"I think our oh-ben's temperature setting is off." Instead of scurrying over to help his poor wife with her dilemma, my darling husband barely stifled his laughter. "What did you say, honey?" he asked. I naively repeated my request. Now, he just guffawed. I sighed as it finally dawned on me. There is another word in the English language that betrayed my roots. I said "oh-ben" with my Filipino accent instead of "ah-ven" which is the American way of mentioning this electronically-powered heating/cooking contraption.
Does your wonderful mate do this to you? Instead of telling you the way something is pronounced in their native language, he/she snickers right at your face. Not only that, you also get a barely concealed laugh while being told that the way you said the word is just fine and dandy. Does it take you a couple of hours to finally wrangle out the right pronunciation, or do you just resort to finding out for yourself using the dictionary or Merriam-Webster on-line? Ever since I met my now wonderful husband, I found out that there's a bunch of words that I thought I was saying the American way - only to find out that I was really saying it the Filipino-English way. My hint? Boisterous laughter from my hubby.
I usually converse with Americans who cannot tell I was not born here. When they find out I'm Filipino, they tell me right away that my English is very good and ask me if I have been taught English. Filipinos are taught English from kindergarten onwards - earlier than that if your parents are particularly inclined. Here in the US, having little or no accent is an advantage sometimes. You do not have to spend an entire party explaining to somebody how you got to the States. You would have no need to divulge your "life story" since they just assume you have been here all your life. Then again, having noticeable accent can probably get you out of sticky situations. I notice that Americans are really nice and very accommodating when it comes to "foreigners."
Now, I am contemplating a great come-back when another episode of "pronunciation blunders" happens . My options:
A. "Why don't you learn Tagalog? That way, the shoe will be on the other foot for I get to make fun of your 'feeble' attempt at pronouncing words from my native language."
B. "I wish you look like Hugh Jackman and have an Aussie accent. You can laugh at me all you want then!"
What do you guys think? Either way, I think I might just have the last laugh (until I mispronounce something again.)
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