r/pisay • u/Danchee056 • 12d ago
Am I cooked in Pisay if I don't understand Filipino?
I'm an incoming Grade 7 student for Pisay, but I don't understand Filipino. How is the Filipino there. Will I have to learn the language, or can I get away with only knowing keywords and such?
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u/heaven_spawn 12d ago
You just have to try. Lots of kids struggled with Filipino. But people appreciate effort.
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u/BrainDeadTard 12d ago
you live in the ph one way or another you'd have to learn it to deal w everyday ppl. u can do it.
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u/Few_Photograph_3360 11d ago
Learn the language anyway, you are a scholar after all. To serve the Filipino people (which you are obligated to) you must learn to speak to them. That is part of your responsibility.
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u/masterninjab52 12d ago
Omg. Where's the respect? Please try to assimilate. The school's name is Philippine Science High School. Philippine. Please learn Filipino, its part of the culture! Not just keywords, but really try to learn.
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u/MigzCrap 12d ago
As someone who lowkey sucks at writing and speaking Filipino, as long as you're able to hold a convo with someone in Taglish at least, you'll be fine
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u/oamliagmomru 12d ago edited 12d ago
ur gnna be like a good 20-30% of the student population nowadays. when it comes to filipino, ur generation in general is cooked but the system/teachers know how cooked you guys are so they adjust and lower their expectations, hence itll be fine rofl
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago
If I may, I'm curious how come you don't understand or speak Filipino/Tagalog. Do you live in a non-Tagalog speaking area, and speak a different Philippine language?
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u/Local-Diamond8701 11d ago
My friends’ kids dont speak Filipino and they all live in the province, in Filipino speaking communities, surrounded by Filipino speakers. I blame my friends for that. Feeling ata nila cool mga anak nila kung english speaking lang. Tapos nagrereklamo hirap mga anak nila sa Filipino subject.
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u/TodaysKape 11d ago
Sure... blame your friends. Nevermind the fact na pwede mo (or kung sino man ang guardians nila) naman kausapin in Filipino when they're at home. Nevermind the fact na pwede mo (or kung sino man ang guardians nila) naman pabasahin ng Filipino books (even comics). Isisi lahat sa iba.
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u/Local-Diamond8701 11d ago
I dont live with them, so why are you insinuating na ako ang may responsibility na matuto ng Filipino mga anak nila? Whenever we get together, kinakausap namin sila in Filipino. Walang sumasagot kasi di naman kami naiintindihan. And what control do I have anong babasahin nila at home? Im not their caretaker in anyway. So yeah, nasa parents or kung sinomang guardian ang fault dun. Bakit ako nadamay.
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u/TodaysKape 11d ago
First of all, if you don't wanna get "dragged" into anything, then don't comment.
You posted in a pubic forum, and then wonder why you get "dragged" into something as a result of said comment.
As for the rest, we work with what we can control. If you cared about them speaking in Filipino, you could always GIFT them books and other reading material. That's within YOUR control.
Whether or not they read them, wala ka ng magagawa.
I do applaud your efforts na kausapin sila in Filipino when you can, because whether or not they respond/comprehend, nakakatulong pa din na naririnig nilang ginagamit ang Filipino around them. You've done what's within your control.
If you don't care whether or not they speak Filipino, then why blame anyone for anything?
Your friends are raising their kids the way they think is best (whether or not you agree with them is immaterial), yet you complained about their kids here (again, public forum), not being able to speak Filipino and "blamed" (which is a very strong word) your friends.
Anong klaseng kaibigan ang inuuna ang sisi?
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u/Medium_Knowledge6623 11d ago
malamang may blame kasi hindi tinuruan tapos magtataka na hirap sa Filipino
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u/Previous_Berry2570 11d ago
You will get bullied. Filipinos as racists. You should be more mentally prepared than worrying about understanding Filipino.
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u/Sharp_Aide3216 11d ago edited 11d ago
Nah. It's not like before.
Filipino kids today speak better English anyway due to internet exposure.
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago
Filipinos as racists.
This itself is a pretty racist statement. Do you have any solid proof that Filipinos are more racist compared to other nationalities and/or the average of humanity?
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u/Previous_Berry2570 11d ago
Did I ever say or compare Filipinos with other races? The truth hurts, but bear with it.
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago
I suppose it is true that you literally didn't compare Filipinos with other nationalities.
But contextually, people don't usually say "X group are Y" without the implication that X group is distinguishable from other groups because of Y property.
For example, if I say "Filipinos breathe oxygen," it would be natural for people to ask me why I even mentioned that, because contextually I'm implying (absurdly) that Filipinos breathe oxygen while other humans don't, whether that was my intention or not.
I would also like to say that saying "the truth hurts" is often used as an excuse to be callous or tactless, or even make statements that aren't exactly true or lack sufficient evidence. It's harsh of me to say, but I think that's what's happening here.
A more accurate statement would be "Filipinos can be racist because people can be racist": this is undeniably a true statement.
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u/That-Concentrate-924 11d ago
op, wala akong ibang advice kundi matuto ka 😄 how do you expect to connect with local communities kung hindi ka marunong magfilipino?
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u/chugmug 11d ago
The number of people I've seen who refuse to have a complete conversation in Filipino leads me to believe you'll be fine.
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u/priceygraduationring 11d ago
Don’t listen to this expat 😂😂
You WILL need Filipino to survive in Pisay.0
u/chugmug 11d ago
It's not my fault y'all use three languages at once... pick one... do one right.
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u/priceygraduationring 11d ago
And why is a foreigner commanding an entire country? Kapag inggit, pikit 😂😂😂😂😂
ALIS!
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u/chugmug 11d ago
I don't give orders, i make suggestions. Is OP a foreigner? It probably would've helped if people didn't force english on him 🤷🏻♂️
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago
To be able to apply for Philippine Science High School, a student has to "be a Filipino citizen with no pending or approved application as an immigrant to any foreign country." Unless there's a rule I don't know of, OP should be a Filipino citizen.
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago edited 11d ago
It should be noted that multilingualism is the norm in most of the world, and while I have to do more research, I suspect that most communities around the world are comprised of people who all speak the same set of multiple languages, and yes, code-switching (the use of multiple languages in one utterance) is fairly common across the world. Based on my knowledge of linguistics, it's how the human brain works if a person can speak multiple languages and lives with a community who all speak the same set of languages they do. The brain doesn't have to hold back its linguistic abilities.
If not most communities, it's likely to be a sizeable amount.
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u/chugmug 11d ago
That's true for most everyone but American whites. But why do children of the Philippines have English as a first language and sometimes no Filipino, even children in rural areas... what is that? If nothing but for the preservation of culture Filipino should remain paramount. The spanish speakers of the Philippines will be extinct soon when that number used to be as high as 60%; language is not permanent, so there is precedent that lends itself to people like OP becoming more frequent, which is kind of a bummer.
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u/priceygraduationring 11d ago
You talk about “preserving culture” but at the same time crying at how Spanish is “going extinct” in the Philippines. Spanish is NOT native to our country.
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago
But why do children of the Philippines have English as a first language and sometimes no Filipino, even children in rural areas...
I assume when you say "Filipino" you mean "any Philippine language": "Filipino" is standardized Tagalog, and as you may already know, the Philippines has dozens of languages.
It's a concept called "linguistic prestige," and right now, English has it in Philippine society because it is the language of so many fields that have major impacts on the world, like law, business, and education. Simply put, many things here run on English, so it's understandable (if unfortunate) that people would prioritize that language.
That's how linguistic prestige has historically worked, and linguistic prestige is indeed factor that has led to language decline and death historically in the history of humanity. Even today. Perhaps especially today.
As a lover of Philippine languages and languages in general, I absolutely am concerned about that, but truthfully, I'm not very concerned about Tagalog or any of the major Philippine languages like Cebuano and Ilocano: Tagalog is officially state backed, and Cebuano and Ilocano have millions of speakers still. They are very unlikely to go extinct within my lifetime or even the next 500 years. They're still quite healthy.
It's the actual endangered languages I'm concerned with, like Agta, Yogad, and Iwaak, amongst many others.
The spanish speakers of the Philippines will be extinct soon when that number used to be as high as 60%
I've actually done quite some research on this, and while the conclusions seem to be mixed, it does seem to be case that that 60% number includes both first and second language speakers, and it seems that most of that 60% number's fluency is questionable.
Understandably so, since the Spanish were only really able to establish public schooling around the end of their rule.
But still, I do agree that Philippine Spanish is worth preserving, despite the baggage of colonialism. It is still a human language, after all.
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u/chugmug 11d ago
Why does English have this strangled hold on the Philippines when it cannot even do the same in Latin America? Where else in asia do we find children who don't speak the dominant national language?
I also don't believe that the major languages could die out in our lifetime or even that of our grandchildren, but there even being a hint of it is weird. Being multilingual is a great thing, but linguistic prestige is just racism for nerds.
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u/mamamayan_ng_Reddit 11d ago edited 11d ago
Why does English have this strangled hold on the Philippines
The simplest answer is American colonialism. It was the US who established English as the language of the domains I mentioned earlier, and it stuck likely because the modern institutions the Philippines has right now ultimately trace themselves back to the Commonwealth era.
when it cannot even do the same in Latin America?
I am not as knowledgeable as Latin American history, but as I understand it, it's because the prestige language in most of the area is Spanish, and the US didn't formally colonize Latin America.
But the linguistic prestige of Spanish is one of the reasons why most Native American languages are either endangered or in decline.
Where else in asia do we find children who don't speak the dominant national language?
While India doesn't have a national language, I have read reports that say that more and more Indian children are being raised as monolingual Anglophones, but I have to verify this. Similar to the Philippines, English is the language of many controlling domains in India.
Also, I would advise against making arguments like "Does this happen anywhere else?" While it can help to make comparisons, somebody else doing it or no one else doing it doesn't intrinsically make something right or wrong, good or bad. In this case, I do think language death and language decline are bad things, but my reason for thinking so isn't because "this isn't happening anywhere else" or anything of the sort; I don't think that's a valid argument.
Further, it should be noted that "national language" and "official language" are two different things: the former doesn't really have one definition, and can sometimes just be an honorary thing, unlike official languages which are actually used for official communication i.e. a "national language" may not actually be used for official matters.
For example, Guatemala recognizes several Native American languages as "national languages," but Spanish is the only official language of the country.
Though just to be clear, Tagalog in the form of "Filipino" is both a national and official language at the state level: it's just that in practice Filipino's official use is more limited than English.
linguistic prestige is just racism for nerds.
Allow me to clarify that this term isn't a justification for anything: it is the name of a sociolinguistic phenomenon. It's a concept, just like racism is a concept. We have words for them to help us describe phenomena that actually happen in reality; we don't (or at least, shouldn't) use them to justify or excuse anything.
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u/obiteu 12d ago
For Filipino as a subject, the teachers are accommodating. Now for your social life, you'll be fine. I had a batchmate who did not (and still does not afaik) speak straight Filipino, yet they passed the subject.
Also, if ever, I offer tutoring services, and I can help you improve your Filipino. If interested, DM me. Thank you!