The level of understanding will be similar to how much a Spanish speaker can understand Portuguese. Despite Tagalog being ubiquitous in the Philippines, you may hear suggestions to learn Bisaya. ), Palauan languages, the Indonesian languages, and of course, the Philippine languages. Among the Malayo-Polnesian languages, are the Oceanic languages (Aloha, Hawaii! (If not, read our article: What is Tagalog?). Most Filipinos can speak it natively or very well, probably around 60 million in a country of about 110 million people. This number of Tagalog speakers based overseas is growing fast. Not wanting to offend other linguistic groups in the Philippines, like the Bisayas, Ilocanos and Illongos, the politicians decided that this national language would be called “Filipino.”, In school, people will call the subject that teaches this language “Filipino.” Because people don’t really follow their teachers and politicians outside the classroom, 9 times out of 10, if you ask a common person on the streets of the Philippines what language they are speaking, they’d say “Tagalog” and maybe 1 out of 10 times, they’d say “Filipino.”. Tagalog is the true lingua franca of the Philippines, and you’ll be able to find a Tagalog speaker practically anywhere in the archipelago. If you want to learn to be able to talk to as many people from the Philippines as possible, learn Tagalog. Perhaps, you might also be asking whether you want learn “Filipino or Cebuano?” On your journey to get closer to the Philippines (or maybe the heart of a Filipino or Filipina) through language, this is a decision you have to make early on. Of course, the two official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English. “Should I learn Tagalog or Bisaya?” you ask yourself. Learning Tagalog for those dealing with people from the Philippines is self-explanatory. All over the entire country, whether you are in Luzon, Visayas or Mindano. Your email address will not be published. When talking about “Filipino” referring to a person, not the language, this is a general term you can use to refer to anyone from the entire country or archipelago (not just the snobbish Tagalogs up north in Manila).
There are 120 – 187 languages spoken in the Philippines with 14 of these having more than million speakers each. Bisaya is the native language of around 22 million people in the Philippines. It is even said that you can find a Filipino in every country of the United Nations, and because I have a day job where I come across these statistics a lot, I think this is not just an exaggeration.
Aside from these personal reason which you may have, let me kick in a few more reasons you can consider to make you feel wonderful that you’re learning the Tagalog language. Tagalog, or as its standardized form is known: Filipino, is the …