Mini Story: Back in high school, I was meant to be an announcer for a school event, but my teacher told me, “I think you're not right for the job; you're trying too hard to have an accent." I felt so embarrassed that I forced myself to learn how to speak Tagalog and to sound more Filipino. Yan napapala ko for watching Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet growing up. I grew up having an accent that doesn’t sound like your typical Filipino-Speaking-in-English accent.