It was excitement to be invited for a private poetry reading being new to British accent and still hardly get the real one but a ground for me to really take heart of the beauty of the so called “received pronunciation”. I was hesitant at first but because there will be only few British people, around 20. I accepted.

 

It was August 14 and rode alone instead of the transport provided going to Somerset Lodge in Tagayatay along Aguinaldo Highway. We were provided a space to sleep on until the following day but decided to go home after the party.

 

It was 7pm when everybody was around. There was a brief cocktail with a foreign pianist playing all classical music. Around 8pm when the head of British Council did an introductory speech and the first reader from Manchester, England did a short poem but very touching then followed by someone from London, I suppose because of the typical accent, delivered her part longer than expected with that casual manner of delivery with cadence. Next in line is a Filipina with that awesome perfect British accent and heard that she graduated at Oxford University, one of the best schools in the United Kingdom then my turn delivering the piece handed me with utmost care especially the British r to sound authentic even being a Filipino.

 

The reading was over after an hour and dinner was served with casual getting together. British people are warm like us, not the typical snobs as we thought them to be. They are very casual in manners.

 

I left the place around midnight bringing with me a certain kind of memory that at last, I discovered a certain class of people.