Learning the Tagalog Language

My interest in learning the Tagalog language stems from my friend, Linda's Filipino heritage. Philippine culture and the Tagalog language are areas of interest I will be persuing more this year and as I learn more about the Tagalog language and Tagalog language learning programs and opportunities I will post them here on this blog.

Tagalog Language Learning

The Tagalog language is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines and is the most spoken Philippine language in terms of the number of speakers. Tagalog is widely used as a lingua franca throughout the country, and in overseas Filipino communities. It is the sixth most-spoken language in the United States with over a million speakers.

Spoken by more than 24 million people as a first language and an additional 65 million as a second language, the Tagalog language is used to communicate within ethnic Filipino groups when spoken outside the Philippines.

Philipino, also spelled Pilipino, Filipino, or Phillipino, is the national language of the Philippines and the de facto standardized variant of the Tagalog language. A Rosetta Stone Tagalog program and a Pimsleur Tagalog program are available that use native speakers to assist you if you wish to learn the language. The Rosetta Stone language-learning software program requires the use of a computer and teaches understanding, speaking, reading and writing, while the Pimsleur method is mostly an audio program focusing on conversational Tagalog and can be used wherever a CD can be played. Both programs are complementary and can be used together to increase the speed of your language learning skills.