Assimilation of Filipino English in the Philippines

You may have learned about Carabao English, American English and British English but surely Filipino English is something new to the ears of many. In fact, one can sometimes doubt if such entity actually exists. This paper brings a concise discussion on the origins of Filipino English and how applicable or realistic it is in the current society of the Philippines.

The Origin of Filipino English

As with American English being a bastardization of British English, the Filipino English is somehow a bastardization of American English. The development of a new variety of English in the Philippines is said to have primarily occurred due to the colonial history and linguistic background of the country. (Kirkpatrick 2007) Walking back through time, the Philippines was once a colony of the United States and for a couple of decades, the primary medium of communication in the Philippines is not one of the native tongues but English. As to how the bastardization occurred and how blatant it may have been, there’s no concrete answer. 

The very first massive introduction of English to the Philippines occurred in 1901 when 540 US teachers used the language as a medium for instruction in schools. The English-medium education has then started a swift change in the linguistic development of the Philippines. Moreover, the American English that it brought has been indigenized, expounding the vocabulary by adapting terminologies from local dialects and modifying pronunciation and grammar. (McArthur 2002) Perhaps, we can say that this triggered the creation of what is now known as Filipino English. 

Only in Filipino English

The website 8list.ph listed some terminologies that are unique to the Filipino English speakers that you can check here. These are just few of the unique slangs of Filipino English. It is noteworthy to know that these are cognitively embedded to Filipino speakers with out them knowing it. These are product of cultural diversity, societal transformation and other things that have been influential to the use of English in the Philippines.

How extensive is Filipino English?

As of today, there is a limited literature which tackles Filipino English. Most of the current works are much focused on bilingualism in the Philippines and extrapolating on the nature of the English speakers of the country is relatively not something that is studied properly. As to how extensive Filipino English is, we might be able to extract substantial guess from other researches. 

The results of the survey of Social Weather Stations in 2006 showed that more than a quarter of the Philippine’s population claims to have the ability to understand, speak and write English well. (Bautista, et. al. 2009) With a higher rate of literacy, one can speculate that there is a great tendency for people who are not well accustomed to the English language to used barbarized terminologies or slangs to compensate for their inadequacy. 

As English is used as a primary medium for business, education and governance in the Philippines, Filipino English is presumably on larger schema that what we might be thinking of. Whether it is extensively used or not, it surely is there and it is something that is global in scope. 

A Bid for Better English

While nothing is wrong with Filipino English, this paper strongly believes that we must start building the standards of this (new) form of English to ensure that it will stay as efficient and well-aligned with other “customized English languages” across the globe. Being young as it is, Filipino English is evolving and becoming something that is global as the Philippines becomes a power hub for English speaking workforce. It is something that has given this nation an edge among its neighbors. As we know that languages are infinitely evolving, we must always be ready to make Filipino English a superb and eloquent one.

References

• Tom McArthur, The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford University Press, 2002
• Andy Kirkpatrick, World Englishes. Cambridge University Press, 2007
• Walter Ang, 8 Instances of Filipino English vs. American English. 8list, 2013 (retrieved from http://8list.ph/american-english-vs-pinoy-english on June 22, 2014)
• Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista and Kingsley Bolton, Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary Perspectives. Hong Kong University Press, 2009

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Pay-Per-Click Advertising: What Are Your Options?

Internet advertising is an integral part of today’s multiplatform marketing world. With the advent of modern technologies comes the need to properly assess and maximize the potential of marketing strategies to make them well-suited to such innovations as social networking, multimedia streaming, and cloud computing. Learning to become a key player in internet advertising is something that each marketing professional or business organization must take with due diligence. It is therefore essential that we get to understand the much deeper scopes of the different online marketing strategies.

One commonly used advertising strategy on the internet is Pay-Per-Click Advertising. PPC is considerably a promising marketing strategy because it brings direct website traffic. In PPC, a publisher gets to pay only when his advertisement is clicked. A well noted facet of PPC is how it can efficiently be utilized in keyword targeted marketing. By working with user queries and other interactions, the PPC platform delivers your advertisement to those who are much likely interested with your products.

PPC is a quintessential tool for internet marketing. If implemented and utilized properly, PPC can become the rightful instrument to leverage the promotion and sales of your product or business. Here are some of the fine lines that one must take into account before embarking to PPC advertising campaigns.

Flat-rate PPC vs Bid-based PPC

As PPC has evolved through the years, more and more diversifications on the system have been created. In today’s online marketing industry, two of the common PPC forms are Flat-rate PPC and Bid-based PPC.

Flat-rate PPC is an established form where advertisers and publishers agree for a fixed amount for each click. The publisher will give a rate table where prices may be different according to geographical locations, network or other determining factors. Moreover, most flat-rate PPC publishers are offering compartmentalized packages in which you can opt to avail wider diversified markets or specific ones.

On the other hand, Bid-based PPC is based on the fact that some advertisers are willing to pay more to reach certain demographics or very specific groups. In this form of PPC, advertisers can compete with each other to acquire a certain ad spot and have marginal advantage over the others. Enrolling in Bid-based PPC is also highly beneficial especially when it comes to landing on ad spots in search engine results page. This is exemplified by the fact that more than a quarter of internet traffic is coming from search engine results.

Choosing the Right Publisher

One thing many marketing professionals usually fail to consider in the use of PPC is choosing the right publisher to place ads. True, buying PPC ads from Google is promising; but if the population of gamers is your target market, it would be better to buy PPC ads from gaming companies or play review websites. Understanding the nature of your needs and finding the best suited publisher for your advertising campaign will bring out positive results.

The concern of selecting between small-scales and large-scales PPC publishers is also very much vital in securing your ad campaigns success. Although enrolling in smaller-scale PPC publishers can mean spending less, the long run impact should also be considered. The efficacy of PPC evaluation always boils down to the click-through ratio and conversion rate of such campaigns. It would be better to spend more on large-scale PPC publishers especially if they provide higher click-through ratio and a much promising conversion rate.

Crafting the Best PPC Campaign

In any PPC campaign, the whole is only as strong as its weakest link. Factors like working with ad copies, headlines and landing pages should be taken with due prudence. The continuous monitoring and optimization of your campaign will ensure that the money you put on those clicks are going to resonate to better sales through your website.

Implementing an A/B testing for your campaign will help you evaluate it better. You can also keep an eye on your ads and relevant keywords. Check which pairing gives a promising conversion ratio. Tweaking your landing pages, checking which headlines are generating more clicks and understanding how your target audience conceives about your ads are few of the things you can work to strengthen your campaign’s prowess. An optimized PPC ad coupled with a powerful landing page will bring better conversion rate and your cost per click amount will decrease in the long run.

Pay-Per-Click advertising offers a good way of luring the targeted traffic to your website. With a properly developed ad campaign, you can surely use PPC to leverage your business towards profitability. Given the versatile options of implementing PPC campaigns, crafting one that is well suited to your needs is easy.

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