Was it easy to learn growing up in the US? How far do you get in fluency if you have never visited or lived in the Philippines?

Do you speak it at home?

9 comments

  1. OP, I hope you get really good answers, but all I can think of is Jo Koy telling the “ting ting” story.

  2. As if all Filipinos speak Tagalog. At work most all speak English. Some Vasayan. Some Ilocano. If they don’t know the other, they speak English to each other.

  3. I lost it it very young. I think I was 6 ish? I’m trying to relearn it but I mostly just understand some phrases and when to run bc someone is mad XD.

  5. Not Fil-Am but have many friends who are.

    Growing up, I had a lot of friends who understood Tagalog but didn’t actively speak it. Like, I’d go to their house and their parents would talk to them in Tagalog and they’d reply in English.

  6. Sorry for tagging along in the conversation as someone not from the Philippines, but appreciate you reminding me of this.

    Was in the military a couple decades ago, and a lot of my friends were from there when I was in. They used Tagalog all the time with each other, and loved when I was included after a while and got to learn some. Wish I’d learned more, even though I don’t know how I’d ever use it now. Just a cool thing to share with friends that made me feel accepted at the time.

    It’s been a long time though, and all I can really remember is stuff like musta and salamat (and I had to look up the spelling because all I ever did was say it, so not sure if even those are right).

  7. I understand most of it when spoken to, but I have no ability to put together sentences. I left the Philippines when I was seven, and have never tried to relearn it here. Growing up (and even still), my parents speak to me in Tagalog (my mother is a native Tagalog speaker, but it’s worth noting that the Philippines has dozens of dialects and languages; my father speaks Ilocano natively but knows Tagalog), and I reply in English. We’re all English fluent to some level, but of us three I’m the only one without an accent and can pass for a native English speaker on the phone.

  9. My parents never taught me Tagalog, but literally all my other Filipino friends know it. I guess you can consider in my group that I’m that one FA that doesn’t know how to speak it! 😂

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