g2narat

Oh! I actually thought that my native tongue (Filipino/Tagalog) was pretty straightforward when it comes to yes or no. Our direct translation for yes is "oo", and for no, it's "hindi".  However when you mentioned that in some languages it would depend on the specific question asked, I realized that we do have other words for yes or no. For example, when asking if someone has a pen, he/she could simply answer yes or no in English, but in Tagalog, the correct terms to use would be "meron" to say "yes" and "wala" to say "no" instead of oo/hindi. 

I agree with Foolsgold. You can start with basic phrases and go from there. The basic thing to remember when speaking/writing in Tagalog is that you pronounce words the way they are spelled. That might sound pretty easy (and it is once you get the hang of it) but it can take a bit of getting used to when you're used to another language with a lot of pronunciation rules.

I still don't know what would be the proper translation for a question with "pang-ilan". I mean, if the question was "Pang-ilan ka sa magkakapatid?" I guess one could translate that to "What is your birth rank?" but that isn't really the same. Another translation would probably to just ask whether the person is the eldest, 2nd, 3rd etc. among his siblings. It's tricky things like this that makes me glad I'm not a translator.   

Ooh that's a tough one. I've had to learn a few languages simultaneously but I always concentrated more on one. It's often because I get interested in a new language before I've really mastered the other one. For me, it's actually better if the languages are completely different rather than if they were similar. The reason is that I get confused with similar sounding languages and tend to mix the words up.

I can't really say. I was interested in languages for as long as I can remember actually. I remember being around 7 years old and having a playmate who only spoke Italian and I was thinking that it would be really cool if we could communicate in her language instead of doing our own signs and pointing.  :wacky: I think it helped that we moved around a lot and I got exposed to different languages and found the differences and similarities of languages interesting.

Which year were you born? I never encountered that book all throughout high school, and I even switched schools twice at that. Maybe it was phased out already by the time I reached high school?

Haha! Thanks for making me feel old! I was born in the 80's. Maybe that explains it? It was a required reading in a college subject. Can't recall the subject though, probably something like Filipino Literature.

Another Filipino word I find irritatingly impossible to translate is "pang-ilan". I mean, it's such an easy word if you think about it, but there is no direct translation to English. I don't even know how to describe it properly, the best I can do is that it's a question used to ask the ranking of something, for example when someone asks "pangilan ka sa magkakapatid" they are asking about your birth rank among your siblings (eldest, youngest, third child etc...)

Anyone here remember the book Dekada 70 by Lualhati Bautista? I remember this being a required reading when I was in college though I can't remember the subject it was required for. I just had a random thought about it so I decided to post here because I thought it would make a nice discussion about Filipino literature. Seems like we don't have that kind of discussion here yet. 

Guys, I just want to clarify since most of the posters are commenting about it, but those are not dialects.

A different Tagalog dialect would when you're used to the Tagalog from Manila and you're lost about the numerous words/phrases/grammar usage by someone from Batangas. Cebuano, Ilokano, Pangasinense or Kapampangan are not dialects. They're different languages each with their own words and sometimes grammar rules, the ones with the most population having several dialects under their family.

There are at least 175 languages in the Philippines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Philippines The most popular of those have several major dialects under them too, but each of them is a language of their own,

Oh thank you for clarifying this! I didn't know that actually. I've always heard of the Filipino languages getting referred to as dialects. I think you can see from the replies on this thread that it's a pretty common misconception. I guess the correct title of this thread should be "Learning Tagalog when you're used to another Filipino language" then.

What I like about Tagalog is that it has quite a variety of idiomatic expressions. I find some of them funny and others perfect for their intended use. I'm miss some Filipino idiomatic expressions that used to be so common though. Idioms such as "namamangka sa dalawang ilog", "kabiyak ng dibdib", and "pag pumuti na ang uwak". They used to be so common, but I rarely hear them nowadays.

For me, it's still the children's books that leave the most impact. I don't know why. Each time I read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery I cry like a baby. Another children's book that makes me emotional is Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. It's a bit weird because other books such as the Fault in Our Stars don't have the same effect on me.

Why put an "or" in there? Some of my favorite shows and books involving monsters are also a very psychological romp through the thriller portion of the show. A good example of this if you like anime is "Parayste - The Maxim" about parasites who come down from the sky and burrow into humans, taking them over. They coexist with us and feed on us like livestock. It makes you think, and you experience the gamut of the feeling spectrum.

You have a point! A mix of both is perfect! That anime sounds interesting! I think I'll have to look for it. Does it have a manga version by any chance? I usually prefer reading than watching horror because reading horror stories is much scarier for me.

The origin of the meaning, coming from a family  of shipbuilders and wood-choppers, is a chip of wood chopped from a block of wood , a piece big enough to be carried on your shoulder, the right kind of wood can be very heavy.

In the earlier days, a chip, or chips that were chopped off timber and blocks of wood that were not useful in building, could be carried off home for firewood or other use.  So you carried a heavy load on your shoulder , as if you had a grudge against someone, an unsettled argument or dispute. So staring a new argument or coming in to a discussion without an open mind, but already with a grievance.

In the USA it became a saying that if someone knocked your chip of your shoulder you had a reason to get into a fight. And it was recorded in writing from early 1800's.

And today it still means that you have an unsettled argument or feeling wronged , so you are not coming with an open mind, but with a predisposition of need for being righted of the earlier wrongs don to you.

This saying is used differently in UK, USA and Europe , it  holds the grievance meaning still in USA.

Oh this explains why there seems to be a bit of a debate here as to how to interpret this expression. I didn't know that it was used differently in different parts of the world. I just thought the expression was so weird that people often misinterpreted it. Thanks for explaining!

I see more and more people using the word foods. Even spell-check doesn't correct it. To me, it sounds wrong, like saying stuffs to mean having a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure stuffs is wrong, and I used to think it was like that with foods too, but I've been seeing it more and more lately and I'm wondering if it's become an acceptable word.

True! I had officemates before who were Indonesians and they told me that we had a lot of common words. We used to ask one another what words we call certain things and indeed, we have a lot in common. I found out that before the Spanish colonized the Philippines, we shared a lot of ties with them such as economic, historical, cultural and even genetic.

We also share the same words with Malaysia. When my family and I went there, we noted some of these similar words like our bato (stone) is batu to them, pinto (door) is their pintu, payong (umbrella) is payung to them, lambot (soft) is lembut to them and many other similar words.

Yeah. I think it has a lot to do with the cultural/historical/geographical similarities. We have to ba careful with those similarities though. We have some words that are the same but mean different things. Our word for white means something completely different for the Nepalese. As for Indonesians, don't ask them to say their word for fart. What is innocent farting to them has a completely different meaning in Tagalog.  :wacky:

German. I just can't get it right. I know French, Spanish and a bit of Italian, so people assume that I'd have an easier time with other European languages. It just doesn't seem to be that way for the German language for me though. I have a cousin who lives in Germany and he finds it hilarious when I try to pronounce German words.  :grin:

Confidence is probably number one. Communicating in a foreign language can be intimidating/awkward, but little bit by little bit, try to communicate as often as possible! Don't be afraid of looking/sounding stupid. I've found native Spanish-speakers that I've communicated with tend to be very understanding, helpful, and patient. So just go for it! Practice makes perfect.

Not being afraid to sound/look silly really is important. It's hard to practice a certain language if you're not comfortable enough to try it out in actual conversations. Plus most people who speak the language can recognize your effort anyway so it doesn't really matter if you don't speak perfectly. What matters is that you're trying and practicing.

I mentioned in this thread in the "learn Tagalog" forum http://linguaholic.com/study-tagalog/my-indonesian-friend-isn't-having-a-hard-time-learning-tagalog/ that my Indonesian friend learned how to speak Tagalog really fast. I think a big factor is how similar the two languages are. Has it been easy for you too to learn a language from a neighboring country? Or do you find it just as difficult as learning other languages?

I guess it's understandable that neighboring countries learn each other's languages easily. A perfect example of this is my Indonesian friend who didn't take any formal classes to learn Tagalog. He's only been in the Philippines for a couple of months but he can already converse well. It helps that a lot of the Indonesian and Tagalog words are the same like anak, sukat, tali, sakit to name a few. Have you or a friend had a similar experience with a neighboring country?

It matters a bit. Sometimes an eye-catching cover will make me look twice at a book when I'm in a bookstore. This will make me curious and I check out the story, style, author. No matter how nice a cover is though, if the content seems boring, I leave it alone. In the end, the content will always be the most important thing for me.

So is passing that exam less valuable than for example passing a subject at law school or economy? Why? I have studied for that exam. I have studied for hours and weeks and months - throughout the whole semester, I had studied that subject! I had studied it so much that I thought about it every day - even when I was on my way to the university, I found myself repeating some silly facts I’d remembered. That subject was economy, law, literature, history, philosophy, sociology, culture all in one. Culture, yes! Goodness, culture!!

I am very bothered by this. I found myself highly offended by this question. What you study is a matter of choice. With my grades, I could have studied anything I wanted. And I did. I do. I chose literature. I am not a lesser person for choosing literature over something else. We all have difficult subjects, easy subjects, subjects you like, subjects you hate, subjects you wish you never had, subjects which are a piece of cake, subjects which we find irrelevant, subjects we barely pass, and so on. Even if you choose to be a teacher - not everyone can be a teacher. It’s a job which requires a lot of dedication, patience and giving - and definitely a lot of time you spend while specialising for the degree. If there were no teachers, we’d have no colleges, no school, no education. And then what?

I am not sure whether you were offended by the question people ask you as to why you chose literature or offended by the original question in this thread. If it is the latter, it wasn't meant to offend. Though I don't blame you for feeling offended, especially with the hard time people have been giving you about your course of choice. It's good that you included the practical aspects of studying literature, as I imagine a lot of people do think it is not very practical.

Well, this thread is an eye-opener. To be honest, I've always skipped that book. The title never caught my attention. It's nice to see some positive stuff about this book. I think I'll give it a try based on the replies here about it being an enjoyable read.

Mahal kita is almost always used in nearly all situations. So you really can't go wrong with that. The alternatives mentioned here are very rarely used.

I agree that "Mahal Kita" is the most commonly used. Used properly though, "Iniibig kita" can still sound romantic instead of stiff and outdated. I guess it would also depend on the context. Plus if Tagalog isn't your primary language, hearing "Iniibig kita" instead of "Mahal kita" will definitely earn you some points towards whoever you're saying it to. 

Lol! I don't find it irritating either. It's amusing for me actually. It is gay talk in the Philippines, right?

I just find them so creative to come up with those words and they are even evolving! Like the beki word 'chaka' has now evolved to 'chuckie', 'chapter' which means ugly. Lol! But some words are really just coined from the same sounding word such as 'bigalou' for big. Or some words are made out of common sense like 'oblation' which they refer to as naked or 'walang saplot'. This idea obviously came from the U.P. oblation. Lol!

Haha, I know what you mean! It's interesting to see how its evolving, just like a formal language would. The terms become more intricate, wittier. I especially enjoy hearing those words changed to make them sound like names of local celebrities. Like a jilted lover would be called "Bitter Ocampo" or someone who's had a really rough and tiring day "Haggardo Versoza".

It depends on the reviewer. It might sound weird, but I usually don't trust reviewers who sound too formal. I feel like they're usually being pretentious and just want to show other people how much they know about a certain book and the hidden meanings, etc. I prefer reading reviews of people who just mention whether they liked a particular book or not and why.