For the last 8 years, I’ve been interacting with Filipinos in Tagalog & TagLish in offices, in the street, in the mall, while climbing mountains, hiking...and Ive loved every minute.
I’ve been bartering, asking for directions, asking about their family, learning about their culture, asking for discounts, making them laugh. And...I’ve loved every minute.
Conversational Tagalog is incredible, it’s fun, it’s a privilege to be able to interact on such a personal level in a language Filipinos feel comfortable with.
The course material is built 100% from the ground-up based on my experience as a foreigner learning Tagalog and is taught by native Filipinos.
I believe conversational Tagalog should be easy to learn and that you can have fun doing it.
You already know 50% of it!
The course makes heavy use of Taglish, i.e. Tagalog + English, which is commonly spoken in the Philippines. This will allow you to quickly engage with local speakers in a confident manner.
I hate long lists of verbs, adjectives and nouns to learn. This is the most ineffective way of learning the basics: its slow, boring and painful. The fastest and easiest way to learn conversational Tagalog is to start speaking it. This is what we will focus on.
The difference with our approach is that we focus on conversational Tagalog — useful words, phrases, grammatical constructions that you can use to communicate immediately with native speakers. We focus less on memorizing lists of words and more on speaking from day one. In short, you will not learn how to read a book in Tagalog with us; instead you will learn how to communicate with native speakers in a language they understand.
The goal of this course is to build your confidence and get you beginning to speak and converse with Filipinos. The great thing about Tagalog is that generally any attempt to speak Tagalog is met with great enthusiasm and a big smile from the recipient even if you make a mistake and sound silly. You wont be judged for making mistakes so relax and start making some!
Not everyone has a native Tagalog speaker to practice with so we setup a Skype group. Find [email protected] on Skype to participate in practice sessions.
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A few examples of what you will learn from this course:
Breaking the ice - Short phrases that can quickly establish good rapport, make Filipinos laugh and enjoy a relaxed interaction!
Being polite - Politeness is one of the characteristics Filipinos are known for. Youll learn how to say po and opo and how to insert them in every sentence and to use third person pronouns to indicate politeness.
Most useful and common pronouns - Before learning the phrases youll master the different pronouns to make you sufficient at structuring Tagalog sentences!
Giving commands and invitations - The two useful Taqalog words that you can use to give out commands and invite people to an activity. This is very helpful inside the office, at home, and while commuting!
Describing what you want or like - Two easy Tagalog words to better express your likes and dislikes. Very useful when placing an order in a restaurant, or asking for your every need.
Suggesting alternatives - Describe what you want to do or where you want to go instead. Useful for giving your own opinion, and making adjustments in meeting and conversations.
Asking basic questions - Using the Tagalog equivalent of Where, What, and Why and linking them with pronouns. Useful for asking directions, ordering in a restaurant, and asking for a personss basic information.
Past, present, and future tense - An easy way to learn how to use Tagalog affixes in every verb in order to describe any activity more fittingly!
Stating what you have or dont have - Using two words to state if you have or dont have something. Very useful in every setting.