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Thursday, November 04, 2010

Tactless Showoff


I read this article posted on Yahoo Philippines where the good Korean actress Lee Da Hae tried to show off her allegedly mastery of English accent. Accordingly, Miss Lee imitated American and British accents and when she imitated English Filipino teacher she did it in a ridiculous way. This was aired in Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). Without her knowledge there are Filipinos in Korea who had watched the show and were apparently irked by her show off. This prompted Miss Lee to issue a statement on her Twitter account to apologize to her fans from the Philippines. This is how her statement on Twitter was written. http://tl.gd/6plc2r

On Wednesday 3rd November 2010, said: 

First I'd like to give you my sincere apologies for what seems to be a misunderstanding.

It has come to my attention that many of you from the Philippines have posted comments protesting that i was being derisive by mimicking Filipinos when they speak English.

Therefore, in light of this matter I'd like to take this opportunity to clear the air.
In spite of what many people believe, I myself did NOT mention anything
about the Philippines or Filipino accent whilst on the TV show.

On the other hand I recall bringing up Southeast Asia and not the Philippines and the subtitles were inserted when the show was being edited of which I was not aware of until it was aired.

The TV show where this footage was taken from was designed to amuse its audience and my sole purpose was to entertain the viewers by coming up with lighthearted stories.

Since the producer knows that i speak English he asked me if I could
share any episodes that touch upon the English language.

As we all know every country has a typical accent when its people speak English (including myself) so after giving it some thought, I came up with a few lines where I simply tried to compare different English accents: the somewhat rigid British accent and beginners in Southeast Asia whose English tends to be a little hard-edged. No pun or ridicule was intended.

As an individual who use to take English classes over the phone with a Filipino instructor, I give you my word that even the mere thought of mocking Filipinos would never cross my mind.
I cannot tell you how much Filipino fans mean to me and as much as I love them, I would in no way
hurt or upset them.

I hope I have clarified any misunderstandings and once again I am truly sorry if I inadvertently
hurt anyone's feelings.

-i really love you, my Filipino fans.

Hmmm… just an after thought, if this is the kind of English you have Miss Lee. I suggest you better hire a Filipino English teacher to teach you to write better English. My English teachers never taught me this kind of English. Furthermore, I would like to invite you to join us in blogging. Be my guest, and learn how good your educated South East Asian neighbors write their blogs in English.

10 comments:

Ryan said...

I think she was just having a bit of fun wasn't she, I hope she's not treated too shabbily for this. Accept her apology and move on.

NENSA MOON said...

Hi JP,
I'm also a fan of Lee Dae Ha..
I'm sure she didn't deliberately hurt her Filipino fans... and she already had also try to apologize... so I think perhaps better to forgive her...
Peace to all!!

nensa

Zezebel said...

Maybe she meant to do a joke about it but don't realize that it will hurt her fan feeling.

Balqis DBJ said...

I'm smiling...Well, she had made a little mistake and hopefully it's a lesson for her, if not she'll definitely lose some fans.

I know it hurts but if the feeling dwells in us, it hurts even more. Since she had apologised, let's forgive her. :)

Jolly Princess said...

Ryan & Nensa – Yeah she must have had a great fun as well as the viewers. I am likewise posting her twits in here for more fun. :)

Jolly Princess said...

Zezebel & Balqis – Yep.. to err is human to forgive is divine. I hope she will be careful next time.

WebbieLady said...

Since she mentioned southeast asia, that would include singapore, mlaysia and the rest too... anyway, she seem to be very sorry for it nd even admitted having filipinos s english tutors...

Webbielady's Webbiestuffs

WebbieLady said...

As an addendum, English is not tht big deal really. I mean, I work nd live here in Europe where in Spain, Germany, France and Italy English is not a big deal.

In fact only here I realize that it's not your English that matters but how quick you can learn the new language of the country you are in. No one laughs or criticize at anyone's English here as all have their own strange accents... even native speakers have their respective accents per region or city.

WebbieLady's Tales

Jolly Princess said...

@WebbieLady- That is what I have in mind. I had visited Singapore once. Most of them speak fluent English and have their own accents. My landladies are Catholic nuns of different nationalities. Those who came from Spain, India, Central Africa speaks fluent English but they have a mixture of British and Middle Eastern accents. I am the only one who speaks American accented English at home. No one laughs at our accents and we understood each other well. Thanks for sharing. Happy you found my blog. ♥

WebbieLady said...

Indeed JP! I fully agree with what you said. Some people indeed just like to showoff.:)

Webbielady

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