Learning Tagalog...

Do you speak other languages? If you speak spanish, or bahasa indonesia or malaysia, it would be easy because Tagalog (the official name is Filipino) borrows a lot of words from these two languages. It is fairly easy, but, as with learning other languages, you need to spend some time on it. There are a lot of language learning sites.

Wow, i am so glad to hear that you are learning the language of your girlfriend, well, so few of you are doing that, you really love your girlfriend do you, ... tale good care of her and good luck to your language study... "Magandang araw sa'yo" means "good day to you"

High fives on the Pinay. My wife is Filipino. You are correct. You should learn the language. They told me the same thing. "Oh don't worry about it, everyone here speaks English." Yeah, but it's a matter of respect. I can't give you any advice on how to learn it, because everything I tried is wrong. I got a Tagalog/English dictionary and they said it's wrong. I got an online language program, and they said it's wrong. I would suggest getting a Filipino language tutor. I'm still struggling to learn myself, because I don't have a lot of time. I work a lot. Oh and heads up. It's not that easy. They have words we can't pronounce. Like Ng. How do you pronounce that? There's no vowels. When they say it they say "Nang" But if you say "Nang" they will say that you're saying it wrong. Maybe it's the American accent. Do you know the basic stuff? Kamusta? (pronounced ka moo sta)(kamusta ka na) How are you? Mahal Kita. (you would say that to your girl friend) it's a romantic way of saying I love you. OO (pronounced Oh Oh) means yes. Hindi (pronounced hinday) means no. salamat means thank you. oh and they drink a lot of water and eat a lot of rice so you should know tubig ( too big = water) and bigas (be gaus = rice uncooked) kanin (ka neen = rice cooked) This is what I did. Start with the things around the house, because of course you will want to help your Phil girl. So get some paper and write down the english and tagalog for each thing and tape it to it. Like the window, the door, the closet, etc. Then everyday when you look at those things you will learn them. That's how I learned. I still have to work on my conversation speech though.

Hello CODYMAC, Actually i wasn't digging too much on yah or maybe i am a bit forgetfull. My country has become a third world that nobody really wanted to be more interested in learning the language. But I wanted to say thank you in advance for even planning to do so. hard to believe that a lot of my people thinking english is a priority and tagalog is secondary. I don't know if i can be much of a help because i pretty much learned it (wasn't easy) when i was kid through college. But I have found sites that maybe useful to you as a start. not a referral link. http://tagaloglang.com/Basic-Tagalog/Tagalog-Sentences/learn-tagalog-online.html http://speakingtagalog.com/ good luck.

Good luck Codymac. If you think you can learn fast on learning other language, I think you won't have a hard time learning Tagalog. My husband is an american and he live here in Philippines for 7 years already and he only know 2 Filipino words. LOL I tried to teach him but he was having a hard time of remembering the words. I think he is not interested. hehehhee Anyway, that is nice to know that you are willing to learn our language. Good luck!

Good luck to you! I admire the fact you want to learn her language that's sweet. My girlfriend is from the Philippines too and she has been here in Canada for a few years and speaks English well too. For me its even harder because she speaks their native Tagalog and also her dialect called Cebu or bisyan. I hope to learn the wonderful Philippine languages one day too!

I'm glad that you want to learn our language, what's your girlfriend opinion on this did she tries to give you a lesson? she can teach you since she is a Filipina you said you always talk on skype, you have already the chance to ask for her help. If she wants you to learn our language.

I have a boyfriend who lives in Washington so I understand where you are coming from. Just like you he wants to learn Filipino. Since I am online constantly, I try to be his tutor. However if you are serious of taking lessons you might want to buy a Filipino-English dictionary first so you would be able translate pronouns, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. Its optional if you wish to hire a tutor. You can spend on one or just try to apply what you have learned by reading, conversing and watching Filipino materials. If you are able to mingle with some Filipinos in the area do so. Do not let your friends hinder you. Based on my fiance's experience learning the language is very important. Trust me it can save you a lot of heartaches if you know what she or her friends is saying.

Filipino language is not hard to learn since it is almost the same with English language. You can read and pronounce the word by syllables -unlike other languages that the letters you see from how it is written is not what you expect it sounds to be like. Good luck on your wish to learn our language and thanks. I can see that there are responses that offers you help online and also links given for a starter. You can also try the "translation" but of course- it's not accurate- but by learning word for word- you will learn a lot more.

Good day Codymac, Its glad to know that you are interested to study our mother tongue which is Tagalog. Well, for me, this language is easy to learn since it can be syllabicate. Hence, if you know how to pronounce well the syllabus of the word, then you can find it easy to learn it. As compared to other words, Tagalog words are also easy to pronounce, thus, its no big deal if you pronounce it slowly at first since you are just a beginner. Nevertheless, wishing you goodluck on your choice to study that language.

I suggest you go ahead and learn the language, it is not difficult....not because I am a Filipino, but because I learned 3rd, 4th and 5th language....I could compare the language structure and Filipino is just simple. Learning foreign languages has many rewards in life..... http://socyberty.com/education/my-rewards-in-learning-foreign-language/

Oh you mean you wanna learn your gf's mother language? If yes, then it is nice. You should go ahead with it. I understand you guys can communicate by English well but it is so good when you can speak mother language, so that when you have a chance to see her family, you can make a talk using her mother language. I love to learn new language also, but currently i can't. I am busy with earning money...However, i wanna learn some languages more when i have free time.

WOw that is so sweet of you and she is so lucky that you are thinking of learning her language! Tagalog is really easy to learn, I have observed that from many foreigners in our country. And even if I'm outside the Philippines, there are people here in the Middle EAst who are so good and just learned to speak our language because as a taxi driver, most of his passengers are Filipinos who teaches him and speaks to him in our language. You may try researching online or buy a tagalog-english dictionary. And when you visit her in the Philippines, I am sure you will learn it easily. Goodluck Codymac!

hi codymac, that's so sweet of you to make an effort to learn your girlfriends language. yeah it may need alot of effort, but it will be worth it. Try checking some website for tagalog words. And also asked your girlfried to talk to you in tagalog once in a while.

If it were me, I'd be heading to my nearest library, even if they do not have what you need, they may know where you can find it. Good luck!

Try to take scenes from the movies and jot down the words said. Then one by one translate the words to tagalog. It may take a month to build your tagalog vocabulary. Another month to memorize them and another month to construct sentences and another month to speak them. Over the succeeding months maybe you can speak at conversations with ease and it goes downhill from there.

That was so nice of you Codymac , liking to learn how to speak the Filipino language. I see that LetranKnights has given you a link where you can start learning how to speak it. You can very well go to that site and learn from there. Maybe also you could request your girlfriend to email you the basic Filipino words. Good luck codymac!

You're right. Don't listen to your friend. Even if only a few words it will make your girlfriend happy. Moreover when she knows you don't learn it from her. It means you care. I used to have some relationships with boys from other countries (Pakistan and Turkey) and the fact that I learned their language, even only limited, made them happy. And it's coming handy when we meet other people from those countries. Another benefit is that you will have more glossary. I don't know how to explain it to you better but I think you know what I meant.

Hello mate, I would suggest that you can try to speak tagalog with her, as much as possible. You may not get use with it at first, but I'm sure you will get better. First from few words then you could construct sentences. I studied linguistic and I found that this way works! I learnt plenty of languages and I would like to learn tagalog as well!! It's an unique language.

Hi CODYMAC youre so nice and I am happy because you want to learn our national laguage which is TAGALOG. For me the best way to learn TAGALOG is to find a friend or someone who you can speak tagalog to teach you and talk to you even a few hours a day, but make sure that you can trust this person and really teach you the right word. I know it is hard for you learn tagalog but keep it up I know you will make it. Good luck.