leosmith wrote:I enjoy the Philippines, and I can communicate pretty well there most of the time. Most people speak pretty good english, my native tongue. And now my Tagalog is about B1, so that helps me understand more of what's going on around me, and can get me out of a jam now and then. But it's becoming more clear to me that the chances of meeting people who speak Tagalog well but English poorly are pretty slim. I'd pretty much have to create that situation, travel to smaller towns in Luzon, talk to older people in less affluent settings. I don't do that. When I go to Luzon, I normally just stay in Makati, then I take trips to beautiful tourist destinations by plane.
But I'm constantly running into native Cebuano speakers who have poor english and mediocre Tagalog. So I'm thinking about learning Cebuano, and I want to know how hard it would be to pick it up. Question:
Are Cebuano and Tagalog roughly as similar as French and Spanish, or do they differ by as much as English and Spanish?
Short answer - I'm not sure, but maybe Romanian and Spanish?
Long answer -
I think myself and
https://forum.language-learners.org/mem ... ile&u=1082 know the most about Cebuano.
I'm a beginner at language learning and he is a ployglot. I've spent probably around 2 years actively learning Cebuano ( Bisaya / Binisaya ) and it is my strongest spoken language. I speak it in a basic way every day.
The below aren't facts, but what I have observed, been told by others.
I have been told that Cebuano speakers are often better at English than Tagalog speakers. Tagalog speakers can be immersed in Taglish all the time. Cebuano speakers often have limited media in Cebuano (even in Cebu you can't always pick up Cebuano TV) - so use English media more (but Taglish too). I think an Ilocano or smaller language speaker might be better too - as to function, they often have to be polyglots and so have the skills to learn other languages.
Until recently school were in English medium. Tagalog is taught formally like a foreign language and used less than English. At younger ages, explanations are in Cebuano but the books are in English.
Many Cebuano speakers HATE speaking Tagalog and would prefer to speak English. There seems to be some kind of "humour" / perceived discrimination when Cebuanos speak Tagalog. For this reason, many avoid doing so. The cultures are NOT the same. I don't want to generalise in a public forum, but I perceive differences and others comment on them.
There is more Spanish in Cebuano than Tagalog. Lots of English in both ( Ceblish / Taglish). Taglish being an option on ATMs. Cebuano has evolved rapidly over the last few years and until Facebook was oral (for most purposes). Bisaya (Mindanao as well as Cebu) can be different but many of our friends are from Mindanao and there seem few misunderstandings.
When I spoke to a Malay speaker in Singapore, he told me that he and his Cebuana wife had few problems communicating and he suggested the languages (Malay/Cebuano) were close. The great Cebu hero Lapu-Lapu came from Borneo. So you have to view how languages arrived and geography a bit differently. The sea was the way to move, not over land. Land used to be pretty empty - so if you had a disagreement, head off with some others, find some empty place and settle (then defend against slavers). I don't know if malaria etc limited population sizes and led to smaller, more diverse communities. The word for an area comes from the word for ship.
Others have told me that Malay and Cebuano are closer than Tagalog.
Cebuano is more widely spoken than Tagalog. Tagalog use is generally in Luzon, with pockets elsewhere including some in Mindanao.
In the south and central regions, Cebuano has always been the Lingua Franca.
I'm constantly hearing the same words (to my ears) in Tagalog as Cebuano - but sometimes with vowel shifts and different meanings. Lungsod is town in Cebuano but has a related (but different) usage in Taglish.
If stuck for vocab, turn an English or Spanish word into a verb or noun so you can mo-empathise or show pag-empathy.
The best guide so far (for me) is 130 pages long and if you have done Tagalog before (let alone Korean and others!) - probably easy for you.
CEBUANO
LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES
MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER
30 MAY 2002
Send private messages for more info.
As regards travel, Cebu is pretty built up. Dumaguete might be nice (not been) - but I found Mindanao really nice, but with security concerns (for some).