Those are the Filipino vowels and consonants I've learned when I started to comprehend things, learned how to hold pens and read letters, and my mother was my first teacher. Our alphabets are actually just a Filipino version of English. As you can see above, they are composed of English letters but only differ in how they are being pronounced.
It may sound easy for others, but for us Filipinos, our mother language is so complicated but fun to learn.
Why complicated but fun? You'll find out as you read along.
When I was young, I always thought that our dialect and Filipino or Tagalog are the only languages in our country. So naive I was. But then our Sibika at Kultura (civic and culture) teacher taught us that there are several languages and dialects in the Philippines aside from Tagalog and our own dialect.
But even though our main language is Filipino, the most used language in the Philippines is English. It's one of the major subjects in our school curriculums. And the books, banners, tarpaulins, signage, newspapers, magazines, shows, news, contracts, documents, publications, etc., are all written in English. So if you'll step into our country you might be confused if it's the Philippines or one of the states of America due to English words broadcasted and posted everywhere.
That is because the United States rolled over our country in the past, and we have been influenced by their cultures and the English language has also been implemented and became one of the major subjects in school. It has also been used in businesses, government offices, different industries and establishments, and other transactions.
When I stepped out of my Province, I have learned different dialects and languages in our country, just like our primary teacher has said. In fact, our country has 183 languages and is on the 12th list in the countries with the most languages in the world. While walking in the middle of the crowd, you'll hear different words from different dialects, and you'll be confused if the people around you are Filipinos or aliens, lol.
In my family, we have different languages too. My mother's dialect is Waray which is mixed with Tagalog words. I have learned Cebuano when I worked in Cebu. And my father's dialect is Ilocano, but he knows Waray and he's speaking Tagalog at home.
Waray (my dialect): Maupay nga adlaw sangkay. (Good day friend)
Cebuano: Unsa imong gibuhat? (What are you doing?)
Ilocano: Siac agluto. (I am cooking) not sure about this though 馃槄
Chavacano de Cavite: Buen dia amiga. Adios. (Have a nice day friend (female friend). Goodbye.)
The Philippines has been a colony of the Spanish Empire when an explorer Ferdinand Magellan came to our island. Since then, the Philippines has adopted Spanish cultures, traditions, dishes, and words.
And other words with different spelling but the same meaning.
English: Tagalog/Spanish
Glass: Baso/Vaso
Book: Libro/Libro
Window: Bintana/Ventana
Document: Dokumento/Documento
Skirt: Palda/Falda
And more Spanish words. That's the reason why we easily understand the Spanish language. And it's not only Spanish language that has been adopted in the Philippines.
Malay for example, is the lingua franca in the Philippines prior to the Spaniard colonization. And I have heard Malay words existed in the Philippines while listening to Indonesians here in Hong Kong.
English: Tagalog/Malay
I: Ako/Aku
Sky: Langit/Langit
Five: Lima/Lima
Help: Tulong/Tolong
Child: Anak/Anak
And more Malay words. There are even places in the Philippines using Arabic/Muslim words.
That's the fun part of learning our language. It's complex, yet, you'll have fun and discover other languages as well while learning our words, culture, and life.
But if you will ask students about which they will choose to learn mother tongue or English? You'll seldom hear students choosing the Filipino mother tongue over English.
Ako ay isinilang sa ika-lawang araw ng Enero, taong is谩ng lib贸鈥檛 siy谩m na da谩n at wal贸ng p没鈥檛 siy谩m.
D*mn. That phrase only means "I was born in January 2, 1989." Why make it so complicated to pronounce?
Now let's go to Math.
12,345 square root of 2
Lab铆ng-dalaw谩ng lib贸鈥檛 tatl贸ng da谩n at 谩pat na p没鈥檛 lim谩 parisukat ugat ng dalawa.
I'm not even sure of this, lol.
Let's take a look at the longest Filipino word.
"Pinakanakapagpapabagabag-damdamin"
Wait. What does it mean? It means the most emotionally upsetting thing.
Would you rather read English or Filipino? Haha
What about Science? Can our mother tongue translate Science and medical terms?
Let's take "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." The word coined synonyms for the disease silicosis and the longest English word.
What about our favorite expression supercalifragilisticexpialidociouswelearned from watching Mary Poppins. That 34-letters word means "when you have nothing to say."
Okay fine, those longest English words are more difficult than our mother tongue, haha. But they are not translatable to our mother tongue.
But seriously, when it comes to difficulty, our mother tongue is one of the most difficult, yet, important aspects to learn. And its complexity is the main reason why many students don't want to learn their mother tongue. Because it is as difficult as tongue-twister phrases.
And it would be horrible if all the signage, shows, publications, or everything are using our mother tongue. You will be needing a bunch of tissues on the table the whole time of the reading session, lol. And might suffer anemia at the end of the school year, haha. Because it's nosebleeding.
News Headline:
Isa na naman pong nakakagimbal na sakuna ang naganap sa pang siyam napo't siyam na baranggay sa bayan ng Kabangkalan, kung saan tatl贸ng lib贸鈥檛 pit贸ng p没鈥檛 siy谩m na residente ang nabawian ng buhay.
Wait..What? How many casualties? Rewind...
tatl贸ng lib贸鈥檛 pit贸ng p没鈥檛 siy谩m
Oh okay, that's 3079.
Wooh. It's time-consuming reading pure and deep Filipino/Tagalog words, as well as absorbing their meanings. Reading is fine because you have time to analyze them, but if you just heard them from others or news, you need to ask again or rewind enable to understand well the phrases, lol.
Unfortunately for current primary students, the school curriculum has implemented the usage of the mother tongue again even applied in reading Math words. Good luck kids!
Learning mother tongue has the same thought about why do we need to learn complicated Math equations when we don't need them in our daily lives' activities.
It's easy to write the Math expression but hard to read, understand, and solve.
Two friends talking:
Man 1: Hey dude, can you help me find the limit in the sigma notation as n goes to infinity, i is equal to 1 at n, that goes like this......
Man 2: What the h*ll are you talking about? Get lost!
Man 1: lol, I'm talking about my Math sigma notation homework.
What about using the complicated Science, Chemistry, Physics, etc terms in our daily lives?
At store:
Customer: Excuse me miss, can I buy a 150-ounce soda beverage made with pressurizedcarbon dioxide and has been added with Sucrose being composed of one molecule of glucose linked to one molecule of fructose, with some amount of trimethylxanthine, and distinctive brown hue containing carcinogen and pH of 2.8? With solidified water molecules, please.
Staff (nosebleeding with mouth open): We are out of stock mam.
The only answer the staff uttered as he didn't understand what the customer has said.
Customer: I'm referring to 150 oz Coke with ice....please.
Yeah, we don't need those complicated terms and equations in our daily lives. Unless you are working as Engineer, Math Teacher, Chemist, Biologist, Pharmacist, Doctor, etc. But if you'll just sitting in the office, handling paperwork, and other office-related works, complicated terms are not useful. And Math problems? The most commonly used Math formulas are only using the basics - addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. And why not use calculators? Haha.
I am not against learning mother tongue though, because learning mother tongue is a vital foundation to learning other languages and enhancing other skills.
However, let's face the reality. We are in the new Era where English is our Lingua Franca or Universal Language. Can students even use their mother tongue in their future job applications and transactions?
Nope, because everything is using English terms now. Learning new courses and enhancing skills are using English. Finding a better job needs English. Applying for a certain job needs English. Working abroad needs English.
Why make things so complicated when we can make them easier? It's like, you're making your life so complex as well.
However, learning our complicated language is truly fun. Isn't it? Did you read our mother tongue exmaples above? If not, then read it again, haha. While learning our complicated language, you will learn Tagalog, Spanish, Malay, and other words too.
Our national language here is a bit hard for those who are not yet very good at it.Especially those who are in far-flung areas . But it's a good challenge in learning those deep words in tagalog..
Being a multilingual have so many advatages .馃榿.
Epic nung nasa store na inapply yung science haha.
I love this haha you've basically explained all the language barriers that we have here in our country. And quite frankly I learned English by watching movies when I was a little and learning tagalog was a pain for me. Especially the " matatanlihagang pagsasalita", I can't even understand it haha. I ask my mama or papa for translation most of the time to better understand it. And to make things complicated our mother tounge here in our city is called "Hiligaynon". Which is like "Ilonggo" but with less intonation I think.
Haha ako nga din po eh. Konting words lang alam ko sa bisaya. Pero ang dalawang kapatid ko bihasa na kasi nakatira sila doon ng ilang taon. Si mama ko naman bicolana pero hindi niya din ako naturuan eh haha. Si papa minsan nagtatagalog din kapag nag uutos. Kaya minsan hindi maintindihan. Kailangan ko pang tanungin kung ano iyon sa aming salita haha.
Totoo mahirap aralin ang ating sariling wika! Lalo kung meron nang patinig, katinig yung mga ganun. Ay su! Saya ko talaga nakalusot naman ano? hahaha...
HAHAHAHAHA very true and realistic mas mahirap pag-aralan ang mother tongue pero hindi ibig sabihin na hindi na tayo marunong gumamit at magsalita ng Filipino. One of my teacher said " Kung mag Filipino major ka mas mabuti pa ang english major" mabuti nalang hindi ako nag teacher馃槀 Mag apply ng trabaho sa Pilipinas kailangan speaking in English talaga. Kahit mahirap at marami tayong dialects masaya rin naman matutunan馃槉.
Ang galing naman pro madalas mahirap parin intindihin ang tagalog lalo na kpg super lalim na e2 nKakadugo ng utak 馃槀 minsan mas naiintindhan pa ang salitang english kht di nmn magaling mag english 馃槉
Dahil dito po na article napagtanto ko po na mahirap talaga lahat ng lengwahe lalo na ang lengwahe natin. Isipin niyo yung maikling salits sa engles ay mataas na salita saatin hahaha anyway MamRubyJane po yung answer pag e decode po yung binary code 馃槉
Thanks for this comprehensive explanation ms. Jane. Na refresh and lessons about language nung High School at Elem. .Ang hirap po talaga tandaan yung ibang terms sa language natin. Lalo na pag math or science and itinuturo. Naalala ko tuloy yung pinsan ko nagpaturo ng assignment nya. Sabi don 'Idibuho ang iyong pangarap.' Eh hindi ko alam ano yung dibuho, drawing pala. Haha
I think that as long as it's still written in ABCs, it's not as difficult as those in characters, but my... the words are really long when we could do with shorter ones. Learning our mother tongue is not so much about whether they are useful or not, but preserving one's culture, in my opinion.
Try ko din sana hulaan yung binary codes kaso may nakahula na :)..
Speaking of language, it reminds me nung nasa Accenture pa ako and working as Mainframe developer. Since our client is an electric company in Spain, we have to write our code variables in spanish. Example: abierto (open), cerrar (close). Kaya lagi kami may google translate na nakaopen kapag magcocode.
And then since the business and technical requirements docs are written in spanish language, we have 2 translators in the floor. Feeling ko may lahing Spanish yung isa. Kasi galit na galit sya sa "H" . Halimbawa sa name ko KHING, ano ba daw pag binasa yun "Ki-hing"? hehehehe....
Yeah. I mean sya is super lakas ng dugo ng spanish pati sa physical feature nya.. Feeling ko either mother or father nya is spanish. Grabe yung struggle sa codes nun lalo na yung sa count at total, lagi nagkakalituhan pag icocode na namin. Madalas eh babalik pa kami sa translator para iclarify.
Depende po sa project na mapupuntahan mo :)...Meron naman po ding ibang projects na hindi na need ng translator like yung mga Utilities projects na based sa U.S kasi syempre universal language naman natin ay English. Unforgettable din naman yung mainframe dev experience ko sa accenture dahil kailangan may makaready kaming google translate pag nag-cocode :)..
Kung atint susumahin, tunay na mahirap talaga ang ating Lenggwahe. Mas makakadugo pa ng utak kainaman na talaga. Pero nakakabighani din naman kung ating aaralin. Pero mas maganda sana kung atin ding aaralin ang baybayin. Bakit nga ba inalis ang baybayin na iyan. Hindi ko mawari ang dahilan.
Ang sakit siguro sa ulo kung hindi mageenglish ang science at math teacher namin. Mas masakit yun sa ulo lalo na kung tatagalugin mo yung (2)虏 ganon hahaha.
nahihirapan ako sa kalisud jud sa tagalog.. one time pumunta kaming divisoria ata un. taga bohol kami.ang sabi ko.. magkano ni? hehehe
but on a serious note, ung mga kids these days indi talaga sila into tagalog.. most of my friends na may mga anak tell us na they are having a hardtime teaching their kids and that's their lowest subject grade
Haha. Nosebleed ako sa mother tongue na yan. Hirap pa intindihin minsan. Akala ko nga dati uno dos tres na pinaka bisaya sa numbers, meron pa pala. Syempre di ko alam pero nalaman ko lang to sa mga ka workmates ko na mama. 馃槄
Hola @jane fue tan divertido leerte y como sabes un poco de espa帽ol en ese idioma te dejo mi comentario jejejej.
Filipinas me parec铆a un pa卯s interesante antes de leer tu post ahora me parece extraordinario, es incre铆ble como manejan la ling眉铆stica en tu pa卯s y s铆, deben tener algo de extraterrestres para sobrevivir semejante bombardeo de informaci贸n y distintos idiomas y dialectos.
Hola amiga..
S茅 un poco de espa帽ol, pero solo las palabras, no las oraciones 馃ぃ馃ぃ
Todav铆a estoy usando el traductor ... jaja ...
deber铆as visitar el lugar en Filipinas donde la gente habla espa帽ol hehe
Your language is much similar to Chinese Language. I am kinda too late for 1$ contest. Congrats to winner. Every country has set of its own language so I try google play translater for this.
There are so many english words that also can't be translated into my mother tongue.
Since English is our official language in my country, I couldn't speak ourbnative language while growing up until recently. I mostly responded in english even when people speak our mother tongue to me.
Feel ko nga mas mahirap pa yung mga language naten kesa sa english, hirap ako mag tagalog lalo na pag malalalim, jusko dzai nakakastress intindihin haha kaya need pa naten aralin sariling wika.
I love learning new languages, I do this by watching movies and trying to get the accent.
I tried pronouncing that long Filipino word... I couldn't, its so hard
L am Ruby Jane , crack for the binary code . I didn't know how binary works, after your noise cash post, i learned a little bit 馃榿 And this was a good read. I had interest in learning tagalog after I learn nepalese , but after reading this, my interest is gone 馃槀 . Didn't expect it to be so tough.
You're right po ang it's hard to learn our mother tongue and we have lots of dialects. Andami nyo pong alam na dialect ako tagalog at bisaya lang hehez.
Is it L am Ruby Jane?
It looks like I am at a class and someone teaching the language of Philippines. Well, there are many languages in this world. Meeting new people and learning their languages are incredible. Beautiful world with beautiful languages.
Our national language here is a bit hard for those who are not yet very good at it.Especially those who are in far-flung areas . But it's a good challenge in learning those deep words in tagalog.. Being a multilingual have so many advatages .馃榿. Epic nung nasa store na inapply yung science haha.