Our Pilipino teachers, especially Mrs. Rosa Espiritu-Bangaoet, have been instrumental for our class to gain proficiency in spoken and written Tagalog. This was a particularly daunting task, since only a handful of us came from Tagalog-speaking households. My own household spoke half Ilocano and half Tagalog, my father hailing from Malabon, Rizal and Binakayan, Cavite. He was one of the few Tagalogs I knew, who could speak Ilocano, though with a strong accent and some quirks in grammar such as “inalamo didiay plato sa kusina?” I guess our practice came about speaking with our Tagalog-speaking relatives and visitors.
Apart from Mrs. Bangaoet, our other Pilipino teachers were Miss Pilar de Leon, and Mrs. Ramos (did we have others?).
I came across this site, since my non-Pilipino speaking daughter was spending some time in the Philippines, as intern in a graphics company, an animal rights organization, and a PR outfit for a total of about three months. She was not taught Pilipino at home: I struggle to find reasons why not. In her early twenties, she figured it was not too late to learn it, at least enough to be able to catch the phrases and the language of the streets of Morato, Adriatico, de la Rosa. Thus a website search.
For our dear ones who would like to learn the language this site provides an excellent resource. For those who would like to re-live our Pilipino lesson days (“ano ang pangalan, at ano ang pangngalan?”) the site gives engaging sections such as games, riddles, proverbs and other interesting aspects of the language. http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/
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