Driving me Peanuts

You ever watch those Peanuts specials with Charlie Brown and Snoopy? They usually came on during the holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Well, I guess if you're not from the States then maybe you haven't. Anyway, if you have then you probably now what I'm talking about. I remember watching those cartoons when I was younger. They would have this classroom scene where they are all sitting there and then their teacher would say in these exact words or sounds "wawa wawawa." I would sit there thinking what the hell did she just say? And before I knew it one of the characters would answer the teacher back as if the "wawa wawawa" actually meant something. Needless to say I was amazed. As a kid I just assumed she was speaking another language and I remember wanting to to learn whatever language that was also just so I could understand what she was saying there.

Nowadays, I don't watch anymore of the Peanuts specials but you know I get that exact same feeling when ever I'm sitting in class. I know the professor is asking me something but half the time I just don't know what that is. And it doesn't matter whether they are speaking English or Tagalog because contrary to popular belief Filipino English isn't exactly American English. You got accents placed where you are not used to hearing them, vowels that you think should be silent pronounced, and at times the pronunciation of T, D, B and V can all sound the same to me. You would think I would be used to the Filipino accent being surrounded by Filipinos my whole life and all but I've noticed that even the accents of one Filipino to another here are different from one another. Well, what can you expect when you are in a country with over a 100 different dialects. Fortunately, for me each of my professors have their own unique way of speaking. I can't even begin to describe them. Anyway, in the States I have many foreign friends who speak English with an accent but you know I don't nearly have as much problems understanding them as I do with the people here.

Maybe it only seems that way because I'm exposed to having to hear more people speak with an accent here or maybe it's because in medicine you use alot of words that already sound foreign. Well, at least I can say it's not as bad as it was last year but then again I don't know if that's really saying much.