Common

A lot of us can speak English fluently.

Despite that reputation, many Filipinos fail call

center screenings due to minor errors.

English Minor errors are forgivable.

Everyone makes them.

Pronuncia1on There are a few errors that stand out a lot.

When people made pronunciation errors

Errors repetitively, these words disqualified them from

going to the next step.

Many Filipinos can understand English. The sad thing is most people get disqualified
because they keep making mistakes with less
Many foreigners I’ve met insist that Filipinos can than twenty words.
speak English fluently.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 1 of 12

When I was single and dating, when I went out, I
also screened the potential partners when they
spoke in English.
Some of them kept making mistakes, and I was
turned off.
It doesn’t matter how pretty they were. I wasn’t
interested anymore.
I mostly never went out with them.
In the same way, it doesn’t matter how intelligent
you are or how good you are as a person. If you
keep making these mistakes, the interviewer will
judge you negatively.
I wrote this lesson so you can easily correct your
pronunciation on your own.
By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com
The Z Sound
Tony is my best friend who grew up in Saudi.
When he went to stay in the Philippines, he
studied in an international school.
He shared that the most common pronunciation
error he noticed here in the Philippines the most
common pronunciation error is with the letter Z.
Americans pronounce the letter Z as in Zee.
An example is the word Zebra.
Europeans and British folk pronounce the letter Z
as in Zed so when they say the ABC the final
three letters are pronounced as X (ex), Y (why), Z
(zed).
Pronunciation Errors 2 of 12
In Taglish, these letters are pronounced as 
 He calls out to everyone and points out
X (eks), Y (why), Z (zey). something strange in the way I speak.

He realized that he picked it up when he was He asked me to read something from a piece of
talking to some guy from the states. paper.

He was dictating an address and when he said It was the letter R.

Zey the guy asked what the heck is a Zey?
I said “Oh that’s easy.”
The word is pronounced as Zeebra not Zeybra.
“It’s the letter R (are).”
The American R Sound
He made me repeat the sound several times and
I went to a school in Manila where some of my the rest of the class started laughing at me as if
classmates were from the ghetto locations. I’m from a different planet.

One of my ghetto classmates called me out and My classmate said it should be Arrrrrg like a
(I thought) complimented how I speak. stereotype pirate would say it.

I wanted to bury myself in shame.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 3 of 12

Girls at school also teased me for saying the She said not yet because their internet is down.
word Karpintero (Carpenter).
I said aloud
I said the word Karpintero (pronounced as car-
pin-terow kind of how Sam Milby pronounced “Oh, your internet (pronounced as innernet) is
Tagalog words but he didn’t exist then). down?

They asked me to say the words Tubero No problem.

(plumber), Lasengero (alcoholic) and Basurero
(garbage man). I could call you again, and we’ll just discuss the
email later.”
When I said those words, they all laughed and
said it was cute. She said great.

Local To Interna1onal I put down the phone.

I got myself a job at a recruitment company. The boss says there might be something wrong
with the internet (innernet) maybe we could
I call my new client to see if she got the email I restart the router.
sent her.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 4 of 12

The other boss says wow Kevin’s new prospect
is an international (innernational) company.
A coworker shared she was almost late for work
because of the severe traffic at the intersection
(innersection).
I And E Sounds
A comment that I hear often is people fail
because they have a strong or thick regional
accent.
In Filipino: Tunog probinsihyano or tunog bisaya

After ten more words they asked me if they got

I’m not trying to be offensive to a specific
that correctly.
province because there are a lot of different
regional accents.
I said yes.

The common problem I hear is that the “I sounds”

I’m glad they didn’t use intercourse as an
and the “E sounds” are switched backwards.
example.

If you switch your i’s and e’s you won’t get hired
I arrogantly said “I’m glad you’re all learning my
in a call center.
students!”

What I’m trying to say is that if you want a job

They later forwarded all English speaking clients
that pays well for English skills, you can’t afford
to me and I began to make extra sales income.
to get your I and E sounds backwards.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 5 of 12

Now the good news. P And F Sounds

You can say the E and I sounds perfectly. Here are some distinctions.
The P sound is made when you close your
You just have both sounds in your head but mouth.
backwards.
Pronounced as Pee (Yeah Pee)
Try switching them.
The F sounds are made when you smile and bite
Find a word where you switch the E and I sounds your lower lip.
and switch them back.
Pronounced as Efff.
Some Examples:
it and eat The Rabbit:
fit and feet
this and these The trainer at the Call Center Training school
will and wheel taught everyone “the rabbit.”
with and weed
there and their When you say anything with an F or V sound
think and thank your teeth look like a rabbit.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 6 of 12

Go to a mirror say F or V and you notice that P and F Exercise: 
when you produce the sounds of F and V you are
smiling and biting your upper lip like a rabbit. Read aloud and learn to increase speed.

When you say “efff” your mouth begins to form I sent a friend request to Pam’s parents on Facebook.

the rabbit as you make the f sound.

There are more examples of words on the next page.


When you say “vee” your mouth forms the rabbit

before you make the v sound.

Trivia:

There used to be an explanation here about the most

popular Filipino and English curse words here that starts
with P and F but we removed that because we started
teaching kids.

Apply the same pronunciation to the P and F sound.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 7 of 12

Common Words with P and F sounds:

Friendzone. Important Functional Fund Filter

Finger. Public Face Foundation Friend
Player Of Faith Fuel Fully
People For Family Fundamental Further
Put and foot. From Felt Floor Fighter
Partner If Field Food Flat
Perfect (there’s no First File Fiber Flow
perfect partner) Life Finance Favor Foot
Picture and Fact Finish Film Foreign
feature. Find Fitness Firm Format
Proactive Feel Fled Force Fraction
Power Different Flip Follow Fraudulent
Present Few Focus Founder Frequency
Problem After Forget Franchise Function
Group February Former Friday Future

Point Fish Found Full
Place Flight Flag Funeral
Part Free Fleet Facility
Up Frozen Flood Failure

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 8 of 12

B And V Sounds
It almost sounds like Fee.
Similar to the P and F sound, the B sound
happens when you close your mouth. If you position your mouth properly you can say
Fee while maintaining “the rabbit position.”
Pronounced as Bee.
Common words with the B and V sounds:
It almost sounds like Pee.

 Be
Do you notice the similarity between the B and P By
sounds? About
After
Your lips close together when you make both the But
B and P sounds. Back
Over
When you make the V sound, your lips also form Very
“the rabbit” position (see P and F). Have
Berry (like Blackberry but nobody buys that
Pronounced as Vee. anymore)

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 9 of 12

B and V exercise:
If Jollibee and Voldemort fought who will win?
Want some more?
Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said,
“This butter’s bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will
make my batter bitter”. So, she bought some
better butter and she put it in her batter and it
made her bitter batter better.
Want to try something harder?
Voila! In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast
vicariously as both victim and villain by the
vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer
of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi now
vacant, vanished. However, this valorous
visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified,
By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com
and has vowed to vanquish these venal and
virulent vermin, van guarding vice and
vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious
violation of volition. The only verdict is
vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in
vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one
day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily
this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose,
so let me simply add that it’s my very good honor
to meet you and you may call me V.
Watch it on YouTube: Search V introductory
monologue
Trivia:
There used to be two curse words here that starts with B
and V but we removed it because we started teaching
kids.
Pronunciation Errors 10 of 12
Th Sounds The
That
For the Th sound stick the tip of your tongue to They
the back of your top front teeth and slightly stick There
your tongue out a bit. Their
Them
Practice going thhhhhhhh for as long as you can Than
while taking note of the sound. Then
Think
The air should pass through smoothly. These
Thing
You should also feel a slight vibration at the tip of Other
your tongue and the top of your mouth behind With
your top front teeth.
Th sound exercise
Do this a few times then start practicing some
words with the th sound. Read aloud and learn to increase speed.

Common words with the Th sound Thor is the Norse god of thunder from Asgard
who got his ass kicked by Hulk and Ironman.

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 11 of 12

Want some more? thirty-six and promised to replace the thick
thermometers with thin thermometers.
The throng of thermometers from the Thuringian
Thermometer folks arrived Thursday.
Final Tips:
There were a thousand thirty-three thick
thermometers, though, instead of a thousand Whenever you’re speaking ask yourself…
thirty-six thin thermometers, which was three
thermometers fewer than the thousand thirty-six How do foreigners say it?
we were expecting, not to mention that they were
thick ones rather than thin ones. How did the word sound?

We thoroughly thought that we had ordered a How can I improve it?

thousand thirty-six, not a thousand thirty-three
thermometers and asked the Thuringian Then practice speaking in English more often.
Thermometer folks to reship the thermometers;
thin, not thick.

They apologized for sending only a thousand

thirty-three thermometers rather than a thousand

By Kevin Olega callcentertrainingtips.com Pronunciation Errors 12 of 12