A few words of Tagalog

Although its economic coma will change things, Saipan is, for now, one of the world’s liveliest linguistic crossroads. I tried to list the languages that you can encounter during a half-hour stroll; if you don’t have an iPod jammed into your head, you’ll be able to hear Chamorro, Carolinian, Chukese, Palauan, Tagalog, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Russian, and, of course, Bureaucrat (Saipan’s official language).

And that’s just the most common ones. Over the years I’ve known people from India, Nepal, Mexico, and Bangladesh who added yet more to Saipan’s linguistic stew, so I’ll let someone who is more diligent than I am compose an exhaustive list of tongues.

Would-be adventurers from mainland America who are contemplating a leap to the tropics (not necessarily Saipan specifically) sometimes ask me what the most useful language is. Since I have no expertise in any of the languages listed above, and I don’t even speak Bureaucrat passably, I won’t claim a monopoly on wisdom here. But I can share some thoughts.

Of course, what’s most useful depends on your context. As for international business, the language of the future (and largely of the present, too) is Mandarin.

But for other stuff, as in general living in the tropics, or working as a professional adventurer, I vote for Tagalog as a worthy tongue. The mere couple of hundred words of Tagalog I know have done far more for me than the six years of French classes I endured. (I wonder if the focus of the U.S. educational system is less Euro-centric now than it was in my school days, but we’ll contemplate this another time.)

I’ve crossed the Pacific several times working aboard merchant (fishing) ships. My favorite crew members were always Filipino, and they often managed to turn otherwise un-cheerful circumstances into better times. If you’d like real insights into a culture, join it on a small fishing vessel on the high seas, which is roughly like living communally in a telephone booth.

And as a pilot, in jets, helicopters, and regional airliners, I’ve crewed with many Filipinos as well, be they fellow pilots, or mechanics, or flight attendants. All over the Pacific, from Panamanian airspace to the skies over the Philippine sea, from Hong Kong to Polynesia, knowing a few words of Tagalog has enabled me to break the ice with a lot of people.

Still, my interest in Tagalog, I’ll admit, is more along the lines of just knowing basic phrases, words, and being able to tweak a few verbs when I’m on a hot streak, which isn’t the same as really speaking the language.

For those who want to pick up a few useful words of Tagalog, here’s a dandy little book: [I]Tagalog (Pilipino) Made Nice & Easy[/I] (Research & Education Association Inc., 86 pages, $6.95). It has a few pages of general notes on the Philippines, which is a nice touch, and it’s laid out in a very easy to read format. This is a very unassuming little work. The few photos (also a nice touch) are in black and white, as is everything else, but the humble utilitarianism has an honest ring to it and is consistent with its cheap price.

The book emphasizes the formal, respectful version of Tagalog, so readers will have to make the necessary adjustments for informal contexts, but that’s easy to do. This is a mere word and phrase primer, it does not teach verb conjugation. On that note, I do have a stack of more weighty texts, but I have not studied them enough to have anything intelligent to say about them.

Anyway, as for [I]Tagalog (Pilipino) Made Nice & Easy[/I], I applaud the approach, perhaps because it’s so rare: Succinct, simple, cheap, useful, and easy to read. It’s friendly. It’s not a pain in the butt. I can’t say that about many language books.

Indeed, too many books (in all subjects, not just language) are just endless rivers of ink, and you need the patience of a fisherman to hook the information that you really want. Being verbose seems to be popular. Sure, that’s fine for technical and professional works, and for texts, too, but a phrase primer should be usable when you’re operating on two days with no sleep and leapfrogging from caffeine fix to caffeine fix.

As for the Commonwealth, many people are admirably multi-lingual. I am not one of them. But for anyone thinking about punting a stateside cubicle in favor of some shade under a coconut tree, a few words of Tagalog are a great way to unlock the magic of the tropics.

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