Tagalog Language
Being in the Philippines almost for four years, I felt like doing something, and one of my desires was to express my thoughts about the tagalog language and any kind of interesting stuffs in the daily life.
This blog focuses on the tagalog language and several other thought pieces i daily experience in the Philippines. English is understood in the Philippines, but they naturally do talk with each other in tagalog (if not other dialects such as Ilocano, Cebuano, etc). This makes it much better to be able to understand their mother tongue as well. After all, the first language is what goes deeper to the heart rather than just understanding.
One thing particular about the language is in some significant difference from English as well as my first language Japanese, such as the verb focus and confusing patterns of conjugations. The aim of this blog is to share what I heard and learnt from the real daily conversations in the Philippines, which I believe may help others who struggle with the language.
My goal is to provide simple yet really used words and expressions seen in real conversations, rather than a grammar concentrated box. Grammar is really important and needed for us to learn and develop the language skill smoothly and refrain from being stuck, but there are already tons of great resources for that purpose like the followings:
- Learning Tagalog: Extensively covers tagalog grammar in details.
- Tagalog English Dictionary：Provides both web and app where you can look up words and some example sentences.
Bible
I may also talk about Christianity related topics in a very peaceful manner. For many years I had been really not into religions or any sort of it, simply dismissing them as “not proved.” But things somehow changed, and I determined to believe God.
There is no way for me to prove His existence, but really, no one can prove the other way around either. Why am I I? Who gave me me? What is this consciousness that I can be aware of? Our recognition is limited, and is not something enough to see what actually forms “myself” and what is behind “myself” afterall.
There are three choices: to believe, or not to believe, or not to determine either way. Among those, the second or the third was my fit because I wished for His existence and yet saw no proof. When the life changed in a very undesired way, however, I started to go with the first choice. Since then, it became the center of life instead of just a choice.