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<iframe width="700" height="480" src="https://player.timelinenotation.com/englishtrips/19922/embed" frameborder="0"></iframe>
00:00
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Sen: Hello and welcome to our podcast, English Trips. I’m Sen, and I’ll give you expert guidance on how to make the most of these episodes as a language learning tool.
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00:30
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Our destination for today is The Philippines!
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00:37
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Are you learning English at the moment? Then this podcast is perfect for you. In each episode, we’ll take a virtual trip to a different part of the English-speaking world, where you’ll hear a real story from a real person… in English, of course!
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00:54
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Each episode focuses on a specific part of the language, such as a grammar topic. But don’t worry, this isn’t a grammar podcast. The main thing is that our stories are fun and interesting, and they also get you more comfortable with understanding the language!
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01:12
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Also, did you know that you can read along while you listen using our dynamic transcript? You’ll find the link in our show notes. Here’s a learning tip just for you: the first time you listen to the episode, follow along with the transcript. This will help you understand more of the story, and identify any difficult words or expressions. Then, listen a second, or even third time without the transcript, and see how much more you understand!
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01:47
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We are going to focus on object pronouns today! Object pronouns, like me, her, him, and them, replace other words in a sentence. They are really useful if you don’t want to repeat the same words again and again! Let’s look at a quick example: I called my parents last night. It was nice to talk to them. Here, the word them replaces the words my parents, so we don’t need to say it twice. Can you find some more examples in the story? I bet you can!
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02:29
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I hope you have a full stomach for today’s episode! If not, this is going to make you hungry! Let’s go to Manila, where Pat is going to tell us all about the big mix of cuisines, and languages, you can find in the Philippines. Come on!
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02:36
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02:50
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Pat: Hey. I’m Pat, and I’m from the Philippines. I grew up in Manila. “But wait,” you ask me, “why are you speaking English?”
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03:01
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Well, English is one of the official languages of the Philippines. The other is Filipino. We also have a lot of words that we borrowed from Spanish, like banyo for bathroom, and hija for granddaughter.
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03:18
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Why do we have these different languages? Because there is a long history of colonization in the Philippines.
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03:25
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The Spanish ruled the islands for more than three hundred years, and named them after their king, Philip II. After the Spanish, the United States ruled for about 50 years, until the end of World War II.
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03:44
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In 1946, the Philippines became an independent country. But you can still see a lot of influences from our past, like the languages we speak and of course, the food we eat.
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04:03
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A lot of food in the Philippines comes from other cultures. Some of it comes from the Spanish. We have Jamon, Ensaymada, and Queso de Bola.
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04:11
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Jamon (Wikimedia) 

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04:12
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Ensaymada (Wikipedia) 

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04:13
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Queso de bola (Wikimedia) 

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04:15
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We usually eat them on Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve. Some food comes from the United States, like burgers. We also celebrate Thanksgiving, an American holiday.
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04:30
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But we don’t eat turkey like in the United States. Instead, we have fried chicken. I like it more than turkey anyway!
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04:39
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We also make a special version of meatloaf called embutido, and we eat it with banana ketchup.
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04:42
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Embutido (Wikipedia) 

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04:45
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Banana ketchup (Wikimedia) 

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04:47
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The Philippines are very close to China, so we have a lot of food from there as well, for example, taho, a really popular street food. It’s made from tofu and brown sugar. In Manila you can always hear street vendors shouting “Tahooooooo”.
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04:55
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Taho (Wikimedia) 

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05:08
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And finally, we have something called siopao, which are like Chinese buns. In the Philippines, we usually fill them with pork or other meat.
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05:11
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Siopao (Wikimedia) 

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05:20
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A lot of dishes we eat are not originally Filipino, but we always add something special to them.
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05:28
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That reminds me of a funny story about siopao. When I was 10 years old, my family and I went to visit my grandmother in the hospital. She was feeling a bit hungry. She looked at my cousin Carla and me, and asked us to get her some siopao from the canteen.
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05:50
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Now, we speak mostly English and Filipino in my family, but in my grandmother’s generation, it’s more common for people to speak a bit of Spanish. When she told me how many siopao to get, she said the number in Spanish.
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06:08
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“Bring me cinco siopao, Hija.” Then she gave me a 1000 peso note. “Ok, Lola (that’s grandma in ‘Filipino’). We’ll be right back.”
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06:23
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We went to the canteen and walked to the counter. “Hello, we would like cinco siopao, please.” I said. “Cinco or cinquenta?”, the man at the counter asked us. Carla and I were confused.
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06:38
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06:39
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We didn’t use Spanish numbers to count, only English! “What did Lola say?”, Carla asked. “I think she said cinquenta.”, I said.
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06:51
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I told the man “cinquenta”. He looked surprised, but said, “Ok, I’ll have them ready in a few minutes.”
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06:59
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I gave him the money and we sat down to wait. A few minutes later, we went back to the counter. There were fifty buns and only a little money. “Oh no. What happened? Why are there so many?”
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07:16
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We walked back into my grandma’s room and she just stared at us. “Girls, I told you to bring me cinco!”, and held up five fingers. “You asked for cinquenta! Don’t you know how to count in Spanish?!”
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07:33
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So, in the Philippines, we have a big mix of cultures. This usually makes life pretty interesting, but it can create some confusing situations too.
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07:44
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At least I’ll never forget the difference between cinco and cinquenta ever again!
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07:54
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Sen: Well, I can definitely see the positive and negative sides to having a big mix of cultures in a country. The Philippines sounds like a food paradise, but the mix of languages is clearly pretty confusing sometimes, too! 50 buns! I wonder who ate them all. I hope Pat has a big family!
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08:16
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That’s it for today, listeners. I hope you enjoyed the episode, and that Pat didn’t make you too hungry with all the descriptions of delicious food! As for me, I definitely need something to eat now. As usual, if you want to take another look at today’s language focus, you can find more about object pronouns in our beginner courses in the Babbel app!
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08:40
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Finally, we’d love to hear what you think of the podcast. You can write us an email at podcasting@babbel.com, or simply leave a comment in your podcast app and we’ll see it. Thanks for listening, and see you next time for another exciting English trip!
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End
Pat from the Philippines shares her experiences with the country’s many languages. There are many diverse languages spoken in the Philippines, often traced back to the country’s colonial history. In addition to Filipino and English, many expressions with Spanish origins are used every day. Pat tells us how the different languages are used today and which misunderstandings she's encountered due to this multilingualism. We'd love to get your feedback, suggestions or learn about your own language learning journey. Email podcasting@babbel.com