Language Milestones

I did it. I passed my 6 month language evaluation. My boss is happy and so am I! As I look back over that 6 month period I realize just how beneficial it is to learn the language of the people that you work with. Business is best done in their heart language because that is when they feel more comfortable. I certainly don’t, but if they do then that’s all that matters. I don’t know a lot but I know enough to get around. I’m now officially at a basic conversational level. To give you an idea of what this means, I was able to hold a simple conversation with a taxi driver the other day for about 20 minutes before it became a little too much for my brain to cope with. But then I realized how little I really knew when I went to visit our projects in Mindanao. I was on the back of Jeepney trying to have my usual simple conversation, but this time it proved harder than normal. I quickly realized that we found it hard to communicate because even though it was supposed to be the same language, I was talking “Manila-ish” and he was speaking “Zamboanga-ish”. Same words but different accents. The reason why is that many of the people in Zamboanga either speak Chavacano or Tausug as their first language. Tausug for instance only has 3 vowel sounds whereas Tagalog has 5. Make sense now… Try understanding a guy condensing a language with 5 vowel sounds into 3 or understanding a guy who speaks in (at least) 5 vowel sounds when you’re used to hearing only 3. I’m on my way to learning Tagalog, but I’ve got a long way to go!