My voice over and hosting work gives me the opportunity to meet different types of people. Im blessed to meet kind considerate ones and then there are those that are utmost abrasive. I recently got to work with a client that was so particular about pronunciation of words. Im not the master of the english language but I think I would have the grasp of basic to intermediate conversational and business english.
I dont mind being corrected… but in this instance I was really taken aback over the fact that I was corrected in pronouncing a brand name. “Thanks for correcting I didnt know that was the correct pronunciation”, I said. “Your pronunciation is okay but this is how americans would say it, its an american company.” she replied.
A thought bubble suddenly popped out “over naman nito, nasa pilipinas naman tayo and the audience is filipino. I can understand if my audience were americans, the issue of language and the purpose of messages getting thru correctly is paramount.. pero in this case.. over na talaga at ibang level na pagka OA ko pag pinilit ko.. ”
It made me think. If it was a filipino name, and was not pronounced in a filipino way, would we react the same? Then the flow of the conversation continued, and I was just getting uncomfortable as they were making fun of certain “mis”pronunciations. ..”baysekol..traysekol.. koya..”
I take pride in being filipino, I was born and raised in manila by my mother who is an ilonggo (Murcia, Bacolod) and my father who is Cebuano. I get insulted whenever people make fun of accents.
Im good at accents. I can do british, american, irish, japanese, chinese, indian and provincial accents but never to mock or degrade any race or creed. We’re all from different backgrounds and different geographies.
Just hoping we could respect and have a paradigm shift that each accent is unique in delivery and character. Absolutely nothing to make fun or mockery of. What dictates the pronunciation? The dictionary? Why then is the term “boondock” not prounced as “Bundok”?
Just hoping that when we hear someone pronounces something differently or uniquely his / her way.. that we take the message verbatim… without prejudices on educational background, social status or income level.
There’s a saying .. “its not the words you say but how you say it” .. true.. I would also like to point out then that
“..its the message that is actually said in words that matter, how you percieve is up to you. .. but the message is clear…”
pWeraL@ng TxTspik! <= ayan bad trip talaga ako dyan!
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