I’ve been to the Philippines many times and this is what I know,
seen and heard in the Philippines.
1. Philippines national language is Tagalog.
2. Most of the students in the Elementary and High Schools are
unable to speak English or are shy to speak English when spoken to.
The college or university students in the Philippines speaks
Taglish as the locals term it, which means they speak a mixture of
Tagalog and English. Those Filipinos who are able to communicate in
English to foreigners speaks with a Tagalog accents and not
American accents. If you watch the Singapore television programmes
that televised the documentaries about the Philippines for example,
when he or she is being interviewed for instance, they speaks
English with a deep tagalog accents. One of the main Singapore TV
channel has a female Filipino correspondent in the Philippines and
when you listen to her reporting in English…it is with tagalog
accents, not American accents.
3. Most of the English movies shown in the various television
stations in the Philippines are dubbed into Tagalog. And in their
local daily television programmes, most of the Filipino artistes
speak Taglish.
My opinion is that those Filipinos having work in Singapore or
in other English speaking countries for many years are able to
speak English.or good English with or without the tagalog
accents.
