If you're planning to visit the Philippines and take part in a wonderful tour of its sights and sounds, you might want to brush up on your language skills. There are a few words you will need to learn if you want to ensure a hassle-free experience. Besides, you're not the only person who wants to learn how to speak the Philippines' national language, Tagalog. In fact, there are several individuals all over the world who would like to learn how to speak it, but often find themselves a little short on time or resources. However, it's not as difficult as you might've imagined. Below are a few steps to learning the language:
What you first need to do is find a reputable teaching source. Of course, the method you choose will greatly depend on how you can learn best. Some people prefer audio, visual or both. You can actually find a lot of programs, tutorials and websites all over the Internet which can help learn how to speak in Tagalog.
If you want to be fluent at it, you need to allocate at least an hour of your time every day. This proves to be an efficient technique in learning Tagalog, so it is of utmost importance that you learn the words, memorize them and review their distinct pronunciations.
You might find it a little difficult at first, but you will need to make sure that you cut away just a bit of your TV time, and ensure that you set a proper schedule. Believe me, this will make all the difference in the world. In order to be good at something, you have to make it a part of your routine, and learning how to speak Tagalog will be worth all your time and effort, thus leading you to become quite the fluent speaker.
When you're learning how to speak Tagalog, you should always start with the basic greetings. Below are 10 of the most used phrases and words among foreigners when they visit the Philippines:
- Salamat. = Thank you.
- Kamusta? = How are you?
- Oo. = Yes.
- Hindi. = No. Not.
- Ako. = I. Me.
- Ikaw. = You.
- Sarap! = Delicious!
- Paumanhin = Sorry, excuse me.
- Paalam. = Farewell. (you may also use "Ba-bay" = Goodbye)
- Po = indicates respect to someone and is often used in phrases and sentences
These are just ten basic Tagalog words that you will often really encounter when you visit the Philippines. But don't worry, Filipinos are good English speakers. In fact, almost everyone can speak English. So if you don't know how to speak Tagalog, you can always just speak in English as it the country's second language.
