COFFEE BREAK | Mailbag: "A legitimate sound, not a punchline" - An actor, an author, and an academic on the Filipino accent | Bonus: A Shakespearean salute to Filipino frontliners

How do we give voice to a global diaspora without reducing it to a punchline? In this bonus coffee break episode, we read the reactions we got to S1E07 guest Joaquin Pedro Valdes, specifically his Filipino Accent workshop for performers.

Joaquin's study of the Filipino accent and its place in the global narrative opens up conversations on how Filipino characters are written, portrayed, and represented in mainstream media... and how a deeper historic and cultural understanding are required to appreciate the spectrum of speech and sounds in the diaspora.

In response, romance writer Mina V. Esguerra sent us her feelings on problematic depictions of Pinoy accents in English audiobooks. Applied Linguistics expert Prof. Ron Darvin also shared research on the interplay of social class and linguistics among Filipino migrant communities, and helpful resources for actors to avoid "essentializing and exoticizing" the Filipino accent.

Along the way, we weigh in on audience reactions to the accents in Netflix's Trese.

And finally, Joaquin flips the script by getting British actors of Filipino descent to recite the Bard in Filipino, in a moving tribute to the thousands of Filipino migrant nurses working for the National Health Service all across the UK, many of whom have left their homes to live far from the ones they love.

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Follow Joaquin on IG @joaquinpedrovaldes or Twitter @jpedrovaldesuk

More on his accent project at https://www.andasian.com/feed/andasian-roundtable-filipino-linguistics

Follow Mina on IG or Twitter @minavesguerra

http://minavesguerra.com

https://www.romanceclassbooks.com/book-author/mina-v-esguerra/

Follow Ron on IG @ron.darvin or Twitter @rondarvin

https://cuhk.academia.edu/RonDarvin

https://languagesciences.ubc.ca/people/affiliate/ron-darvin

https://www.academia.edu/34671909/Social_class_and_the_inequality_of_English_speakers_in_a_globalized_world_pdf

https://www.dialectsarchive.com/philippines

Watch Trese on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/trese

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Watch New Earth Theatre's "Bayanihan with Love: Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare"

https://youtu.be/el0jaGhsP0Q
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMuVZZwHuLn/

Translated and directed by Joaquin Pedro Valdes

Cast: James Bradwell, Jane Burns, Heidi Carmichael, James Cooney, Vincent Fajilagmago, Richard Peralta, Max Percy, Jeffrey Sangalang, Martin Sarreal, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Joyce Veheary

Royalty-Free Music: Gavin Luke's "Sincerity" via www.epidemicsound.com

Ilokano, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon line translations by Carlo Blanco and Luna Griño Inocian

Video created for New Earth Theatre @newearththeatre

https://yellowearth.org/bayanihan-with-love2/

Video produced for #FilipinoFood4NHS, with special thanks to Kanlungan Filipino Consortium and Filipino Food UK, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England

#BayanihanWithLove

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Music: “Neon Laser Horizon” by Kevin MacLeod (imcompetech.com) licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Sound Editing by franticsong

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xoxo Jo