There are some fun and frustrating things about communicating here. The
fun thing is they really don’t expect foreigners to learn the language, so
when a tall white guy starts speaking in Tagalog to them it usually brings
a smile. Sometimes they bring others to me so I can invite them and they
show their friends this white guy speaking tortured Tagalog.
The problem with that is they sometimes reply in such fast Tagalog that I
quickly become lost. I have learned a phrase for this: “Dahan Dahan lang
ang pagsasalita para maintindihan ko ang sinabi mo.” Literally: Slow slow
only the talking so understand I the saying your. Makes perfect sense to
them…makes me understand why certain Asians learning English have inverted
sentence structures
More P’s and F’s have been recently interchanged, a common occurrence in
the Philippines. As I was shopping around for a car, the man assured me
that his car had no froblems…and no matter how slow I try to speak, I am
still the fastor!
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