that teach the people to speak English in American accent. To them, it is a great advantage especially when they seek jobs abroad, in hospitality lines. Sorry, not to be rude or anything, but Indian accent is kinda hard to understand. And even they agree on that.

I have come across many Philippines customers at my work place, and yes they speak English, but after looking at my speechless face, they tell me that they would find someone to translate. That someone to translate English into English.

People mentality has changed over the years, through high educations and intermarriage. You find more and more non-english speaking natives speak great english. We learn from the tv's and internet. its a good thing i guess. I know my collegous are talking behind my back that i try to speak english in American accent, but i just dont care. All im trying to do is improving my communication skills so i don't have to speak to someone and having the person making me repeat and repeat and repeat my sentences.

http://canes-defacto.myminicity.

hell yea..! Philippines is the third English Speaking country in the world. They use more on American English

Bhuwisit

Correction, dear sir: We speak ingles berry G-O-O-D, not well.

A well is a place where we get woohtar.

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