Can Anyone Beat the Philippines in English? Who Speaks English Better? 🇵🇭🇮🇳🇧🇩🇿🇦🇲🇾

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Hey guys, today we're going to have again an English challenge with the Philippines and we're going to have Malaysia, South Africa, India and so on.

[00:00:09]I just love this kind of video because it shows how beautiful the Filipino people speak English, clear English. So, we're going to you already had some this kind of challenges and it's a challenge to understand also not only the pronouncing. Let me know your thoughts down below who's the best, but before the video like always I'm going to bet on the Philippines. The last thing, don't forget the new channel that we opened about the Philippines, about the world, about traveling, about vlogs. You can find the link at the end of the video or down below in the description. I'm going to wait you there as well for amazing videos. Let's go and check this out.

[00:00:47]Apple, we actually [music] speak up in that we use the lift. Like what is an elevator? It lifts you up. So, we still use like the the British the British word. Personally, it's more easier to hear taxi to hear.

[00:01:00]>> [laughter] >> Hello. I didn't know Malaysia had English as an official language and I didn't know that Bangladesh had English as an official language either. I want to say that I'm the most impressed by maybe the Filipino accent. They try really hard >> Okay, we won. Who's up?

[00:01:22]They try to say it like really slowly and clearly, but they're really good at it. So, that's interesting to me.

[00:01:28]>> Okay, well, I would say for American English, of course when I was younger, I didn't even realize Americans had an accent. To me, I only knew like the accents of like Southern people versus Northern people [music] and like the California accent. And a lot of people tell me that it sounds more laid-back, free or even sometimes kind of lazy.

[00:01:50]Sometimes even Americans can't understand each other if they have a really strong accent.

[00:01:57]Okay, let's run. Come on.

[00:02:00]>> English is also an official language.

[00:02:03]So, at school or at work, we use the English language. Generally, the Filipino English follows like the American accent. So, for example, for the A sound, we usually try to speak it clearly like apple, bank. Cuz when I heard from other friends, they usually say bank as bank.

[00:02:24]So, I think that's tiny difference from other countries. Uh so, in India, the English accent uh changes from the state >> Oh, man, she sounds Indian.

[00:02:36]>> that or the North American influence or the UK uh accent influence. It's more also that we take a part of our regional language >> Yeah, she sounds the accent from India, you can hear it.

[00:02:49]>> different from the east to west to north to south because the official language is Hindi and English in India. Uh schools which like the teaching is done in English or the teaching is done in Hindi. So, I think it also depends on which kind of school you are from. Their accent is also influenced by they have studied in. I think that in the southern side, the T the TH sound is very strong and L and R sounds are kind of mixed like [music] lur and in the north, the R and A sounds are very dominantly said. You know, the accent is never really the same. I think that mostly the people that have heard in Indian accent is usually southern Indian accent because I do believe that a lot of South Indian people go and live abroad more than the north or the east or the west people. So, one thing I think is interesting about Indian English is that you say the words very similarly to American English except for a few like enunciations. Indian people, when they speak English, it has a very similar rhythm. I think the rhythm comes from the regional or the mother tongue.

[00:03:59]It comes from I mean you can hear it's India, 100%. more tones to it and like I think it's a lot of times is the ending, how we say the ending. For me, I feel I am neutral, but I'm not sure. You have to tell me that.

[00:04:14]I still think you are a bit like sing-songy when you talk. It's like really nice. Okay.

[00:04:20]In my country, there are some in our country Bangladesh. English is the second official language. Cup, fan, like we use that like English word, not like Bengali. And in school, there's like two curriculum. There's like Bengali curriculum and English curriculum.

[00:04:41]People mostly in my country study in Bengali curriculum. So, yeah, and we use about like s like soft, mostly use sh sh s h.

[00:04:55]Sorry to stop for one second. I cannot place her really good because maybe I didn't hear a lot of people, you know, from Bangladesh speaking their own language and then English, but I can hear she has an accent from some other place in the world. I could not place her like with India or Russia or Italian, you know, but till now these three countries at least the the the perfectly one it's uh it's the Philippines. Not because I love you guys, but it is what it is. I mean, just look at it.

[00:05:26]Apple, it we actually speak Bengali like apple. Yeah, [music] it sounds like this. English in South Africa. Um actually, it's one of 11 official languages in South Africa. So, we learn it mainly at school. Uh so, for a lot of people from a very young age, we would go to school and speak English at school, but when you go home, you would speak a different language. Um, so, it's very much about education, education, education.

[00:05:50]>> Really good. It's also used mostly in like workplaces, um But, there is when you go in. And the accent also varies from where you're from. So, if you're from parts of Cape Town, it's going to be very different. If you're from Johannesburg, it's very different. If you're from other places as well in South Africa, it's a little bit different. So, You can hear it.

[00:06:07]>> um, English accent, I would say, in South Africa. It just depends on who you meet. Uh, but it is a little distinctive in the sense that I notice that people do pick up on it when I speak sometimes.

[00:06:18]For example, >> It's more British English.

[00:06:21]>> We say purple. It sounds Australian a little bit.

[00:06:24]>> Right. So, we're Australian, British.

[00:06:27]Australia, New Zealand, UK. Because I know Australians would say water. From the UK, they say water, but we say water. Yeah.

[00:06:36]>> So, there's those little differences as well. And I think it's also influenced by the fact that we speak other languages as well, and they kind of get mixed into the [music] English as well.

[00:06:45]So, I would say my accent also is a mixture of growing up in the city and a little bit of the countryside together, and then this is what I got as well. So, yeah, that's about the South African accent. So, Malaysian English. I think it's similar to >> Malaysia. Africa, where there's so many languages in one country. So, everything kind of gets mixed up. But, so, proficiency-wise, it really depends on the person's background, their education, and what their mother tongue is. Cuz it could be Chinese, Tamil, Malay, or English. You can hear the accent. So, I think it's more English than Chinese. I learned my Chinese in school. And we have actually different schools. The normal Malay school, Chinese school, the Indian school. I'm not sure about now, but for my time, our math and science were in English. But, my parents' time, everything was in English. So, it's very different. But, I think generally, people, although they might have like a strong Malaysian accent, they speak pretty good English in Malaysia. So, that's why I have a lot of friends traveling in Malaysia. They were like, "Oh yeah, we just use English cuz it's not a problem. People speak like fluent English."

[00:07:52]Characteristic-wise, it's the lah.

[00:07:56]We use the lah a lot. I don't know why.

[00:07:58]Let me think. I think it's because there's this same grammar where the lah is like at the end of the sentence. So, it makes everything more like lightweight, more more fun. So, let's say if you want to say like no. No is already stern. But if you say like no lah, it's like nah. It's nah.

[00:08:15]>> [laughter] >> No lah is nah. So, I think yeah, that's one of the main characteristics. [music] It's really similar to Singlish, I would say. So, you were actually really good in guessing. Like it's okay. I take Singapore. I accept Singapore. I think they're like now All of them are have a good English, but we are here to focus on without accent, anything for me is the Philippines. Full stop. Um South Africa, it's more that British, Australian, New Zealand kind of type, so you can hear it. And for me is the Philippines. Let me know your thoughts down below. And we have the understanding right now, I guess.

[00:08:54]That you guys all explained it that way, I can definitely understand each of your accents more. But I just think it's so interesting actually how now so many countries have English as an official language, but still on the internal side of your country, you have like so many different schools that teach so many different like it is so interesting to me because I'm from somewhere that like we only have one basic language and the country is so big. Like you would think there could be a possibility for more official languages, but it's just not.

[00:09:29]So, that's why it seems so interesting to me. I think in our countries because we have a lot of languages, that it gets hard [music] to navigate through all of the languages, and there needs to be some common language. So, I think that's why we have multiple official languages, and English is one of the main ones because it is used globally, and it will also help to, you know, communicate between all the languages as well.

[00:09:53]>> So, in the Philippines, there are so many languages, and personally, I'm from Cebu, and we use the Visayan language.

[00:10:00]So, I know the Visayan language and then the Tagalog and then the English. In our country, with the help of English, also aside from Tagalog, we all can communicate. So, I want to say that in a ranking of all of you guys' English to like an average American ear of like how easy it is to understand, I think first would be South Africa because I think it's >> Really? almost like perfect UK English, which a lot of >> Like I said, UK, we're talking about American. And then, I think number two would be maybe like Filipino English cuz it's all like you said, also it's like really slow, and you can hear every annunciation really well. So, I think that would be easier for most Americans.

[00:10:49]And then, maybe I don't It's hard for me to say if Malaysian English >> I mean, look, I don't I don't think she did this right because what will be easier for most Americans to understand, and you're going to say South Africa with a UK accent, but not the Filipino with an American accent.

[00:11:11]I Yeah.

[00:11:13]Okay, let's move on.

[00:11:15]And Indian English is like easier to understand than one another because to me, they're both really similar in like being able to understand it cuz they have a bit more of an accent, but it's not like I can't understand what they're saying. I still think average Americans would really like understand all of you guys. So, it's like a really close call, but maybe because there's more Indian people in America, I would say like India and then Malaysian English and then maybe Bangladeshi English. I just put last [music] because I don't really My top will be Filipino, Malaysian, South African.

[00:11:58]Um These are the most that I heard in my year.

[00:12:29]Because what influences my ranking as well is like what is like the biggest majority of these people who are in America already.

[00:12:37]>> You don't have to think that.

[00:12:45]No.

[00:12:53]Japanese English. I feel like a lot of Americans are kind of used to hearing that as well. And then Korean and then Thai. Because even I've worked at a Thai restaurant before. I remember like I would have to help these really southern old people understand what my boss is saying because they are so not used to hearing their Thai English. Plus they're southern, so they have a really thick accent as well. So, yeah, it was a mess, so that's why I put it as last.

[00:13:26]>> I think between UK, US, and Australia, the easiest country that would get around is probably the US. Personally, it's more easier to hear. Although, I really find that the UK and Australian accent really like attractive, kind of like sexy to hear.

[00:13:44]But, I think the US is more like I'm used to it. So, I think US. For me, I think US would be the easiest to navigate. Plus, uh the accent is easier to understand [music] because we have been exposed to the media. I think the hardest would be UK, honestly, because even though we do have the UK English in our [music] country, just very hard to understand. It So, I would say it'll be UK.

[00:14:10]>> This is what I was saying. I mean, her vote, her ranking, it was strange. So, you cannot put, I mean, easier to understand based on how many people are in your country. So, what should I say?

[00:14:22]Uh if I don't know, in Italy, there are a lot of people from uh Morocco, I should said I should say English how they speak in Morocco? No.

[00:14:31]What is the best English to understand?

[00:14:35]Like, who speaks it clearly, you know?

[00:14:39]That's the ranking that you should do. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, guys, and I'm sorry, but this is I don't think she made um uh a fair uh top over there. And like I was saying, Filipino is for me the first, um the most clear and the most perfect.

[00:14:55]Uh second, I I enjoyed how the Malaysian uh girl was speaking, even if you can hear the accent, but she used some difficult word words as well. Then, on the third place will come South Africa, because it comes a little bit in English, of course, but in in the British way. And then, I'm going to have Bangladesh and then India. That's my top of how I can understand. Even if Bangladesh and India are almost the same over there, in my opinion, but I guess the Indian accent is stronger.

[00:15:27]US, Australia, and then UK. Australian would be easier because it's still a mix, and so it's easy to catch phrases.

[00:15:35]Maybe not the jokes because I do feel Australian and UK jokes are really hard to understand.

[00:15:41]>> [laughter] >> The humor is very different, and even the vocab, I feel. I also think is US is like easier to understand, and I have British friend and Scottish friend as well. Oh my god, when she Oh, Scottish is so hard.

[00:15:56]What?

[00:15:57]Can you repeat once again?

[00:15:59]I love how Aussie accent >> But it's easier to understand like US. I think the general answer is the US only because we've all consumed so much like American TV. So I what I grew up on Disney, Nickelodeon, so that makes sense. But I do think for me personally all three are pretty okay to understand because again in South Africa we all speak in different accents, so I feel like it kind of trains the ear to pick up on different accents as well.

[00:16:28]But the UK can be tricky depending on where in the UK the person is from because, you know, you can go from very Exactly. I guess very thick, very and you're like >> [laughter] >> True. Go to Liverpool. So but I think they're all pretty easy [music] to understand. I guess the thicker the accent is, it might be a little bit difficult. So For me also the US because we can't hide from the American media.

[00:16:52]It's everywhere. Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, Disney. So I grew up with that, so US would also be the easiest, but also it really depends where they're which part of the US they're from, how strong their accent is because like where was it again? Was it like the Texas accent or something? The southern one I'll be like Well, what? Yeah. Well, what?

[00:17:13]I think writing wise Malaysia, although we speak [music] in a more like American accent now, if we try, we still write in British >> [music] >> English. So like all the spellings and some words we use like we use the lift.

[00:17:25]Like what is an elevator? Right. Right.

[00:17:28]It's a lift. It lifts you up.

[00:17:31]>> [laughter] >> The lift goes down. Thank you. So we still use like the the British the British word. They have their own slangs. Like their jokes sometimes is like we don't get it. We'll just be like The Australian ones, I actually have a close Australian friend and my brother-in-law is also Australian, but they don't have a strong accent, but I've met his dad before and I'm like, "Please translate the English. I So it really depends how strong it is, I would say. So, I'm going to rank all of you guys' English accents by attractiveness [music] based on like what I like to hear the most. First, South Africa cuz like I said, I wish you read e-books [music] or something.

[00:18:11]>> [laughter] >> Uh it's like so nice to hear you talk.

[00:18:15]And then maybe second place, I don't know, maybe Bangladesh actually because you talk so like interestingly to me. I like want to keep hearing it because it's so interesting and like unique to what I heard before. Thank you. Yeah, and then like maybe then Malay and Philippines because it's I feel like you guys talk really softly and it's like so easy to hear. You sure? Yeah.

[00:18:43]>> Can I say that?

[00:18:44]You sure I know how to >> [laughter] >> Yes, law.

[00:18:48]And then I think I'll just put India last because I'm kind of used to this accent. That's just why. Okay, so I think that was so nice to hear you guys actually explain your accents more because it's a lot more than meets the eye actually and even I myself didn't even realize that you had so many official languages in your country. So it's actually so astounding to me how well you guys speak English cuz like from a young age you have to learn so many different languages. So, I think it's really interesting how all of those factors make your English accent unique.

[00:19:24]>> It was nice actually to hear from everyone as well. And also for me, I like to talk about South Africa any chance I get, so that was nice. I didn't I hadn't met anyone from Bangladesh before. So, that was very interesting to hear the background of their their English accents and everything. But, I do think it just goes to show like how much globalization, you know, because we're all from different countries and [music] we all speak, you know, English and it's it's actually quite fascinating if you think about it.

[00:19:51]So, yeah, it was actually pretty good.

[00:19:53]Yula.

[00:19:55]It was fascinating, guys. Thank you for watching. And the original link you can find in my down below. I'm going to say that was the top, in my opinion.

[00:20:04]Philippine first.

[00:20:06]Afterwards, I'm going to go with Malaysia because she used a lot of sentences that are more difficult and not everyday, you know, to to speak about and to tell about in your in your dialogues.

[00:20:19]Afterwards, I'm going to go with South Africa, even if it's more, you know, Australian UK way. And then, like I said, India India and Bangladesh will be over there.

[00:20:30]I don't want to I mean, this was like an English challenge. This is the the title over here, not what you're used to or not because it's it's different. I mean, a lot of people, if you live, like I was saying, here in Italy or if you go in another country, where a lot of, I don't know, Ukrainian or Romanians or whatever and they speak English, you can like be, you know, used to that.

[00:20:54]But, if somebody from the Philippines or America comes and speak clearly, it's totally different. And UK, try to go to Liverpool, guys. It's like you're hearing like, I don't know, it's nothing that resembles to English. So in UK it's so hard guys and I I enjoy I mean I for me personal taste don't like that much the British accent. So anyways the video it's already too long. Thank you for being here. Let me know down below what do you think make your ranking over there and again Philippine one in my opinion and that's a full stop. Don't forget the new channel Alex Beyond Border. We're going to have amazing videos over there about the Philippines about the whole world and like I always say salamat po.

[00:21:38]Thank you for watching. Stay safe.