I chanced upon this video and I thought maybe I could share it will all of you and let's get to talk about it. So before you proceed reading my post, it is best that you watch the video being referred to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dWNzefRUI
In the video, the wife was driving thru McDonald's and her husband was on the passenger seat, recording the event. He then said that his wife will be ordering in her "Filipino Accent". As she pulled up to order, the wife started to order in, what appears to me, a Visayan Accent usually spoken by people in the Visayan Region of the Philippines. (Visaya/Bisaya is a dialect in the Philippines, so I chose to refer it as Visayan Accent since not all Filipinos have that accent so for me it is misleading to refer to it as Filipino Accent.) Then she tried to order "Shreedid Leetos" in between giggles and suppressed laughter, which of course the lady behind the counter couldn't figure out. The husband was having a blast hearing his wife struggling to finish her order, as the lady behind the counter asked "Ma'am, are you okay?", she was probably thinking if it was a legit order or a prank is brewing up. A few minutes later, they managed to pull out of the drive-thru with their food.
Okay, some of you might be saying I am being racist for laughing at someone; but please let me finish my post and hear me out. I am Filipino and the last thing I would do is laugh at my fellowmen (Kababayan).
For a non Filipino such as the husband in the video, it probably was a certified laugh trip, hearing how she ordered "shreedid leetos" wherein fact she wanted to have some "Shredded Lettuce". The comments however for the video varied from laughing with them, to violent ones of fellowmen, expressing their dismay of what seemed to them is an insult to Filipinos.
My take on this, I believe no one insulted anyone. The man married a Filipina, who happens to have a Visayan Accent. Nonetheless, they are married and obviously are happy together, whether laughing at each other's way of speaking or whatever the case may be, what matters is that they are together, happy and not hurting each other and/or other people in the process. The man didn't ridicule her for having an accent, or for being Filipina, he didn't downgrade the Philippines and the language and dialects. He didn't say anything foul, he wasn't being racist, he was just merely laughing and so was she (now don't get me wrong, I am not writing this to offend anyone and how each dialect sounds, I laughed cause she was laughing so hard at herself). So yea, take it or leave it.
The thing is, everyone has an accent. Accept it or not, it is the truth. If you are in a foreign country, and their language isn't your mother tongue, then you automatically speak differently from the natives. If an American lives in the Philippines and learns Filipino, his "American Accent" will show in how he speaks Filipino and it will be funny as well. Just as if an Australian would live in America, his "Aussie Accent" will be so obvious eventhough English is the native language for both countries. There are states in the US which have distinct accents, like those from the south, that's why they call it the "Southern Accent". I remember the time I first heard a Southerner say the word "My-Ahmi", I thought she was referring to something she owned or in reference to a loved one, of course, it turned out she was actually saying "Miami" as in Miami, Florida.
How you speak with whatever accent you have will definitely sound funny to others, but come to think of it, it is just a matter of perspective, depending on whose point of view it is. Your friends or partner or whoever it is might laugh their ass off (am I allowed to say that?) but what is best is when you start laughing with them as well, just like the lady in the video. She didn't take offense, she didn't get mad at her husband for laughing, she too found it funny and just laughed.
If we are able to laugh at ourselves, at our own quirky ways of saying or doing things, at our own slip ups, then life would be lighter, easier, healthier, after all laughter is still the best medicine.
It's okay to lighten up once in a while, it's just shreedid leetos.