Watch Yes Speak English Please

Bird saved and nursed from the heat

While I am not required to explain why I am using English as the medium or language of this channel, I am too happy to explain why. Also, I think it is time to share our reason.

Hello friends, Thank you for dropping by and watching this post.

At the very onset of this channel, we opted to use English language as the official medium we use to convey our message, idea and opinion.

It is not because we are biased in favor of the language. It is because we feel we can go on with this venture using just that.

I have read some comments from friends, pals, and subscribers: Why not use Filipino, the designated national language of the Philippines which is really in more ways than one is Tagalog.

Maybe, they thought it’s best for me to just speak Tagalog as in some of my videos, I seem to labor in speaking English, which I do accept is half true.

You see, I come from the Philippine island of Luzon in its southern tip called the region of Bicol or Bicolandia, the land of Bicolanos.

The region is composed of the four mainland provinces of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Albay and Sorsogon and the island-provinces of Catanduanes and Masbate.

Just for quick clue, geography-wise, in Google map, look for the majestic and perfect coned Mt. Mayon and voila, you are in Bicolandia. The language of the area is Bicol with a “C” (English or Castillian) or Bikol with a “K” with some variations here and there as you travel up and down, along the six provinces comprising the region.

The language is being spoken by an approximate good number of 5,796,989 people. That, do not include other Bicolanos that have migrated to other areas of the country and in some parts of the world.

I grew up in the circle of my family, relatives and friends all speaking Bicol. I studied elementary in Calabanga Central Division Pilot School where the medium of instruction was Bicol up until between grades two or three.

By that time, I was slowly honed to accept learning two more languages- Tagalog and English. Tagalog gmooed to becoming the national language hyped as Filipino.

The other one is English, the Philippine education system adaptation which by the way was a pure clone of the real English in terms of grammar originally brought to the shore of the pearl of the orient by the American Thomasites.

The Thomasites were originally a group of about 500 American teachers sent by the United States government to the Philippines in August 1901 who arrived from the ship USAT Thomas.

The term however has also been expanded to include any teacher who arrived in the first few years of the American colonial period of the Philippines.

USAT Thomas was a United States Army transport ship, launched as the SS Persia in 1894, having been built for the Hamburg America Line’s service to New York. She was bought by the Atlantic Transport Line in 1897 because she was “practically a sister” to other Massachusetts class of ships already in service there. She was renamed SS Minnewaska by her new owner.

Even when I moved on to high school and college, my spoken language is still Bicol. When I started working in, yeah, Bicol, it was still my language.

Looking back now, I can remember I did not do well on my English classes. Those classes when we mostly practice writing short essays with themes selected by the English teacher. Classes include practicing the use of tenses as in present, past and future. And conjugations, too!

There never was a thought that when I go out into the real world I will be called out because of my heavy accent or something like that. But I don’t mind though. As long as I understand and speak English, I won’t mind it at all. It is not my worry either.

Just to satisfy some of our viewers, we now include English subtitles or closed captions on our new posts.

It all changed when I started working in Metro Manila that I have to embrace speaking Tagalog and English most of the time. Tagalog is the lingua franca of the region.

O, by the way, as with the Bicol region, many Philippine regions prefer to use their own language other than Tagalog, as in the regions around Cebu, or Negros, Tacloban, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Mindanao, etcetera. We have an upcoming post about that in detail.

As a sampler:

In Eglish you greet folks “GOOD MORNING”
In Tagalog: “Magandang Umaga”
In Bicol: “Marhay na Aga

The word “MAGANDA” in Tagalog also mean “BEAUTIFUL” which in Bicol is “MAGAYON”. Bicol is more specific and precise, I should say. “GOOD” in Tagalog is “MABUTI” but Manilans do not greet each other “MABUTING UMAGA.”

Enough of that.

Fast forward today, the audience of this channel look like this:

Historical lifetime watchtime, meaning from the beginning of this channel up to this video production, the top five comes from:
Philippine audience making up 25%
United States audience = 20%
India = 5.7%
Saudi Arabia = 3.8%
Canada = 3.3%
and the rest distributed among hundred more small and minute percentage

For the Period from July 1-25, 2018

The watch time by geography showed the top five came from:
Philippines at 43%
United States = 11%
India = 5.6%
Saudi Arabia = 5.1% (correction, in the audio, said as 5.15%, which is a mistake)
Malaysia = 3.5%

In conclusion, we will maintain our use of English as our medium, but may deviate from time to time with a sprinkling of Bicol and Tagalog as needed and as we go along.

I hope we satisfy the queries and comments of our viewers and commenters. Leave your comments below and let us start a conversation on this.

Just to satisfy some of our viewers, we now include English subtitles or closed captions on our new posts.

I’m wrapping this post with an appeal for you guys to please subscribe to this channel, but if only you liked it. And hit the notification bell. If you did already, it would be nice if you can also like and share this video. Keep watching and as always thanks for your support. I will see you in the next video.

By the way, our background video is that of the bird we were able to save. We saw it fell from the backyard fence from a nearby garbage bin. We brought it inside the garage, placed inside the bird cage and fed it with water. The bird was just learning to become independent from its mother, we supposed, judging from its appearance. It was exhausted from the noontime heat it bathed on the water. We released the bird the following morning and hoped it would find its way home.

Good day everyone and thank you. Marhay na aldaw asin mabalos po.

Watch the full video on this link here:HERE

Or, watch it below:

[Video file fact of: “Speak English Please”
✅ Video: Streams dependent on the viewer internet connection and gadget capability, (look Ma, it’s great to watch on TV!)
✅ HD Video: 1920 x 1080 at 22,000 kbits/sec and 29.97 frames/sec
✅ Audio: MPEG at 16 bit stereo @48 KHZ
✅ Duration: 8 min & 05 secs
✅ Total File Size: 710,221 KB
✅ Closed Caption: Y
✅ Music: X ]

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