Lazy. Lazy. Lazy. I’ve been lazy lately. Too lazy, and I’m tired of it. What I am talking about is my effort to learn to speak Bisaya. I have not been doing a good job lately, and I can blame nobody but myself. Yesterday was my weekly lesson, and I am having a hard time with my vocabulary. The reason is because I am not studying enough! Who am I kidding? Certainly I am not fooling myself. I am finding lately that I am struggling even for words that I used to have readily at hand. Now, I have to think to remember them. That means only one thing: I am not reviewing my vocabulary often enough. I also am not making enough effort to learn the new words that I need to learn every week.
So, do you think that my teacher is fooled when she comes to my house weekly to give me my lesson? When I have to think for a few seconds to come up with words that I am supposed to already know, or when she asks me words that I was supposed to learn over the past 7 days, she obviously knows that I am not studying enough. Bebe, my teacher, is an old hand at teaching language, so she is not fooled. She knows the score. By not being serious enough about my studies, I am not hurting anybody but myself.
I am at a really hard part of learning the language right now. I am learning the “connectors” – i.e. however, even if, neither nor… there are literally dozens of such words used to connect different parts of sentences to each other. Problem is that there will be sometimes 5 or 6 different bisaya words that basically mean the same thing in English. However, in Bisaya they have slightly different meanings. If you want to say “however” there may be 5 or 6 different ways to say it, and each has a slightly different connotation. Because of this, I am having a very hard time learning the words. I mean, if you learn that one word means “however” and then you have 5 other words that mean the same thing, it is difficult to memorize them! At least it is for me.
Well, because of the difficulty of the current vocabulary, I am not spending enough time reviewing my older vocabulary words that I learned over the past year. I really have to change my study habits. I need to increase the amount of time that I study in order to reinforce my previous learning. I am not spending enough time studying, and I need to.
Funny thing is, I enjoy speaking Bisaya. I am at the point where I can go around town, and I can communicate in almost any situation, and I enjoy that. There is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing the surprise on somebody’s face when you start speaking Bisaya to them! It’s very enjoyable, and I often get compliments from people on the street when they hear my language skills. When you get to the point where you can communicate, and people are complimenting you, you tend to get complacent. It’s like “I can speak Bisaya already, why should I study so much?” That is not a good hole to get into.
As of today, I am re-committing myself to more studying, more use of the language, and being more serious! I have to do it. Learning the Bisaya that I have learned has improved my life here, and made my life so much more enjoyable. I have to keep it up more, though!
Bebe, if you read this, I am sorry that I have been slacking off a bit lately. I’ll do better. I promise.
Bob,
What a great lesson in discipline and fundamentals.
Why is it that we have to keep getting back to the fundamentals? Not just in learning a new language but in every area of our lives.
Your willingness to take yourself to task and get reinvigorated is commendable.
Keep up the good work!!
R L Graham
Lighten up on yourself Slacker, your in Paridise.
Now you can dive back into it with new found vigor.
Hi R L Graham- Thanks for your encouragement. I think that I kind of got into a rut, became overconfident, and let my studies go!
Hi Neal in RI- Ha ha…. 😆 Thank you my friend.
Hi Bob –
Don't forget to ignore that little (English) voice inside you warning that others will laugh or make fun of you if you select the wrong "however" from your list of five. 😉
That little voice will tie your tongue everytime you listen to it! 😆
Hi Paul- Good morning (or is it evening?)! Thanks for the tip. Actually, I have already pretty much gotten past the point of worrying about embarrassment from using the wrong word. I used to be somewhat embarrassed to speak Bisaya, worried about making a mistake, but that's pretty much in the past now. Most people are so helpful if you try to speak to them in the local tongue, it's really a non-issue. Even if you are not perfect and make mistakes, they are very forgiving.
Hi Bob,
I understand what you are saying. My wife has been trying to teach me tagalog. She even went to the extent of sticking notes on objects in the house with the tagalog name.
I am finding to my shock that my retention of words unless they are naughty ones is generally not very good. I studied 5 years of latin and french as a student and got very good grades and can still remember a lot of the words despite no practice so I assumed I would pick it up fairly easily.
I realise that this is partly a result of ageing which affects retention of new knowledge but I suspect a great deal of mental laziness on my part or lack of real commitment. I guess also being in the environment where the language is always around you would make it easier.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Michael- I used to do the same things you are doing. For years, Feyma tried to teach me Bisaya. Also, when I first moved here, I had little notes pinned to everything around the house with the Bisaya name for it. The little notes worked fairly well for me. Feyma teaching me didn't work at all. I have found in my conversations with a lot of people that having your wife teach you the language rarely works at all. I don't think that it has anything to do with age at all. I think it is because our wives (at least mine) is not a language teacher! She doesn't know the proper way to teach a language. Nothing wrong with that, it is not what she is trained in.
What I found is that when I hired a real language teacher, somebody who has taught language for more than 20 years, I learned the language pretty easily. I know well over 1,000 words now. Right now, though, I just kind of hit a plateau, and kind of slacked off a bit.
Another big advantage in learning the language is being immersed in the language. If you were to live in the Philippines, you will find that learning the language is much easier. In addition, having been married to Feyma for 18 years, I found that I knew a lot more of the vocabulary than I realized. Just having been around the language for that long taught me a lot, but I didn't realize it, and didn't know how to tie it all together until a real teacher showed me how to do it.
Good luck, Michael!
Bob,
I think you are right about the importance of the teacher.
I learned latin really well because I had a "good" teacher the students called "Pinhead" Giles.
He gave us a written latin test every Friday and each Monday morning he would come in with bloodshot eyes and a hangover and give us our results. If we made a critical error in a test he would physically beat us up and deduct 20 points from our grade for each error in a test worth only 20points in total. You can imagine what a few negative scores did to our averages.
Its amazing what a little "incentive" and a results focused teaching technique can achieve 😉
Hi Michael- 😯 Physically beat you? My goodness, I think I better put the computer down for now and get my language book! Time to study!
I hope that Bebe doesn't read this… my lesson next week could take on a whole new dimension! 😆
Bob: don't feel bad. I remember reading somewhere that the part of your brain that learns language stops developing once you reach 20 years old. Language learning becomes far more difficult. You could still try the "live in the sticks" method you wrote about some months back!
Hi John Miele- I used to believe what many people say about language learning being difficult later in life, but I no longer believe that. I have found in the past year that for the most part it has been quite easy to learn Bisaya. Right now I have just hit a plateau, and it will pass, as long as I keep focused on it, and I will do that.
I will be going to live out in the sticks, but right now is not the right time to do that. Many of the "out in the sticks" areas around Mindanao are not the place for a foreigner to go live for a week right now. Hopefully, things will settle down next year, and I will be able to do that. Not right now, though.
Thanks for your comment, John!
Hang in there Bob it is all worth it in the end ..Phil R.
Hi Phil R.- Absolutely! Learning the language is very important to me. I just have to get over this little speed bump. Thanks for your encouragement.
Hi Bob,
I've been thinking about learning Cebuano too. I recently purchased a fantastic little book on learning Cebuano called " A Handbook of Cebuano" by Anssi and Nida Raisanen ( 2007 ). I highly recommend this book for its clarity in explaining all those little annoying connector words.
One thing I've noticed is Cebuano pretty much has to be memorized because none of the words have any connection or similarity to English ( except those English words adopted into Cebuano). This I find makes it harder to learn. I also find the stress points in the words are in different places than in English.
Although the language is not that difficult compared to Chinese or Thai it is still harder for a native English speaker to learn than say French or even German.
I agree with you 100% when you say the benefits of knowing Bisaya/Cebuano are worth the effort !
Hi Randall Jessup- My problem is not that I can't figure out which word to use out of the connectors, it's that there are so many connectors that I forget the words themselves! 😆
I find little tricks on how to learn the words, and generally I don't have trouble learning vocabulary, but when you start having multiple words that basically mean the same thing, I find it tough going then.
Thanks for the tips, Randall.
I have an answer why you keep on forgetting – it is called "alzheimer's light" 🙂
The good news is that if you learn languages, you can slow down the process!
Kamusta po Bob,
I understand how you feel Bob, although I am only beginning my journey into learning bisaya, there are many words that mean the same…and knowing when to use them is very difficult. But in english there are many words the same too…but used so much a "connectors" like in bisaya.
I can't wait for the day to be able to walk the streets of Maasin, or any other place in the Visaya's and be able to have a decent conversation in bisaya with the people there….I look so forward to that day. Right now, I am looking for a tutor here in Florida to help me, where I work..I have met many filipinos that are from the Cebu area, and am hoping to get one of the to help me along with my lessons.
Good luck and "don't be so lazy"…hehe….
Salamat,
Danny 🙂
Hi Ellen- Thanks for the encouragement (I think!). 😆
Hi Danny- Yeah, there have been times during my journey of learning to speak Bisaya when I have thought to myself, "why do they have so many words which basically mean the same thing?" Then I get thinking about it and realize that we do in English too! 😆 This is really the hard part of the journey for me, though. My teacher, Bebe, says, though, that if I can get through this part, it's downhill the rest of the way! 😉 I hope she's being honest with me! 😀
Hi Danny- Just one more thing that I neglected in my response to your comment. If you want a tutor who is really trained as a linguist, my teacher is available for online tutoring too, with webcam and voice. She's fairly inexpensive too, if that is a consideration.
Hi Bob well I'm a bit behind you I have just started to learn bisaya and I'm finding it hard going,but I have 2 neices working in my resort and I like to help out in my canteen so when I have some one come to buy I always try and get my niece to teach me how the words are pronounced properly and what they mean and I now find that very slowly I am starting took pick it up.
I look forward to the day when I can walk down the street and talk to someone in bisaya.
Hi andyp- Yes, it is really a great feeling to be able to talk to people in their language. I love it! Good luck to you, I really hope that you achieve your goal!
kamusta bob
i seem to remember that you was saying awhile ago that you was going to have to go to some village to speak only bisaya so you could be alot better to understand the language.im sure you have been very busy my friend.
salamat bob
Hi Ron W- Yes, I am planning on doing that, and I will do it. Problem is that right now, the situation out in the sticks in Mindanao is not too good for a foreigner to go out and live out in the boonies. I just have to wait until things calm down a bit first.
Hi Bob – I feel your pain, but on a less advanced level. I think that Bebe is not going to be excited about my work during the time off 🙁
I just got back from visiting my in-laws and they were teaching me Bisaya. I mostly just learned a few important Nouns…. Ligo, Maayo Buntag, Tubig, Manok, init, Unsa emo Pangalan…… what confused me the most was they would mix in B'laan and Illongo. I often had to call my 9 year old nephew in to translate for me.
I really want to learn but I am even less disciplined than you are. I just found this Blog and really am enjoying reading.
Hi Dako- Yes, it is very true that languages are often mixed like that. This is especially true in areas like Southern Mindanao – Davao, GenSan, etc. – where there is a big mixture of languages. They call it "halo-halo".
Thanks so much for visiting my site! I hope you'll be back again!
Hi Randy C- Bebe tells me that you are doing well with your studies, so I'm sure she will cut you some slack! 😆
Do you know of any books to self teach myself bisaya. I cant seem to find anything, not even an english to bisaya dictionary.
Hi Hudson- Personally, I do not believe that you can learn Bisaya from a book, because you won't get the tonal sounds or the pronunciations correct. You need a book and also some audio tapes or something like that. I am preparing to start offering some of those types of materials on this site soon. Keep an eye out. I will also let you know that my Bisaya tutor is available to offer Bisaya lessons via webcam, and charges only $10 per week for the service (one on one lessons) if you are interested.
By the way, I just want to add, I don't make any money off those lessons, I only recommend Bebe because I strongly believe that she is an excellent teacher, and you asked about resources for learning.
Hi Bob – how are you? Envy you cause you still have that drive to learn 'bisaya' me, i tried though many times to speak arabic so i can communicate with the locals here, but really i dont have that gift = or maybe i am just too lazy?? 🙂
Hi Bob – how are you? Envy you cause you still have that drive to learn 'bisaya' me, i tried though many times to learn how to speak arabic so i can communicate with the locals here, but really i dont have that gift = or maybe i am just too lazy?? 🙂
Hi Marygrace- Yes, I am still plugging away, and I will make it. I can already speak Bisaya quite a bit, and I'm happy about it. In fact, just today, I attended an event where I used Bisaya nearly 100%, and it made a big impact on the reception I got. I will be writing about it next week, so stay tuned! 😆