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Filipino language course starts with an important lesson: don't call it Tagalog

A course is teaching Winnipeggers of all backgrounds to speak Filipino including people from the Philippines who can’t speak the mother tongue of the country.

Adult beginners excited for opportunity to learn language of their loved ones, their heritage, local community

Austin Grabish · CBC News ·
An April 2018 photo shows a class taking a Filipino language class at Tec-Voc high school in Winnipeg. The 25 non-profit ethnocultural groups will receive almost $300,000 in funding through the province's Ethnocultural Community Support Program, a grant program that provides support for anti-racism, interfaith, multicultural and youth activities. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Vicky Cabrera starts her class with an important lesson and conquers a common misconception about the national language of the Philippines.

"Many of them thought it's Tagalog but actually it's not Tagalog, it's Filipino because Tagalog is one of the dialects," Cabrera explained.

Cabrera is teaching a course on the Filipino language to a fresh crop of adults eager to learn. The class started Tuesday night at Tec Voc high school.

The students in the course are beginners who don't know how to speak Filipino — some are from the Philippines, others like Kevin Richard are married to someone who has the Filipino language as their native tongue and want to be able to communicate in it together instead of using English.

"I just want to be able to learn more about her language, her culture, be able to relate to her parents and family more," Richard said.

Cabrera didn't waste any time and got right to teaching the basics Tuesday nights to her 25 new students. She even had a mini-lesson on Filipino slang.

But she started her class by explaining the confusion around Filipino and Tagalog, saying Filipino is the national language of the Philippines but is based on Tagalog.

Student learning so she can talk to family

Johsa Manzanilla is one of the students in the course. She was born in the Philippines, came to Canada as a child but cannot speak Filipino.

"Often if I try, sometimes my family will make fun of me because I have an accent and sometimes I use words completely incorrectly so I just want to improve a little bit more."

At 32, she decided if she could speak French, she should be able to speak Filipino too.

The Manitoba Association of Filipino Teachers is sponsoring the class to promote a better understanding of the language among adults.

Cabrera said students should come away from her course with a good grasp of the language they can use to make everyday connections or in the workplace or at home.

The course is focusing on listening and speaking and has 12 sessions and runs until June 26.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Austin Grabish

Reporter

​Austin Grabish is a reporter for CBC News in Winnipeg. Since joining CBC in 2016, he's covered several major stories. Some of his career highlights have been documenting the plight of asylum seekers leaving America in the dead of winter for Canada and the 2019 manhunt for two teenage murder suspects. In 2021, he won an RTDNA Canada award for his investigative reporting on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which triggered change. Have a story idea? Email: austin.grabish@cbc.ca

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