do you english?

i have this false sense of "english language mastery" over non-americans when i engage them in a conversation. =P you know how some people can't seem to shake off their thick indian, latino or chinese accents? sometimes, when i talk to them, i feel like i've been speaking english since i can utter words. =P

but i like my "twang" the way it is. i don't want to americanize my diction. my asian accent sounds exotic. hehe! not too "pitchy", i can pronounce "L"s properly, and my sentences are (more or less) solid. i (try to) observe proper subject-predicate rules, and i don't use contractions that don't mean anything if not in context.

besides the usual pronoun problem filipinos have, you know, the "he vs. she" thing, i think i am doing well in speaking english. my grammar still needs a lot of improvement, but i'm getting there. i'm working on my vocabulary too, and i'm trying to eliminate "and it's like, " from my sentences. also, i came across several expressions that i figured are actually idioms, or colloquial terms. and boy, did they get me into trouble. =P

once, after a luncheon conference call meeting with clients in France, i took the lift with our big boss, who was carrying a huuuge plate of lunch leftovers (subs, brownies, cheesecakes, soda, etc.). i casually asked him, "do you need help with that?", pointing to the huge plate. he replied something like "oh no, i always bring them up to the rest of the team who weren't in the meeting", then the doors opened. he stepped out, i said see you later, and at the back of my head i was still processing what his reply meant. as i walked back to my cube, i realized he thought i was asking if i could help him EAT the leftovers! my ears went hot out of embarassment, but i couldn't fix the situation anymore! =P

anyways, way back before i got here, i've had a BIIIG blooper in delivering a speech. it was my thesis partner's (vero) wedding, and i was to give a "congratulatory speech" or something. i was told only a few minutes prior, so i have nothing prepared. i thought i did good, i conveyed the message i wanted to convey, but i didn't have any recollection of how i delivered it. gewi was trying really hard to supress her laughter when i got back to the table. she said that at one point i said "and sawing them together"... WHADAF?!

my most plausible explanation was that i was thinking of saying, "when i saw them together" vs. "seeing them together", but for some reason, i said "sawing". if i was writing down that speech, that wouldn't even come to my mind!! what a shame! a bachelor's degree and all that, and i couldn't get the freakin' sentence right! =P nobody snickered while i was talking in front, so maybe only gewi noticed... i hope! still, it's embarassing. and what a deep stab it gave my confidence which seemed invincible at that time. =P

i wonder what's the worst thing i could blurt out to get me in trouble at work. i'm not in a hurry to find out. =)