The Breakfast

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Folks, remember I posted a story about a coffee tumbler from Starbucks with gift certificate I received as a sort of an incentive? It has 31^st December 2010 as its expiration date. The Christmas activities, work and my plan of moving to a new place preoccupied my already clogged brain. It was around middle of November I last visited a Starbucks closest to my place of work. I thought of using the gift certificate for a coffee mug or a tumbler. Those that I saw being sold at that time were the expensive ones. Being a practical buyer, I hesitated buying those expensive mug or tumbler just because of the Starbucks logo. I thought maybe comes December they will have new stocks reasonable enough for me to let go of my treasured gift certificate.

I had forgotten all about the gift certificate until last night. I happened to open my cabinet to get my gift for my godchild. The Starbucks paper bag with the gift cert inside it was in there as if greeting me. This morning after work, I teased the young man at the counter inside the Starbucks near our office. I would like to renew the gift certificate because the tumbler I would like to buy is not available. He declined politely with a grin. I had a fresh brewed coffee and a sumptuous sandwich for breakfast. I was the first customer. I told the young good looking fellow at the counter they will have lots of customers after me. True enough. While I was seated in a couch waiting for my order, more customers started to line up.

What caught my attention are the Caucasian families of six. Judging from their English accents they are British. The two cute little boys with curly yellow hair started pounding on the wooden table. I guess they had mistaken the table as a drum. I looked at the cute little ones with the smile while their grandma busied herself looking at them with her finger between her lips gesturing silence. When I got up after the last gulp of coffee the young lad at the counter called out – “Thank you ma’m… Happy New Year!” – I replied with a smile and thumbs up then headed to the bus stop for a ride home. Not bad to start a new day!  ☺

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, @cherry4eva84 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.

Blog Update

I became too busy over the weekend. What made your Jolly Princess busy? I would like to make a formal announcement I made some revisions again in my blog. For those who had been tediously following my blog. I hope in some ways I could make you smile reading my post to commensurate the effort. And hopefully my humble blog would be remembered across the World Wide Web. For the new revision, I added a language translation and widgets for ads. I noticed some of my visitors are from non English speaking countries. Thanks to some blogger friends for the idea of language translation. I apologize for being a copycat, once in a while.

The language translation may not be the exact words in your language. But I guess the essence of my blog will be there. I was laughing when I clicked the translation for the Filipino language. Some of the words are colloquial, they are so funny. Oh, you must have noticed I removed the LinkWithin widget. It did not look good in my blog. I had to take the widget off. Should you want to rock your brain with my previous posts, you may simply click Older Posts at the bottom portion of my blog. Or another way is to go to my Blog Archive.

The idea of adding ads to my site is just another innovation I thought of trying it. I had to subscribe to AdBrite because I was banned by Google AdSense. It was a long story. I had some friends who used to borrow my computer. I showed them my blog. Alas! They thought they could help me earn by clicking my ads using the same computer I used to set up my AdSense. So, you know what happened next. I know AdBrite will still approve my site. I thought there is no harm putting those widgets. I might as well be of help to some bloggers and blog visitors. Who knows?

I had some blog hopping and I noticed most of my blogger friends had updated their design into a more comment friendly template. When I visit a blog I would normally leave a comment and follow the blog. The exception is those blogs insinuating promiscuity. My parents are strict you know. I do not exactly understand why some sites sell those ideas. We could cross the bridge when we get there, after all. I guess this is all for now folks. I will keep you posted for any catastrophic change. Jazzzzzz kidding! Have a lovely blogging days full of smiles! Remember, smiles are for free! ☺