g2narat

Aside from knowing the words and phrases mentioned here, you have to know the meaning and usage of the word "po". Po is used in a sentence when you are referring to someone older than you. It can also be used when talking to someone of higher status than you, like your boss. It can be inserted in different parts of the sentence but it mostly fits at the end. Example, you would say "Magandang umaga" to say good morning, but if you are talking to someone older, you say "Magandang umaga po". Although it doesn't always belong at the end of a sentence, just end with po when talking to someone older. The usage may be incorrect at times, but the person you're talking to will appreciate the courtesy.

If you take time to listen to Filipino conversations, you'll find most of them are Taglish. It's hard to find conversations in pure Filipino because like fredkawig said, there are a lot of English terms that cannot be translated. There are even ATM machines that have a Taglish option!

Yes. But that may be because my mother tongue is Filipino and Filipino grammar is way easier than other languages that I've had to learn. The spelling is also much easier because you spell things the way they sound. French used to be my second language as a child as we lived in France for quite sometime. French used to be easy for me (Not as easy as Filipino but I was quite fluent when I was younger) but now that I'm used to English, I'm finding it hard to re-learn the French language.

As an introvert (or should I say, an introvert in real life. On the internet it's much easier for me to express myself) I would have to say that it's probably harder for us to learn how to speak a new language. The intonations/accents doesn't come as easily since we don't practice speaking the language as much as extroverts. However, when it comes to understanding a new language, I think we fare better than the extroverts, having more time to listen rather than speak. Of course, this is just speaking for myself as I'm the "shy" type of introvert and I know there are the "loner" type of introverts who don't really enjoy human company too much whether it be talking or listening.

I actually have two favorite quotes: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” This quote is often attributed to Albert Einstein but there's no proof that he ever said/wrote it. I think whoever wrote it is a genius. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God." A lot of people think this was the work of Nelson Mandela, but it was actually Marianne Williamson who wrote that. I love this quote, so does my brother, although he first heard it from the movie Coach Carter :grin:

When I was in school, almost all subjects were discussed in English. The government changed that system though, and now kids have to learn subjects like math and science in our native language. That probably sounds reasonable but there are things that are just too difficult to translate in Filipino (Leads to questions like "How would you translate condensation?"). I'm sure the kids will be able to adjust eventually... it's the parents that I'm more worried about.

I love listening to different accents! My father used to say that you're not speaking proper English if you're not using the British accent (He worked at a yacht with Europeans) but I think having different accents for a particular language makes it more interesting. I believe as long as people understand you, you're using the language properly... no matter what accent you have. Some accent are a bit difficult to understand though, and sometimes it can get awkward when two people are speaking the same language but can't understand each other.