Headstart for the Philippines is a HUGE 287 page book with accompanying audio tapes.  Produced by the U.S. Government for its diplomats and military personnel to learn Tagalog quickly, it covers all you need to know if you are planning to go to the Philippines. This book and audio tapes have been digitized, meaning that you will be able to download the complete book and audio files instantly.  The audio files are in mp3 format so you can download them to your iPod or any mp3 player and listen to them at your leisure…. while you are walking, driving or doing other things. The text can be read on your computer or you can print out the entire book.

Check back for further details on how to purchase this course.

Here’s a 1 minute sample of Tape 1

Hi everybody, my name is Bud Brown and I thought I would just share with you a little
bit about the tagalog language. This is just an introduction and I hope to have some more
lessons. Even though I’m an American I spent some time in the Philippines. My wife is
Filipina We’ve been married 35 years and so we talk in Tagalog and English in the house.

A lot of Americans that have married Filipinas or Americans that are  interested in the Philippines
 have asked me if I can share some tips on learning Tagalog. So I just want to give you a short
lesson right now. And then later, we can follow up with other lessons.
    I wanted to just give the introduction like you would say in tagalog. I'm an American
or I'm a Filipino or I’m French. You would say the nationality first, then say “Ako”
meaning “I” for example, I would say “Amerikano ako.” My wife would say. “Filipina ako”.
If you're French, “Pranses ako.” If you’re from Germany, “Aleman ako.” Now, I should say
right off the bat that Tagalog is not my first language. If there are tagalog speakers there that
would disagree with anything I say I'm sure you would be more correct than I am. I don’t mind
being corrected myself because I always want to learn more. If what I say doesn't make sense or just
isn’t right.,be sure to let me know in the comments. I would appreciate that. OK?
      “Ako” means I. The word for you is “ikaw”. But if you’re saying an expression. If I want
to say, “Are you an American?” “Amerikano ka ba?” “Ba” at the end of it is like a question.
American ka ba, Filipino ka ba. Pranses ka ba? Like that. Are you American? Are you
Filipino? Are you French?
      The word for Yes is “Oo” there’s a more respectful form “Opo or Oho”. The word for
No is “hindi” with the respectful form “Hindi ho or hindi po.” You add “ho or po” then it
makes it more respectful.
       If you wanna asked someone where they're from you would say “taga”. Taga-saan ka?
Means “where are you?” from “Taga-saan ka?” and then you would answer “taga-sa
America ako!. Or taga-sa Filipinas ako. Means I'm from America or from the Philippines.
[Editor's note: The correct way is “Taga Pilipinas ako” no SA after taga.]
         Greetings. There really no “hello” You can say good morning, good afternoon or good
evening, and it sound like this: Maganda umaga. Maganda means pretty and umaga means
morning and lots of words in Filipino have “Ang”between the words. Magandang
umaga, magandang hapon, magandang gabi. Umaga is morning, hapon is afternoon. Gabi
is night. Magandang gabi!.
       The word for “how are you?” “Kumusta ka?” so “Good morning, How are you?” would
be “magandang umaga, kumusta ka!. The more polite way or more formal way. “Kamusta
ho kayo.” Kayo, although it can means 'You all' or plural of you, it also means 'respectful you'
for one person like an older person I would say “Kamusta ho kayo? Magangdang umaga
Ho “Kumusta ho kayo” and the answer is fine “Mabuti”.
       A lot of words and describing words in tagalog which we call in formal grammar we call adjectives
start with “Ma.” Not all of them, but a lot do. Like we talked about “maganda” is beautiful which, by
the way, you could say “Maganda ka” (you're beautiful.) But “you're handsome” doesn’t start with MA,
“Gwapo ka” (you're handsome.) Maganda ka. But, other words, describing words, like maliit, (small)
Malake (big). Malamig (cold,)  mainit (hot.) A lot of words that describe things, which are called
adjectives, begin with “ma.” This will help you in classifying different words in tagalog. I think we can
wrap it up with this lesson.
The word of goodbye is paalam. Till next time

TRANSCRIPT Hello everybody. Bud Brown here. And I’m sitting in my car in the parking lot,

 waiting for my wife...a  very common occurrence in my life. But while waiting. I always

like to read a book or write something or do something useful so I thought well I would

take this time to share something that I’ve learned in Tagalog with you and hopefully

you can pick up something beneficial.

   In Tagalog, verbs and adjectives all have what’s called a root or basic word structure.

 For example, in English, the word 'edible' means you can eat something but the root word

 is 'eat.' It has a suffix 'able' on it, meaning 'can do it.'  The prefix in a word like

'unfair' the root word be 'fair' and prefix would be “un” meaning 'not' or not fair. Ok,

I think you understand that.

But in Tagalog there is a root part and there are different suffixes and prefixes

that you put on it to change the meaning. All adjectives have a root. For example,

 I'm gonna give you several adjectives. Bait means nice. “Mabait” is a nice person.

 So to say "You're nice"... “mabait ka” and the opposite means, Well I don't know

if this the opposite... "matapang ka" means "You're a mean person."

    So, Mabait= nice, matapang = mean. You can see they start with “ma” It kinda

tells you that it's an adjective and the rest of the word is the root word.

Matagal means a long time. Like to take a long time. "Matagal ka" that means

you take a long time. Mainit is hot.. opposite is malamig... cold, Malambot = soft,

 matigas = hard. For example, "Matigas ang ulo mo!" = "you've got a hard head!"

    Well, what I want to expand on this idea was if you take the word

 “Ang” it kinda makes this adjective the extreme. "You're so late!" you would say

 “ang” plus the root word, plus the word for “mo” meaning “possessive you” but

also has other meanings. You double the root. “Tagal-tagal” like your late is

 “matagal ha”. So I would say “Ang tagal tagal mo”. It means you're so late.

It's so hot , the word for hot is “mainit”. “Ang init init, ang init init eh”.

And the word for “really” which you gonna hear a lot in Tagalog is “talaga”,

means like truly or really.

    Sometimes you would say “talaga?, oo talaga,” Really? yeah really.

So, I would say, “ang tagal tagal mo talaga eh”. "You're so late, you're

really late!" which is what I say to my wife if she doesn’t get here before

 too long. "It's so cold" = “ang lamig lamig eh”. It is so cold. If I wanna

say you're so hard headed which is an expression for stubborn. “Ang tigas tigas ng ulo mo eh”.

 That means, "Wow,You are hard headed!" which my  wife is told me a lot and which I also

told her a lot too.

    So, anyway, this should help you some in learning adjectives.

Remember there is a root word and you double it, like, to intensify the word.

 “Matigas” means  hard, “ang tigas tigas” It's so hard, or “matigas talaga” It's really hard.

Ok, I think its that’s gonna be it for now. Till next time, have a good day. Bye bye.

MP3 Learn Tagalog with Bud Brown Part 2 Adjectives

Magandang Hapon, Kamusta ho kayo! Excuse ha nagugutom ako eh! Pero, sinabi ng asawa ko

hindi pa tapos ang pagkain ko eh! Kailangan kong kumain ng sorbetes. Gustong gusto ko

ng sorbetes naman eh!

Kaya mataba na ako eh! Amerikano ako pero marunong ako kaunti na tagalog,

kasi asawa ko Pilipina. Taga-visaya siya pero nakatira kami sa Cebu noon

maskin nakatira ako dito sa California pero gustong gusto kong magusap sa

mga paboritong tao kong Filipino. Sa tila ko ang mga Pilipino ay magaganda,

mababait, at tsaka gustong gusto kong ugaling Pilipino. Meron kaming dalawang anak,

isang babae at isang lalake,malalake na eh. Gusto ko bumalik sa pilipinas,

 pero hmmm sabi ng asawa ko mas gusto dito

"Hello, My name is Lita. I am a Filipina with an American boyfriend. I just wanted

to talk with you about something that has really increased the love and understanding

 between my boyfriend and myself.

 You see, even though I speak English, my native language is Bisaya [Bee-SIGH-yah].

 I really didn't know how much my boyfriend cared about me till I  heard him speaking

 Bisaya, also call Cebuano [Say-bu-AH-no]. He said he'd learned it from a language course

 called "Essential Cebuano: How to Speak and Understand Cebuano" 

Not only has he made a deep impression on me, but also on my whole family.

They say he must really love me if he's taken the time and effort to learn our language. 

If you are a Filipina and have a boyfriend or a husband, that doesn't speak Bisaya,

 this would make a terrific gift for him or for a friend. Go to this website to

learn more. www.EssentialCebuano.com

Thank you"

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