Learning Tagalog (Filipino) | The Struggle Is Real

Filipino (Tagalog) Is Difficult

There is no sugar-coating required and I am not justifying my children's not speaking the language. It is really difficult and complicated. I remember in my senior year in high school, I feared that I might flunk the subject. Seriously. Well, it was mainly because our teacher was notoriously bookish and her exams were hard to understand, but still... Filipino grammar is really difficult.

Our eldest lived in the Philippines for the first four years of his life and he was surrounded by pure Tagalog speakers but unfortunately, he did not pick up the language. He had a speech delay and spoke in full sentences only when he was four years old, and he was back here in Abu Dhabi. Of course, the language was English already.

Trying To Learn Tagalog

Tagalog is the mother tongue of my husband and me. It is the official language of the Philippines and is spoken mainly in the southern part of Luzon, and is the second language by many.

While the two of us speak Tagalog at home, the children picked up English as their language from digital media - Youtube mainly. We consciously teach them Tagalog so that they will become confident speakers but the journey has not been easy so far.

Sometimes I can't help but crack up whenever we are studying and they pronounce the words still with a distinct accent or when they mistake a word for another that sounds similar.

Example:

kama = bed

One time when practice-reading, we came across the above word. I asked my eldest what "kama" meant. He confidently said, "hand". Wrong!

kamay = hand

Homographs

Tagalog also has lots of homographs or words with the same spelling but different meanings. Where you put accents or stress on the syllables will make the word mean differently. I have to point this out in our reading lessons too.

Example:

baka = cow
baká = maybe

or... they have the same pronunciation but different meaning...

Example:

bato = n. rock
bato = v. throw

A lot simpler in English.

There are still a lot of other ways where my children are struggling and English would be simpler.

For example, to make the plural form of a noun, we only add "s" to most English words. In Tagalog, we have to add an extra word, "mga" to express a word in plural form.

Example:

singular:
flower = [Tagalog] bulaklak

plural:
flowers = mga bulaklak

Not only is the Tagalog translation to the word "flower" longer, we have to add the word "mga" to make it plural. Should I mention, it is also difficult to pronounce!

"mga" = pronounced as, ma-nga

My daughter struggles with the "NG" sound. LOL.

Slow Progress Is Still Progress

If anything, reading comes easy for them since the Modern Filipino Alphabet is almost similar to the English Alphabet. My daughter surprises me with her Tagalog reading skills but we still have to work on comprehension. My eldest has more reading comprehension than her since his Tagalog vocabulary is wider.

We lagged in the previous months but these days we make it a point to really sit down and have at least 30 minutes of Tagalog lessons every day. I try to make it fun for us so that they won't run away. Haha.

This is our constant challenge and hopefully, this will make them become confident Tagalog speakers one day.