No comments about Filipino (Tagalog): Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

3 comments about Essential Tagalog Phrase Book (Essential Phrasebook Series).

1. The book is divided into section such as "emergency," "food," etc. Being someone who understands the language it's a nice refresher on how to speak when traveling. It does not have a pronouncination guide so someone who's still learning or has never spoken it may have trouble. It about the height/width of a paperback but thin. It can fit in a small purse, not so much in a "pocket."



2. This phrase book is awesome! I'm trying to learn tagalog so I use it all the time. My mother was really surprised when I started using some of the phrases of the book! It's really great and I would recommend it to anyone trying to learn tagalog.



3. I just adopted an older child from the philippines and this book was a great way for me to have some phrases to speak to him in his language. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, as soon as he saw it he confiscated it to use with his friends!!! Now I'll have to order another one.

5 comments about Making Out in Tagalog (Making Out Books).

1. Since I am trying to learn tagalog, of course it's the bad stuff that you always wanna learn first. This book blew my mind! I had no idea that this kind of stuff would really be in a book! I thought I would have to ask my mom how to say all these things! This book is so cute, forward and helpful. Especially with the stuff you would want to say to a special someone!



2. I bought this book for my friend who wants to learn tagalog. However I decided not to give it and just return it to the store since it has a rediculous translation and interpretation of the tagalog phrases to the point of awkwardness. A tagalog speaker would find it funny to hear someone say some of the phrases in this book. This is not the way people in the Philippines talk in tagalog inside or outside the bedroom. I cannot now pinpoint where he got it right because I returned the book, but I am telling you, You will look stupid to be saying the phrases as how the author interpreted it.



3. This is a really quick guide to speaking on the street, my pilipino friends loved it when I came up knowing this stuff so fast. It is certainly no replacement for thoroughly learning the lingo, but it is a Huge jump start. Use and enjoy.



4. This is a handy little book that has many ready-made phrases in Tagalog that you might use in casual conversation. I've actually used it with my Filipino friend and she was impressed.



5. I wanted to surprise my wife by learning a few new phrases in her native language so I got the book. She was pleasantly surprised on the first day and as the week went by wanted to know where I learned my new phrases. I gave her the book and as she looked through it she was shaking her head. She informed me that a lot of the phrases were "old fashioned", that modern Philippinos would not say things that way, only her grandfather's generation would. I had her give me a percent and she stated about 1/3 of the book seemed to be "outdated". She was not impressed with the book at all but at least I got few things out of it.

5 comments about Pocket Tagalog Dictionary: Tagalog-English English-Tagalog (Periplus Pocket Dictionaries).

1. I bought this dictionary as a gift, choosing this one because of it's "pocket" size feature and being quite cheap.
   
   After receiving it, I was very surprised at how simplistic this book is, and is quite big for being "pocket size". I have a different brand of pocket dictionary of another foreign language that is quite small and use very religiously. This Tagalog one pales in comparison to what I used and what I was expecting.
   
   There are no pronuciation explanations, as I guess they assume you know how to pronounce the words already. But then again, reading Tagalog is pretty straightfoward, as opposed to trying to read, say, Chinese or Russian, where the characters are totally different. But you wouldn't even know where to accent the syllables either...
   
   A total for 88 pages with 44 pages devoted to each Tagalog - English, and English - Tagalog. I guess you get what you pay for. And I'm not paying this much for this book. I'm returning this one!



2. I used this book as a supplement to a Tagalog class. I am a Filipina, born & raised in the US and can understand the language & I needed a refresher course on certain words. It does have the most common words, the book itself is thin, about the size of a paperbook so it's not exactly "pocket-sized." But it can fit into a small purse.



3. This is a great English-Tagalog dictionary - actually one of the only ones that I found while searching. It's thin enough to carry in your pocket or to place in a bag. Shipping was breif.



4. If you are looking for a good basic one, easy to carry around, look no further. This is a nice handy dictionary.
   
   If you are wanting an exhaustive dictionary, obviously don't get a pocket one. This fits the caliber like it should.



5. My Dad arrived here in US couple of months.He told me he forgot his book at the Philippines. so he told me to buy one for him. I checked out Books a Million but I did not find it.. Ive been buying books here at Amazon.com so I tried luckily I found it. so far my dad like it..

5 comments about Basic Tagalog for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs (Tuttle Language Library).

1. Highly recommend this book to many who new to the language. The CD is okay, but it does go too fast to follow with. You definitely need to take advantage of the exercises in the book.



2. FAR better than rosetta (ugh) stone and MUCH better for pronunciation of words. And far better than the $200 plus dollars for the FIRST rosetta (ugh) stone course (of three courses costing around $500 plus for all 3 courses). I sent rosetta (ugh) stone's first course back after 3 weeks. Your choice of course.



3. This is an thorough book on how to speak Tagalog, like all serious textbooks it requires some effort, although it is technical at times.
   
   Honestly, I don't understand some of the criticism of this book, this is one of the more effective language books I have used. Tagalog is much more complex than most people seem to think, maybe this is what surprises them. It is certainly not a simple language to learn, grammatically it is up there with German and French.
   
   A typical chapter looks like this:
   1. introduction of the chapter topic (pronouns, possession, questions etc)
   2. vocabulary list
   3. examples (many of them)
   4. excercises (putting the right word in sentences, making correct conjugations etc.)
   5. translation exercise
   6. more grammar and examples
   7. a final set of excercises (making your own sentences etc.)
   
   What stands out in this book are the many examples, and that the excercises are usually spread out in the chapter.
   The grammar is explained quite clearly, although it does gets too technical at times for my liking.
   The excercises are numerous and will train you in all aspects of grammar.
   
   I don't give this book 5/5 because I think the technical approach of this book slows you down and makes in unnecessarily difficult.
   
   If you want to learn casually this is the wrong book for you, but if you want something extensive that will take you beyond the basics and you don't mind making abit of effort, this book will prove worthwhile.



4. There aren't many sources from which you can learn Tagalog, which is strange, since it's the second most widely spoken Asian language here in the US. In fact, the study of Japanese is the big fad right now although it doesn't even make the top ten list of most widely spoken languages (besides English) in the US, according to the 2000 census. Anyway, I'm currently in high school and studying ang wikang Tagalog recreationally, and I was fascinated when I polled my friends and familiy about languages spoken in the US...asked whether or not they were aware of the Vietnamese, Mandarin (Chinese), Korean, and occasionally even the Hmong languages, most responded affirmatively.
   
   However, when I questioned my friends and family members about their awareness of Tagalog language...only 1 of friends knew this language even existed (he's half Filipino). In fact, most of my friends and family didn't know where the Philippines even are, and a few didn't even know there was such a country.
   
   Not to mention the intimidation factor of the Tagalog language; yes, Chinese and Japanese have radically different scripts and grammar than English, but there are tremendous resources for both! Japanese has anime and manga as an enticing resource, and Mandarin Chinese has that whole top language in the world thing (1.3 billion speakers), but Tagalog is entirely scary when potential learners see sweet, innocent little words, like tiwala, meaning 'trust', heinously mutilated by prefixes, infixes, and suffixes to become: pinakapinagkakatiwalaan; which means, I think, 'the most trusted'. Who, among the Americans of my generation, so accustomed to instant gratification, would really care to learn the grammar of a language that would even attempt something like that, unless to get in touch with their roots?
   
   Not to mention the reassurance of "oh, the Philippines had been under Spanish rule for hundreds of years, and the Tagalog language has been tremendously influenced by teh spansh language!3@!!#432!!" Well, not really. There are actually several languages in the Philippines that are much more Spanish-influenced, but grammar-wise, Tagalog just didn't conform besides adopting stuff like numbers (veintedos as opposed to dalawampu't dalawa), some nouns, and words like mas (more) or o (or). Yes, learning Spanish would help...with about 400 words. Good luck from there.
   
   This book is a decent resource out of the very few affordable resources for Tagalog out there. It's updated, and contains reading material to practice on (or just freak yourself out with), and I hate to break it to you...but it's only a book. Basic Tagalog will not teach you words at an amazing rate, learn "like a child would", "pass as a native", or any other commonly guaranteed results if you don't do the excercises, and if you don't make an effort to make flashcards, or if you put no extra effort in learning whatsoever. Unfortunately, learning from a book-any book on language-will feel like work at one time or another, even if you're simply learning out of interest like I am. This is not the book's fault; it utilizes, most of the time, the drill-and-rote method of learning, which means if you only "go by the book" and not take the effort to say, watch any Tagalog-language movies or speak to Tagalog-speaking people, it might take years to master.
   
   In short, I was very surprised by the good quality of the book. I agree with other reviewers that it should contain answers, and it is INCREDIBLY annoying that there are typos within the book itself (!), but we're getting reading material from essayists and poets as opposed to trite little tourist phrases, and perhaps the lack of an answer key was to influence the reader to become more of an active learner...to study the writing provided, to study it's structure and affirm for oneself whether one is correct or not, or even influence the reader to (in the age of the internet) ask a fluent speaker, who would be incredibly happy to know someone else is attempting to master a language they love.
   
   Perhaps I'm overthinking it ;)
   
   Either way, Basic Tagalog is inexspensive enough where you can purchase it, take what you need from it, and leave it if you so prefer...or become interested in adopting a ruggedly lyrical, resilient language and connecting with the equally resilient people who've bothered learning it.



5. This book would be very difficult if you do not know someone who already speaks tagalog or have another book handy for translations.

1 comments about Tuttle Tagalog for Kids Flash Cards Kit (Tuttle Flash Cards).

1. This is a very good beginner tool. If you live around Filipinos you will probably know alot of these words already. However there is alot to learn with this book & flashcards. It has a few songs including "Happy Birthday" that make it very easy to learn. THe only critisism is that it is kind of hard to know where they are in the book to follow along with the CD. It doesn't state clearly where to go and I need to follow along because (like most of us) I am a visual and audio learner. But it still is a very good tool.
   Salamat

5 comments about Filipino Friends.

1. My 2 and 3/4 year old son loves this book and requests for it everyday. He specifically loves for me to sing the song "Bahay Kubo" and point out the vegetables pictures in the book. He is actually learning how to sing "Bahay Kubo" even though he really doesn't know what the words mean. The loves the character Sam, and I love to point out pictures which I say in English and Tagalog.



2. Loved this book. Can't wait to read my daughter this book and let her know a little bit about her heritage. The book also helped me review Tagalog as I'm not the greatest speaker since I am American born and my own parents not passing on the language.



3. I bought this so that my son could learn Tagalog, even though I don't speak it. My dad is a native speaker and lives 3 hours away, so I recorded him reading it to my son. We watch the video and follow along in the book. I also love it because it shows the cultural differences in a way that he can understand. After getting the book, I ordered another one to send to my niece. I highly recommend it!



4. Bought this book for my 3 sons so that they may learn a bit about their heritage before they go to the Philippines for a first visit. The story is about a young boy named Sam who visits the Philippines for the first time. He is at first a little nervous, but along the way learns about the filipino culture (seasons, food, family, parties, sights, etc.) and by the end of the book enjoys and feel comfortable with his Fiipino relatives and environment. I'm buying another one for my goddaughter. Would highly recommend!



5. Originally picked up this book in the library. But my son loved it so much I ended up buying it. The color pictures are very vibrant and every picture on the page has the word in English and Tagalog. Definitely recommend!!

5 comments about My First Book of Tagalog Words: Filipino Rhymes and Verses.

1. simple reading book that goes through the alaphabet with tagalog words.
   my husband who is filipino enjoyed the book and looks forward to reading it to our son.



2. Its ok, but not great. My son and I love the graphics and colors, but the text is lacking. The author writes a disclaimer in the beginning that she added non-traditional letters like C, X, and Z etc. (due to the Spanish and American influences on the country), but what disappointed me was that the traditional sound "Ng" from the real Tagalog alphabet was missing. So many Tagalog words start with "Ng", so she shouldnt have left this out. Otherwise, its ok.



3. The book wasn't exactly what I thought it would be but it is a cute book and does have some words in it that are "learnable". I bought it for my grandson. He likes the pictures.



4. The second portion of the title, "filipino rhymes and verses" is very misleading. The book just has one Tagalog word for each letter of the alphabet, the rhymes and verses to introduce each word are all in English. I found the text to be very poor.



5. This is a great book to introduce some common Tagalog words like lola (grandma) & kumot (blanket) as well as some Filipino culture, like J for Jeepney & Q for Quezon. It does not purport to be the definitive Tagalog teaching book so it's funny to me that some people are giving this a bad rating as if they were expecting an encyclopedia. It's a children's book with Filipino characters, words & phrases- nothing more or less. The pictures are bright and colorful, as well.

5 comments about Learn Filipino, Book One, with Discs 1 and 2.

1. I have visited the Philippines many times and love it dearly; plan to retire there. Received Learn Filipino book and CDs and, like others, I found the CDs cracked. Received replacement book and good CDs next day (thank you Amazon). This is not Amazon's fault, this is poor packaging by the publisher or distributor.
   I think the book is good but, like others, I am a little disappointed with the CDs. I wish there was much more work on correct pronunciation which is key to communicating effectively. For me, this is the most difficult part of learning Tagalog because the stresses and accents of most of the words are so different from English. Say it wrong and it has a completely different meaning - or none at all. I also think the guitar piece that precedes every single aralin should be limited to once per CD.



2. The book is very good. I am slowly working my way thru it. I also use an excellent dictionary as a supplement to the book. The CD is okay. It is fast, but using it together with the book it is easy to follow along. I am not sure about CD #3 & 4 as they must be downloaded from the web and I've not done that yet. I am a beginner and have tried other books, but this one is clearly the best one. I also use flascards and have a digital voice recorder that I use to help with conversation, words and phrases as well. If you want to understand the language, this workbook is good.



3. This book is really helpful in learning the basics of the language. It's fun to read and even has songs to learn! The CDs are great in helping with pronunciation and the layout of the book is simple. Pretty close to my high school Spanish book! I would recommend this to anyone trying to learn tagalog.



4. I bought both this book and Book 2 to prepare for a trip to the Philippines. What great investment! I was looking for something that could give me a good foundation in grammar and good vocabulary for everyday family-type situations. These are the books. There were very helpful, as I was in rural Nueva Ecija, and many did not speak English. Everyone was surprised at how much I had learned without knowing anyone who speaks Tagalog. I made many friends in the Philippines with the help of these books. Many, many thanks to the author for his contribution to the success of my trip!!
   
   I have studied other languages, using either conversational or grammar focuses. Both methods have their advantages and drawbacks, but the method used in this book is an excellent melding of the two methods so as to maximze the advantages of both. The books are accompanied by CDs and supported by an active website that reinforces the lessons and expands the cultural awareness. The exercises (with answers) were exactly to the point and helpful. I purchased a couple of other recommended books before this set, but they were not as effective. These are the ones that taught me what I needed to know. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone who has a desire to learn Tagalog, as I know they work.



5. This book is the best language tool I have ever seen. It is thorough enough to give a well based understanding, but brief enough to be quickly useful. The teaching method is the best I have ever used, being I have studied several languages.

5 comments about Tagalog-English/English-Tagalog Standard Dictionary: Pilipino-Inggles, Inggles-Pilipino Talahuluganang (Hippocrene Standard Dictionaries).

1. When I looked for an excellent dicionary to help along my study of the Tagalog language, I wondered about this particular book. I was thrilled when I received it and have used it constantly. It is INDISPENSABLE for anyone learning Tagalog. The definitions are clear and very helpful. The lists of most used words in the back of the book, as well as different Pilipino foods and songs and phrases was an added element. I am happy that I found Tagalog-English/English-Tagalog Standard Dictionary: Pilipino-Inggles, Inggles-Pilipino Talahuluganang (Hippocrene Standard Dictionaries)this dictionary and recommend it to anyone interested in this beautiful language.



2. While this dictionary was useful i was advised by loacal Manila residents that many of the tag words are out moded or not in use.



3. This is a pretty good dictionary most of the time. I am trying to learn conversational Tagalog and generally find more than half the words I look up. For complete novices like me, a book teaching the language is also requisite. Language oddities like prefixes, suffixes, and in-the-middle-of-the-word fixes make simple word lookup something of a treasure hunt without knowledge of basic language structure. For conversation, I would also recommend supplementing this dictionary with a book that is heavy on slang and colloquial usage. A plus for the dictionary is the organized list of related words, such as food types, professions, body parts, etc.



4. This book was quite useful and is very thorough. Not only does it have the translation, but it also talks about the culture. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs an extra resource to learn Tagalog.



5. I recently adopted an older child from the Philippines and having this book made it easier for him to understand English. Good comprehensive dictionary.