Say It Right

Believe it or not, there's a close connection between speaking carabao English and not pronouncing words properly. The enunciation laziness sometimes leads to laziness in grammar awareness as well, especially for us Filipinos. Why? I don't know. I just see it. I know the virus is there and rampant. Too many of us are careless about it all. You see it on FB. But folks with good enunciation often have correct grammar, too.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash.

I guess it follows that being wary about grammar means you're also careful to pronounce words correctly. It's my theory. Have you seen any grammar-conscious person speaking in a blurry way? I haven't, except if the guy has a speech problem involving his tongue or mouth. Then the enunciation problem is not due to laziness. I'm talking of lazy pronouncers who deliberately eat their words.

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So, be careful with your grammar and that will somehow take care of your pronunciation skills as well. And vice versa. Not always but mostly. Usually, if you're careful and smart with your grammar, common sense tells you to hone your enunciation skills as well. It's useless to have good grammar but slur when you talk. So, this mindset often automatically works when you talk if you're smart about grammar or enunciation.

And if you're a Filipino conscious about grammar or pronunciation.

There was a time when blur speech worked for me. My teachers thought I was saying the right thing and the correct answer so they gave me a passing mark. Try it. You want your poor grammar nearly undetected? Just talk indistinctly and fast. You'd often get away with it. But later, I realized it really didn't work for me. You make it a habit and later it boomerangs to you. It doesn't work when you're in sales and marketing, or in PR, for instance.

I did a stint in sales, marketing, advertising and PR, and in these fields you need to be clearly understood. You no longer answered to get a good grade. Your answers needed to be clearly said to make a living. So I started to be conscious about my spoken grammar. I was okay with written stuff because my journalist dad taught me professional writing. But spoken is a different thing altogether. I needed to be extra careful.

That element of extra consciousness or being wary with our grammar or pronunciation when speaking is what keeps us Filipinos safely grammatical. So we need to stop being lazy with our pronunciation or grammar. I know it's fun to eat, but not your words when speaking. Exert effort to enunciate correctly. And sometimes that means making sure your dentures are firmly in place.