Suggestion Best Posts in Thread: english/visayan dictionary anyone???

In addition to the previous answers, for those planning on staying long term it certainly doesn't hurt to show a little respect to the local culture - not to mention showing a bit of respect to our wives by learning at least a bit of her language.

I certainly respect those traveling to live in the US making an effort to learn English, shouldn't I do the same when I am the traveler?

 

It would be interesting to know why people are talking about me in Bisaya when they all know English and there's not much problem for them to use English

AND YET some groups of ladies will point to me and say just enough that I understand I am being talked about, and giggle a bit while talking Bisaya. That's my reason.

 

People like it if you can say a few words. I'm learning slowly. My vocabulary speaking is very small, listening it's bigger. People always smile and are more helpful when I try to speak the language.

 

Is not really a language but a Dialect of CEBUANO and of course is full of Slang and mispronounced words with Endings removed. Azon tells me you would be better off with an English CEB app because all visayan uses will Understand but she adds that you may get strange looks because you will be using Full Words and not those spoken in your Locale. Once Mastered you can then start to tailor it to your own needs.

 

Brian my Friend, that is one thing the average Filipino never understands the FUTURE. Today is Today and Tomorrow is in another world, "Later only" comes to mind

 

Totally agree but their President now and the Former both told us (them) that they are the best English speakers in Asia, in fact, Mr Aquino pronounced at one time, that English is the First language of Business in the Philippines. Go Figure

 

I am slowly learning and got caught out a few times when greeting neighbours who assumed I can speak Visayan-Cebuano fluently, somewhat embarrassing when you have to tell them then in English you only know a little Visayan...
I am getting better at understanding some of what is said but for me it is recalling the words I need due to short term memory problems from when I hit my head in my accident 33 years ago.

I also 'spoke' online with my now Wife daily for 5 years before coming here and I did learn a lot to type okay back then as she worked 12 hours a day at the local Internet Cafe, or I thought I had learnt a lot, but upon arrival here I disappointingly discovered when you type Visayan and read it as you would English, the words have no meaning here, so assuming the alphabets were similar and learning by typing is not a recommended way to learn as I found out...

 

Google translate is really weird. You've done a smart move to search the same word the other way around.
Example:

generous
google translate: ubay-ubay nga(referring to 'amount')
What I was looking for: manggihatagon
generosity(this time it's right)
google translate: pagkamanggihatagon

I would suggest listening to a lot of conversation-radio, tv, members of the family and discover root words as you memorize the phrases until you figure out how a sentence is constructed while increasing your vocabulary. Parroting is the first step to learn a new language imho

 

Me too. but trying to translate from Visayan is too hard because the slang changes from week to week and from town to town. Basic words will translate on Google Translate but take a text or a post from Facebook and try to translate it and not a hope. Oftentimes even the gf cannot translate for me as she says it does not translate easily

 

Right there with you on that one. Drives me crazy when we spend a minute going over a word until I say it correctly 5-6 times and after one more minute I have no clue. It takes forever for my brain housing group to hold onto something nowadays. Even worse is when I can't remember simple English words. But I do try.

Yup, and that is a small part of why I came here. So I didn't have to learn a language immediately like I would in Central/South America.