There is a common misconception among many Filipin...

2009-12-07T03:46:23.599+08:00

There is a common misconception among many Filipinos that Spanish language and Chavacano are mutually intelligible, but they are not. It is true that Chavacano has a lot of Spanish words, but their grammatical structures are entirely different.

A native Spanish speaker may understand a Chavacano speaker who mentions some simple Spanish words and phrases like muy grande, but they usually do not understand each other in even a simple conversation.

I applied at a Spanish call center with several Chavacano-speaking applicants, and none of them passed the Spanish interview. Also, there was a call center that tried to hire Chavacanos to be given a one-month training in Spanish, but they stopped doing it anymore, because it usually takes months or years to be conversational in a language. On the other hand, I've heard Chavacano applicants who studied Spanish, and they pass the Spanish interviews, but they are still struggling to understand native Spanish speakers when they take in calls.

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There is a common misconception among many Filipin...