New Tagalog resources - from the Philippines

Being in the Philippines, I decided to stock up on some Filipino language resources. Filipino music is easy to find on the internet via Youtube, Spotify, and Google search. What is fairly difficult to find is literature or reading materials that are at a decent level for a novice or intermediate learner. Good dictionaries are probably the most difficult and require visiting different bookstores. With the exception of one, I found all of these at National Book Store.

Keep in mind that someone who wants any of the books mentioned here will need access to bookstores in the Philippines, either physically or through someone who would be going to or who lives in the Philippines. It might be possible to find these through various online outlets like Amazon, Lazada, or the National Book Store website but in my view the chances of that are slim. Where possible I will post a link to the product page.

Bartolome del Valle and Melania Jimenez del Valle, Talatinigang Pilipino-Pilipino. This is a decent pocket-sized monolingual Filipino dictionary. Many of the meanings appear to be just synonyms, or the meanings sometimes do not appear to be very helpful.

Vito C. Santos, Vicassan's Pilipino-English Dictionary (Abridged Edition). I like this dictionary because the English explanations are quite in-depth. The explanations are similar to what one would find in a monolingual English dictionary. Most entries are easy to find because the well-known affixed words like pag-ibig have their own entry. Vicassan's appears to be about as comprehensive as Leo English's famous dictionary but the former is lighter and easier to carry. The link to Vicassan's at the National website is here.

Virgilio S. Almario (ed.), Diksiyonaryong Adarna. This is a comprehensive monolingual Filipino dictionary. Ever since the UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino went out of print, this is the dictionary to have. Free access is available is available online at diksiyonaryo.ph. The web version does not contain the sample sentences found in the print version.

Teresita C. Basadre, Sari-saring Alamat: Tungkol sa mga Hayop, Halaman, at Pook (Book 1). This is a book of legends. I thought it would be an easy read but the style is more literary than what I am used to. Fortunately, when I finish the book I will be better versed at this style.

Fanny A. Garcia, Pamilya Migrasyon Disintegrasyon. I am enjoying this book, probably because it is easy to read at my level. The style is colloquial so I'm not doing much word hunting in the dictionaries. I find amusing the Filipinoization of the few English words that appear.

Servando de los Angeles, Ang Huling Timawa. I have not started on this book yet but when I skimmed through it at the bookstore it looked like used the standard words found in novels.

In future posts, I plan to do some reviews on these books. I might not get to review all of them but I will definitely do the dictionaries.

Free online monolingual Filipino dictionary

In September 2017, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) announced that there is now an online Filipino dictionary. It is a Filipino-Filipino or monolingual Filipino dictionary. This is great news for serious learners of the Filipino language. It is accessible at diksiyonaryo.ph.

Monolingual Filipino dictionaries are scarce. Most of them are found only in the Philippines and the quality varies. The UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino, authored by the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino (SWF) and published by Anvil, is quite possibly the most comprehensive of all monolingual Filipino dictionaries, but unfortunately it looks like it was taken out of print. Most of the monolingual Filipino dictionaries that I have seen are basically the equivalent of a thesaurus and not really a dictionary per se.

The only Filipino-Filipino dictionary available in e-book form appears to be the Diksiyonaryong Monolingwal sa Filipino, authored by the KWF and published by Anvil. It is based upon the most frequent words found in mass-produced Filipino literature. It is not comprehensive and not intended for learners of the language. But it is still a useful dictionary for those looking to improve their grasp of the Filipino language, particularly because example sentences are provided. The Kindle edition is available here.

The recent diksiyonaryo.ph is basically the online version of Diksiyonaryong Adarna, published by Adarna House. They online version provides nearly all the same features as the print version, like the breakdown of a word to show where/how the affixes attach to the root. The only difference that I can see is that the online version does not provide example sentences whereas the print version supplies sentences for each meaning a word has.

Weekly progress update - 10 Oct 2017

I'm late with this posting because I have been in the process of traveling. I haven't gotten to do much in terms of active studies. But I've kept up on hearing, although not as much as I would have liked. I would say I logged about 25-40 hours last week of hearing. But more on that in a bit.

I've done a bit of outputting because I'm now in the Philippines! I make sure to output only what I know is correct, although I do make an occasional mistake. I'm finding myself being able to respond naturally in conversation, when I'm able to produce something. Sometimes I don't get all the Tagalog I hear but that will come in time.

So since I'm now here in Tagalog's native land I'm hearing Filipino constantly. The 25-40 hours I mentioned earlier was based on the selective things that I decided to put on. On top of that, I have probably heard or been the recipient of another 20+ hours.

Now that I have a stable internet connection I can get back to focusing on selective hearing and active studies. I have felt that these help immensely and will only further my progress as I now have a full immersion environment.

One thing I've noticed is that I have been dreaming quite a bit in Tagalog. It happened on the airplane and it has happened a few nights here. Some of the dreams have been a result of hearing conversations in my sleep. Other dreams have been during sleep time.

I'm always happy to be here. Even the few weeks that I've been here before have done wonders for my Tagalog in terms of comprehension and speaking. Now that I have made a more conscious decision and have a process to improve I know that progress is inevitable. I'm also excited because I get to hunt for some reading material here.

Weekly progress update - 1 Oct 2017

Been at it pretty much the same as last week. I had heard around 50 or more hours of Tagalog. Picking out new words and phrases seems to be slowing down. Around my church mates, I feel that I'm understand about the same amount.

I've been been doing the flash cards every day. Words, phrases, and sentences are becoming much easier to say, although a couple of sentences had me tongue twisted. Overall, imitation is becoming much easier at the first pass.

I've felt a struggle at times this week. It feels as though I've been losing some of what I've gained. I read somewhere that children pick up a new sentence pattern or structure perfectly around their first few tries. But then they start to struggle with using it correctly, apparently because they try experimenting with it.

Some think a similar situation occurs with adults where they apparently seem to start losing their grasp of the language. At some point whatever adults seem to have lost returns and the use of it is even better. I hope that's what is happening here.

As with learning anything to a proficient degree, it's all about the day-to-day process. And I'm proud to say that I've stuck with Tagalog each and every day since writing this blog.

Enjoying the journey

I was trying to find some sentences to plug into my flashcard program so that I could have more content to review and to expose myself to. I don't mind repeatedly hearing/reading/speaking the same thing over again as these activities help to cement the language more into my brain.

So I remember that in 2015 I had emailed a Tagalog instructor about ways to improve my Tagalog skills. He offered some very helpful advice that included putting myself into an environment where I was surrounded by Tagalog. This is similar to what I'm doing now, except that my speaking has taken a backseat to hearing and comprehension.

I remember when I first read the email reply, which was all in Tagalog. When I first read it, the Tagalog was beyond my level. I remember having to look up 1-2 words per sentence. The email was brief so 1-2 words per sentence is significant.

Well I remembered that email and how I had struggled a little bit with some of the words. Those are good types of sentences to improve my Tagalog. So it is 2017 now and I pulled up the email from 2015. And I was a bit disappointed but also overjoyed at the same time.

I understood every single word in that email. Up until maybe a couple of months ago or so I wouldn't have known those words. But now I did. In the past couple of months something happened with my brain that enabled me to know the meaning of those words. So I was disappointed because I couldn't use any of the sentences as flashcards. But the best part is I did not need to!

So even though the journey thus far has felt like a struggle sometimes, the truth is that there is improvement. And much of the time, things don't come together. But then things do come together. And that is the result continuing on in the journey.

So this motivates me even more to enjoy and give attention to the daily process that makes up the journey. Because the results will be there so long as there is consistent work over time.

Totally social Filipino language

The Filipino/Tagalog language is totally a social language. What I mean is when it comes to non-English languages it does not necessarily have the kind of prominence that something like Mandarin, Japanese, or Spanish have. The number of classes for those languages in secondary education or in a university far outnumber the number of classes for Tagalog.

Languages like Mandarin, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Arabic have a long and deep history. Each of these languages have their classical works that people pay lots of money to get a degree in order to be proficient at understanding and interpreting these classical works. As far as I know, Tagalog does not have the same extent of historical depth.

This is not to say that people don't want to learn Tagalog. In the United States, a number of very reputable universities offer Tagalog classes. The University of Hawaii; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Madison-Wisconsin; the University of Washington – just to name a few – all offer instruction in Tagalog.

I have also seen scholarly(-level) works in Tagalog. A couple of my books are way beyond my league at the moment because the Tagalog used there is quite complex. I once ran across a journal article in Tagalog where I couldn't follow the Tagalog after the first few sentences (I probably can do a bit better now!). But I'm not aware of scholarly Tagalog being required for graduate-level education in the same way that academic German is required for some philological fields.

Forget all that. Tagalog is totally social. And that's why it's totally awesome.

Yesterday I was out with the elders of my family. A young gal was sitting near my dad and I think she initiated a conversation with him. When I came closer I could hear her speaking Tagalog with him. It seemed to me that she wasn't super proficient in speaking (it seemed like she understood everything they said) as she was using very basic forms. But that doesn't matter. What did matter was that she was speaking the best she could.

That's what makes Tagalog awesome. No matter where Filipinos are, there is that camaraderie that exists, especially when they can switch the language up to Tagalog. The kind of connection is really unexplainable but it's there. And it's awesome.

I'm not saying this is exclusive only to Filipinos. Of course, every group has that connection that especially comes out when both/all sides speak the same national language. What I'm saying is that I don't care that Tagalog isn't as prominent as some other language or that it doesn't have the kind of histories that some other languages have. I hope Tagalog gets to that point. But the social bond that Tagalog carries with it is a real gem.

Weekly progress update - 24 Sep 2017

This past week I've heard maybe somewhere around 50-70 hours of Filipino. It didn't help that I had a number of things going on. But that's life.

I'm finding that hearing Tagalog constantly helps me to be able to understand more. The active learning works well with the more passive hearing.

I haven't tried listening as actively to my new songs. I'm still picking up new words/phrases the more I hear them.

So far I'm happy with the progress.

And as I finish this post, the song playing is "Kay Dali" by Elmo Magalona.