A few weeks ago, I made a post about learning Philippine languages, and communications here. In the comments, I mentioned that people in Cebu don’t care for Tagalog, and some actually are very anti-Tagalog. A few commenters said that they had never heard that before, and were curious about it. For me, I have heard that since my first trip to Cebu in 1990. Today, I was looking over some videos on YouTube, and came upon one that is entitled “Language Barrier.” It deals with the way that Tagalog is viewed by Cebuanos. I found it quite interesting.
See what you think:
Hi Bob, interesting video. As a foreigner not living in the Philippines it kind of seems fairly trivial, and I guess similar for ex-pats living there, but the local Philiippinos can get pretty excited about this kind of thing. Will be interesting to see what comments you get ( hope you dont start some kind of war) LOL
It can be compared to the Catalan/Spanish dialect conflict in Spain. Barcelona and the Catalan region is very protective of their dialect. See it this way, and it makes more sense.
very interesting bob , if i recall my history in the early 1900s the missonaries to the native american reservations, did not allow the children to speak thier native tounge in the schools run by the missonaries . i remember reading about them getting beaten and other forms of punishment for not speaking english in the school.
hi bob, speaking as a true native son of manila, i understand how the cebuanos are slighted by the tagalogs of luzon, especially with the people of manila and the southern tagalog region. i do think it's unintentional however that most people who only know how to speak tagalog somehow rub the people of cebu in a manner they may interpret as 'condescending'. there is absolutely no issue with how the cebuanos, warays, mindanaoans, and everyone in this country should hold and view their native dialect and culture with unmistakable pride. i even think that if cebu were the capital of the country, things may even be better or more practically run and managed. my best and dearest friends here in manila are cebuanos, and they have proudly and effectively staked their own futures and claim when they settled here in 'imperial manila' to live and work, hahahaha. they can all show us 'tagalogs' a thing or two about true native pride, diligence, hard work, and success in this country. 😉
Hi anthony haire – For me, it doesn't seem like a trivial matter. I guess for an ex-pat like me, and perhaps like you later, it helps determine things like which language to learn and such. If I lived in Cebu I would not spend time learning Tagalog, as Cebuano is much more appreciated there.
Hi macky – I don't know too much about the Catalan/Spanish feud in Spain, but from what you describe, it does sound very similar!
Hi ken – Wow! I have not heard about that. Where did you hear this information?
Hi ben – Interesting observations.
The language issue(s) are one of the factors Americans don't understand when they create visons such as 'why won't the Filipinos get together and 'fix" this problem or that problem". To a great exstent there _are_ no Filipinos … there are Cebuanos, ther are Bulacanos, there are Pampagano(s) … and if you engage knowledgeable, educated Filipnos in conversations about this you will be amazed at some of the belief's a prejudices that come up about fellow Filipinos. A Filipino in Tawi tawi has very little kinship with a Filip[no for the Cagayan Valley … different ethnic background, different religions and very little in common. The Philippines is to a large degree an "artificial" nation. The Spaniards captured a group of islands and administered it as one possession .. and the US followed their lead, then made it independent. But there was no cohesive country there to begin with.
Hi Dave Starr – You are correct in many respects, in my opinion. The Philippines is very "regionalistic" in many senses. Often people from the same province will have a real kinship, yet they seem to have a built in weariness about people from the next province over, or from another island and such. One thing about Mindanao, the Spaniards never conquered Mindanao, and never really ruled the island. That is one thing that makes it very different from most of the rest of the country.
hi bob one source is a book called boarding school seasons by( brenda j. child) the book gives the story of the native americansthat went to these boarding schools from about 1900 -1940 there are otherbooks on this subject also
Interesting Bob, i can't quibble as to the question of Spaon "conquering" Mindanao … but they certainly subdued large areas … It can be argued in both directions whether the Spanish ever "conquered" all the Philippines anyway. They controlled strong points and cites but to my knowledge there was never and end to Spanish resitance Philippines-wide. It's more a question of the definition of "conquered" which is in the eye of the beholder to some extent, But Zamboanga was an important Spanish city and Fort Pilar there one of the last Spanish strongholds to fall … and since this who thing got started with "language" the language of Zamboanga is Chavacano, a pidgin form of Spanish … more Spanish than any other Filipino dialect … so their influence there was obviously very strong, regardless of the actual amount of control one believes they had. I don't know how far they exercised control over the rest of Mindano.
Hi Dave Starr – Yes, you are correct that Zamboanga is an exception to what I said. On the rest of the island, there is virtually no Spanish influence. You know how in the Visayas and Luzon you see lot of Spanish style churches and such? We don't have that down here, because the vast majority of the island never was under control of the Spanish. Mindanao is quite different from the rest of the Philippines, and in many different respects. 🙂
Hi Bob,
I really find this post interesting as, like I mentioned in another post, I was unaware that there was such an anti-Tagalog sentiment among Cebuanos. I guess I never felt it because I could speak both dialects/languages equally well. My Tagalog acquaintances are often amazed when I tell them I come from Mindanao and my parents are both Visayan. They often ask me "How come you don't have an accent?"
Now, I wonder if this is one of the reasons why Cebu promotes itself primarily as Cebu, and not as part of the Philippines? What I can say is, yes, I agree that Tagalogs should learn Cebuano if they intend to live in Cebu for an extended period of time. If not, I don't see why they have to go thru all the trouble. I find that if you learn a new language, you have to constantly speak it or you'll forget or lose interest.
I was really intrigued by your previous post that I did some research on it. I wasn't aware that in 1990, the medium of instruction was changed from English to Filipino (Tagalog). This was where that anti-Tagalog sentiment must have started. When I was in school (and I realize I'm dating myself here :sad:), we were required to take Pilipino subjects in high-school and college. Everything else was taught in English. In 1990, changing the medium of instruction from English to Filipino (Tagalog) did, of course, place the non-Tagalog speakers at a disadvantage. No wonder there was such an uproar. I just hope that a happy medium can be reached. I guess we have in Davao, where we combined both in "Bisalog" or the combination of Bisaya and Tagalog. 😀
Hi Tina – I've been waiting to hear your take on this one! 😉 I had you in mind when I posted it. Interesting comments! It seems that not only Davao, but a number of other parts of Mindanao are so multi-lingual!
How prevalent is English in Davao? Is it spoken as a "second language". Does an English speaker draw scorn from the locals? Can an English only speaker survive in Davao, or will there be isolation – condemned to associate only with other ex-pats and no ability to function in general society. Why is English required for all government documents, like visa applications. Why are all RP government web sites English only? Seems odd. We've visited Davao several times and are considering moving there. However, we realize that most of our interactions were with "tourist related" entities, trained to speak English as they are all over the world. Thanks in advance for your input(s) – valuable blog Bob 🙂
Hi Jonah – English is widely spoken here, and you can get by with nothing else. I think you will have a more enjoyable life if you learn a little language, though.
This may sound strange to some of you, but I'm bi-lingual – English and Spanish and I understand a great deal of spoken Tagalog when I travel to RP. There's a lot of similarity to Espanol.
Hi Jonah – It doesn't seem strange at all! It would be interesting if you go to Zamboanga City – they speak Chavacano there, which is a derivative of Spanish!