Doyou still speak Tagalog?
I've been living in the US for almost 30 years and my Tagalog has gotten better over the years. I can speak better Tagalog than most Filipinos in the Philippines, I wager. I came to the US when I was 10 years old.
Now why do some kababayans pretend to lose it so suddenly? Like this one woman I met. She moved here 3 years ago when she was 21. Now she's struggling with her Tagalog. I say puwet, she says poo-wat. I think I rolled my eyes so hard, I displaced them. 
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Tagged with: 10 years • 3 years • filipinos • philippines • tagalog
Filed under: Philippines Tagalog - Written and Spoken
I speak Tagalog. I live in the Philippines.
Hearing Pinoys pretending to struggle with the language does not really affect me negatively. Because I know deep inside that the person is a fake. And I couldn’t be bothered.
For someone who is 21 years old, it’s HIGHLY unlikely that she’s actually struggling with her Tagalog. It’s all an act, absolutely ridiculous. It would make sense if she been here since 10 years old but at the age of 21, and only 3 years spent, no way she would’ve forgotten how to speak Tagalog already.
Overall, it really depends on the people you are with. I know Filipinos even Mexicans who’ve been here since they were a kid but still struggling in English after 10 or so years. I myself have been here since I was 10. In high school, I hung out with the Filipino crowd, also spoke Tagalog at home and I retained my Tagalog. However, towards the end of my high school, I only hung out with my nerdy friends who were mostly white and my English got a lot better. Over the years, after spending many many years in the armed forces, I slowly lost my fluency in Tagalog. There are not that many Filipinos at the branch of service I’m in. I can still translate from Tagalog to English easily but vice-versa, that’s when I have a hard time. I still speak Tagalog with some family members, may not be as fluent but that’s alright. I’ll be taking an advanced Filipino language course next year to fulfill a college elective requirement and skip all the basic prerequisites. I’m sure I’ll be fine, I just need a refresher
I never understood why the some Filipinos do that when they get here. Heck, they’re just making a fool out of themselves.
Not that much to tell u the truth lol when i was little i speaked fluent taglog now…. i speak fluent english insted of taglog
I always remember what had been said: "Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika, ay higit pa sa hayop at malansang isda!"
Agree to Delauria. That fella isnt just proud of her Nativity. pathetic.
you cannot forget your native language in just 3 years or even 10 years, unless you were brought to a foreign country as a child and you don’t get to speak tagalog with anyone.
Well, there might be a good reason for that, she might not be a Tagalog for one, a lot of Bisayas from Mindanao and the Visayas who live in the Philippines still struggle to speak fluent Tagalog even today, that they’ve become the object of jokes and stereotyping. This is evident whenever you see roles of househelps or probinsyanos who mixes up their F and P, has only three vowels in their vocabulary(eh, ah and oh) in Pinoy TV sitcoms and movies. But ironically these same Tagalog challenged Bisayas speak fluent English due to the English curriculum of most Private schools in the Visayas and Mindanao. I for one spoke little Tagalog but fluent English before I spent 8 years working in Manila and became more fluent in Tagalog due to speaking the language daily at work, but I also know a lot of Bisaya friends who actually ended up forgetting how to speak Bisaya and struggle with remembering some bisaya words after living in Manila for as little as 4 to 5 years, how much more for a language they were not fluent in in the first place.
Hahaha! Those people irritate me.
I moved overseas when I was 7yrs old. It’s been 16 years now. I’m still very fluent in tagalog and almost all filipino adults that I meet are impressed and pleased that I’ve bothered to keep speaking tagalog. I think it’s because my parents always spoke to me in tagalog at home, and also because of my desire to keep it. When you have a desire, you make the effort.
There are some tagalog words I don’t know, but when I do talk, I don’t think I have a funny foreign accent. I really try to keep it up because it’s very handy when going back to the Philippines. My cousins and relatives feel comfortable speaking with me because they don’t have to be so self-conscious about their english skills, and also because I can talk to the shop keepers and work a little charm to get a discount =).
I just have a bit of a hard time reading and writing in tagalog because I left Philippines before I learnt that.