finally learning my family’s language.

追加: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]They say you can learn new things at any time if you're willing to be a beginner.

[00:00:06]And I agree. Makes you brave, keeps you young, keeps your brain elastic.

[00:00:13]There's numerous studies that show that those who embrace new experiences tend to have greater resilience and good emotional well-being. Except what they don't tell you is that being a beginner can also be the most embarrassing thing of your life.

[00:00:32]Hello. Okay, I've been back and forth on this idea for a while now and I think it has come to the point where I just have to commit to it. So, there is this one thing that I've always wanted to do and it is to learn a language, but not just any language, but my family's language.

[00:00:52]You see, my parents immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in the '9s. And I grew up here like any other North American kid. Iconic. Born here, went to school here, asked for ham sandwiches for lunch. And as a kid, I had no patience nor interest in learning to speak the language. Wait, this this is an iconic photo. It's my Lola, my mom, and my tita literally getting off the plane in Canada for the first time.

[00:01:17]People who have had a similar childhood could tell you that there can be a dozen reasons why you don't end up learning the language. But either way, I didn't.

[00:01:26]And it really wasn't even a big deal to me until I got out of school. I started traveling, seeing the world, and I think that's when you start questioning your identity a little bit more. My frontal lobe was developing. That being paired with feeling completely useless when someone tries to speak to you in the language and you have no idea what to say back. Top five worst feelings.

[00:01:47]Honestly, if you know, you know. But if there's a time to do it, it is now.

[00:01:53]But wanting to learn a language is very different from actually learning a language.

[00:01:58]>> Service Institute. Filipino is a category 3 language, meaning it's significantly different from English.

[00:02:04]And you category three. Bro, I'm literally screwed.

[00:02:13]I'm actually concerned right now. Like when I say I am I'm a beginner like I sometimes I feel like I speak 0.7 language. Like sometimes I can barely speak English some days. Like it is embarrassing how little I know. And then most of the videos that I have watched of people learning this fast, they already have some sort of background in languages or maybe they know another language or maybe they even understand it. But for me, I don't even understand it as much.

[00:02:43]I know key words, but that's it. Let me give you some context as to where I'm starting out. Things I do know. Counting to 10, the alphabet only up to the letter H. Most foods, just the dishes, not the actual ingredients, few swear words, and when I'm getting in trouble.

[00:03:03]I'm not proud. It's not that I don't hear the language either. I hear it pretty much every day of my life. We'd be at the dinner table and my family would talk to each other in Filipino and talk to me in English. And it's pretty much been like that my entire life. And same with my cousins, okay? None of us speak the language. We're all basically cooked. But I've always been curious if I just really commit. How much can I actually learn within a week? How far can I take it? Is it even possible? We are literally almost at the end here.

[00:03:31]I've been avoiding this for last. Well, almost last. So in other words, I'm starting from ground zero.

[00:03:39]So here's Boohhai means alive. Life.

[00:03:44]Buhai means life. Buhai means alive. I thought means like home. It's bahigh.

[00:03:57]It's going to be a long week.

[00:04:01]It's day one officially. According to all the videos that I've watched, I should start with learning the most popular 1,00 words. So, we'll go from there. So, after scouring the internet, I decided to loosely base my plan off of this framework. Phase one would be learning the top 10,00 words based off of the 8020 rule to get me familiar with the vocabulary. Phase two will be learning sentence structure, tenses, and going full immersion with music and shows. And at the end of the week, I'll be tested in conversation by my very own mother.

[00:04:34]I know that there's no way I could become fluent in such a short amount of time based on where I'm starting out, but my goal is to at least be conversational, enough to get by. Okay.

[00:04:45]Okay. So, maybe I do know just really, really, really, really basic words. I went through my first flashc card set, 22 words, and honestly, I knew most of these. You know, if I didn't know exact translation, I've at least heard the word before. Also, this is just the first 22 words I've heard. So, I have a hunch that there is another reason why I never learned any language, and that is because I am painfully shy. I never was a kid who liked popcorn reading or giving presentations. And that has not changed much at all. So even the thought of talking out loud in another language is a whole other thing I know I'll eventually have to get over if I want to see this through. Okay, so here is my update. I'm almost there. I'm almost through the top 1,000 words. I thought this would be the easiest part, but it's so long. I actually know more words than I thought, which is quite reassuring, but it's frustrating because I want to start using the vocabulary, but I only know the word for things, but I don't know how to formulate a full thought yet. I honestly can't wait to get to that part, and I just want to be done. I just want to be done with vocabulary. I am around 800 words in. I have two 200 more to go. Oh my god. So I am just gonna try to beast it so I can move on to the next step.

[00:06:23]I'm at a loss for words. Losful words.

[00:06:30]I got nothing to say anymore.

[00:06:45]Today is the day that we finally get into conjugations.

[00:06:51]I have been wanting to get to this point for the past 3 days and now we're here.

[00:06:57]So, we are entering the second phase.

[00:07:00]So, now that I know the words for certain things, now it is time to learn the in between words that so I can string my thoughts together. It is time.

[00:07:16]So, I quickly found out that I am indeed not a textbook person. They'd probably be better for long-term study, but I ended up finding some videos online that were way easier to understand the basics. Shout out to Tagalog Time with Pat, who was holding it down.

[00:07:34]I didn't sign up for any tutoring, but I was able to check my notes with my mom, which was extremely helpful. Learning a language is such an emotional roller coaster. One minute I think I'm doing good and the next feels like what the heck. Okay, I'm I'm learning and my head hurts.

[00:07:56]But we're getting there.

[00:07:59]For the next couple of days, I continued on while also starting to say things out loud. Okay, this is a text message I sent to my mom.

[00:08:11]Spaghetti accent is so cooked, but that was from memory. Okay, that was from memory. And my favorite, which was immersing myself more in the language. So, I found this playlist literally, it's called Filipino Songs to Scream To. And honestly, straight up bangers on this. Feel like it's good to find songs you want to belt out to. You'll not be hearing me sing in this video. I did not get that jean.

[00:08:48]Yummy, yummy.

[00:08:56]>> Growing up in North America, I think everyone's relationship to their culture is a little different.

[00:09:05]I never felt removed enough to entirely question my background. But I also had my fair share of moments I felt inadequate to. My culture was a big part of my life growing up, especially through food and family and traditions.

[00:09:20]But when people ask me where I'm from or meeting someone so naturally in tune, that's usually when I feel the distance the most. I can understand parts of it, but never all of it.

[00:09:33]It's such a nuanced thing. Some people grow up fully fluent, some don't. Some people feel a strong gap, some barely feel it at all. And I feel like I'm sitting somewhere in the middle.

[00:09:45]Moments of disconnect never felt super obvious or dramatic.

[00:09:49]It's more like not fully knowing what I'm missing.

[00:09:53]But I know there's some things that I don't have access to, and layers to this I don't quite have the words for.

[00:10:00]But I guess it doesn't always have to be like that either.

[00:10:04]Good morning people. My final test is tomorrow. And honestly, I think we can do good. We can we can salvage this.

[00:10:12]Time to walk in. Seeing as though this was my last day to study, I had to put all my reservations behind me, no matter if I previously felt shy, to practice speaking out loud. The plan was just to focus and review what I already did know up until that point and hope for the best. Heat. Heat. N.

[00:10:47]Boom. The color test. OMG.

[00:10:51]Today I'm going to ask my mom to test me and we can see my knowledge until now.

[00:10:57]I'm impressed with how much I've learned. However, I am shy to literally showcase it to all of you because what's impressive to me may not be impressive to you. I studied till pretty late last night. I also recorded myself saying these phrases. So, let's see how much I've learned. I think I just need to like say this with more confidence. Hope for the best. I told her to have some questions to ask me. So, we we'll see what I can do. We'll see.

[00:11:29]I have my notes in front of me just in case, but I am going to try my best to not look at my notes at all.

[00:11:47]So in this moment I unlocked a whole new kind of exposure therapy trying to converse with someone. It took us a while but we eventually locked in.

[00:12:02]Okay.

[00:12:05]Don't tell me.

[00:12:10]That's completely story.

[00:12:22]as I could. I'm like going through my memory like, "Oh my god, what is this?"

[00:12:27]We continued on like this for a while and I'll spare you from most of it. Even though my replies were pretty rough, the more I was speaking, the less I felt intimidated.

[00:12:39]Mto obviously so far from being perfect.

[00:12:48]I don't know how >> but also kind of getting it.

[00:13:00]Ultimately, I think once you actually break the ice and are okay with sounding bad and making mistakes, learning a language, especially your families, actually becomes kind of fun.

[00:13:18]>> Well, that was fun. Honestly, I'm just so surprised and I'm really happy with my progress. I know that it is far from perfect. Literally, so far from perfect.

[00:13:27]However, this is the most Tagalog I have ever known in my entire life. Literally entire life. So, it's still a big deal to me. It is a massive, massive step up from what I started like a week ago with. So, I feel like it was such a nice way for me to like bond with my family over and once they knew that I was super serious about it, then they were 100% supportive. So, I'm not a bilingual queen just yet, but one day. But one day. I hope you guys enjoyed seeing that. I know it was painful a little bit probably if you know the language accent real bad, but it's fine for watching.

[00:14:16]Oh gosh.

[00:14:27]Who told you that it was too late?

[00:14:32]When was it that you started leaning that way? Four tires cut into the clay.

[00:14:41]It dries up and now there's just one road to take.

[00:14:55]Who told you that it was too late?