lindbergh

I have noticed that a lot of our brothers and sisters in neighboring countries have difficulty in pronouncing the letter R. Take for instance Koreans and Japanese and Chinese. They have a hard time pronouncing R. Could it be that their language lacks the "R" sound? Also, why don't they incorporate English into their educational system? What's wrong with English? Why do they hate it?

IMO it's easy to learn Tagalog if you already know another Filipino dialect like Ilokano or Pangasinense or Kapampangan. I say this because the dialects in the Philippines have one thing in common - they have some sort of Spanish influence embedded into them. So there will be words that would be similar within these different dialects.

Aside from Tagalog, I also know Ilokano and these two dialects have a some similarities. Learning a new dialect is, I think, a bit easier than learning a new language (if you're really dedicated to it).

You could always use "mahal na mahal kita"  for more emphasis. I have never used iniibig kita (though I always hear it used in Tagalog songs). Iniirog kita is just so jurassic. Haha! But that's one deep Tagalog term. For some cheesy stuff, you could also use nahulog ang puso ko sayo or nabihag mo ang puso ko.

Naaw. I don't think it would be a good coded language. I think it would really be deciphered.

Besides it being easily deciphered, it could also piss off the person deciphering the text because of how corny it is. Same goes with becky talk.

I used to receive text messages containing the word "boompanes". What the heck is a boompane? Then I realized that it was not an English word but rather a Tagalog line - boom panis hehe. This word is mostly used by teens and young adults here.

I am not a native English speaker. However, we use English a lot here in my country. It is used formally in business meetings, transactions and is the primary language used in teaching in school. It is even sometimes merged with my native language. It is the universal language so I think that everybody should learn to speak English.

I'm a bit confused on when to use everyday and every day. I just looked it up in the dictionary and I found out that it's an adjective. Could you please give some examples when to use everyday and every day? I always thought before that they were simply interchangeable. Lol.

Yup, there are times when I tense up if I use my second language especially when talking to someone prominent or talking in front of a large crowd. There would be times that I would be searching for this term or that so I would need to pause for a few seconds. It's kind of embarrassing but I can't do anything can I? Probably with a lot of practice, speaking in my second language would come out of my mouth naturally.

I know of some people who went abroad (US, Canada, Australia) and stayed there for many years. When they returned here, they were already unable (or did not want to) speak our native language. What they do is just speak in English and try to imitate an accent. It's kind of annoying. But, if you go to another country and stay there for a long time, will you eventually forget about your native language?

As much as possible, I avoid speaking using a mixture of native and foreign language in a professional setting because it is very informal. When I use a foreign language, I use it straight up. And when I use the native language, I use it straight up too. Since I'm a lecturer, I primarily use English. I try not to use or mix any other languages or dialects when I'm speaking because others might not understand.  :angel:

When somebody speaks to another in front of me in another language or dialect, I find that very disrespectful. It just shows that these people can't be trusted because they're hiding something.  :doubtful:

It could be a great technique to use when in a place where you are not familiar with anybody. But when you are in a professional setting, it's a big no-no.

"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

Do you believe in what the Bible says? I do. In the old testament, there's this story about the people trying to build a tower that would reach out to the heavens. What happened? The tower was struck down and the people got divided.

What does this have to do with language you say? Well before they got divided, it was believed that the people only spoke one language before. What language could that be? Then when they got divided, they were divided into many different languages so that they could not understand each other. Do you believe in this tale?

The Philippines has been under Spanish rule for quite a long time. Because of that, there are a lot of Tagalog words that have been influenced by Spanish. Here are some words that I know of:

Tagalog; Spanish; English

Bintana; Ventana; Window

Barko; Barco; Ship

Kotse; Coche; Car

Lugar; Lugar; Place

Lunes; Lunes; Monday

What other words can you think of?

Oh yeah, never thought of that. Pretty clever. Speaking of courtesy, I think some words that are not really well translated in English is Ate and Kuya. These words actually mean elder sister and elder brother respectively but in Tagalog, they are usually used before saying the name of a person as a show of respect like "Ate Jennifer" or "Kuya Hector". If translated in English it would sound like this - elder sister Jennifer and elder brother Hector. It does not sound that good in English. 

At first I thought you were referring to the Talking Ginger app which featured a very cute pussy cat! And I thought, how could this app help in learning English? Lol.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.outfit7.talkinggingerfree

Anyways, you say it's a spell check app? Hmm, maybe I should check it out. However, I don't know how it will be of additional help since when I'm using Chrome on my Note 2, it already marks in red the words that are misspelled.

The Merriam Webster app for Android (I think it's also available for iOS) is a very handy app to have on your smartphone or tablet. It's lightweight (meaning it doesn't take much space) and it's free to download at the Google Play Store. It's also very easy to find the word that you're looking for. Just type in the word that you need on the search box and suggestions would pop up. You just need to click on the word that you're looking for to see the pronunciation, meaning, examples, synonyms, etc. It's cool to have around. Who else has this app installed in their mobile device?

:angel:

Hey there guys, I'm tried to think of some Tagalog words with no English counterpart and here they are:

• Tilapia and Galunggong - a kind of fish eaten here in the Philippines
  
• Patis, Bagoong, Alamang - these three are different but they are often just referred to as fish sauce or fish paste
  
• Halo-Halo - a variant of a shake/ice cream, Filipino style
  

What else can you think of?

My complaint when it comes to the Jejemon craze is that it's quite hard to read text messages when they are typed in Jejemon. For those who don't know what Jejemon is, it's a method of texting wherein you type in different characters to replace letters and type in a different spelling for words. Like for instance, if you want to laugh in a text, you will input "hehe". But instead, they will input "jeje".

In short, I hate it.

The Philippines has a lot of visitors every year and they come from a lot of different places. And here are the words that most of them have learned which I think are vital when visiting the Philippines:

• Salamat - Thank you
  
• Mabuhay - Long live
  
• Mahal kita - I love you
  
• Pasensya na - I'm sorry
  
• Magandang Gabi - Good Evening
  
• Magandang Umaga - Good Morning
  
• Magandang Hapon - Good Afternoon
  

Any other words you would like to add?