Hubby was watching news last night about some Chinese Nationals in Maine who are teaching Chinese language to Mainers. As usual, he asked me why I won’t do that. Why would I? There is no requirement for Filipino language (Tagalog) tutors around here. [Trust me, I looked already.] Why would there be? There are only few Mainers who actually know where the Philippines is. There are not a lot of Mainers who think that Tagalog will be useful to them. And there are only a handful of Mainers who actually need to learn the language like those who are married to Filipinos (Pinoys) and/or their own kids. But with my own observation among Pinoys here in the US, that is not much of a problem.Teaching Tagalog to American kids or husbands alike is easy because, Pinoy mothers/wives will always mumble Tagalog words every now and then when they are talking to their kids/hubbies especially if they are giving them a hard time. Trust me, when Pinoy mothers are having a problem with their kids/husbands they will always express their anger, frustrations and sentiments in their own language and kids/husbands will always pick them up. They know when mommy/wifey is in a bad mood because… she is saying, mumbling and hollering those weird words again. And that I believe is a transition that every Pinoy abroad has to go through. So, I don’t think they really need a proper school or an accredited tutor to learn the language? Trust me, one way or another, they will learn it - the hard way.
With my Hubby, I have tried to teach him some Tagalog phrases [like Mahal kita (I love you), Maganda ka (You're beautiful) and Kelangan mo ba ng pera? (Do you need money?)] but he keeps forgetting them specially the last one. (Hehehe) He would struggle so hard with the pronunciation and would eventually give it up altogether.
Oh well, there are few words that he knows and that I think will equip him enough if we decided to go back to the Philippines for a vacation but trust me… those words will surely get him into trouble back home. What do you expect? The only words that he learned by "heart" are… Tanga (stupid), Gago (foolish), Tamad (lazy), mabaho (stinky) Maligo ka (Take a bath). However, I didn't teach him the other you-know-what-words-that-Pinoys-instanteneously-utter-when-they-are-really-really-pissed-off because I reserve that "one" for myself for those not-so-good-moments that I mentioned above... so that he wouldn't react so bad when I can't control myself to mumble it. Wink*
6 comments:
My husband knows 'gutom' and 'kapoy' (tired) while my kids know 'kaon' (eat) and 'init' in reference to food. I should really teach them more, shouldn't I? :)
Hahaha, this is funny. James knows a lot of words. He copies me. It's amusing to other Pinoys when we go out and he says, 'O, tingnan mo, masarap.' or 'Halika dito, asawa ko.' In the Philippines, he pays for our fare when on the bus and says, 'Bayad o, dalawa.' Natutuwa sa kanya mga pasahero and konduktor.
Yes Soy and Len... I love hearing my Hubby say tagalog words it is very amusing especially if he gets the right pronunciation and accent.
Yes Soy and Len... I love hearing my Hubby say tagalog words it is very amusing especially if he gets the right pronunciation and accent.
I also try to teach my hubby tagalog words and it's really cute when he talks in Tagalog. He knows "hindi, bahay,sigurado,magandang umaga but sometimes instead of saying Magandang Hapon - He says: "Magandang Hipon!"
LOL!
hahaha! i agree, here too in tokyo, only a few people learn tagalog. though i was pleasantly surprised by the japanese students of the tokyo gaidai (univ of foreign studies) students of the filipino studies program are required to study filipino + another filipino dialect. for some reason, the most popular are bisaya and ilonggo ;-) it really gives me a kick sometimes to hear them converse in our language ;-)
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