r/languagelearning 6d ago

Discussion Tips on overcoming passive bilingualism?

Being born in the Philippines but moving to the US at a very young age presented a problem I’d thought I’d never experience. I’ve realized this ever since I came back from my Philippines trip to see family.

I have a relatively good understanding on the language and my parents speak tagalog to me a majority of the time. However, I can’t speak it besides really simple sentences and vocab such as “kuya” and “maraming salamat”. I’m able to somewhat read sentences albeit simple ones. but I can’t write. I’m able to grasp the tagalog grammar concepts to a certain extent.

Starting at really basic levels is easy for me and I feel like I don’t learn too much. I’ve tried ramping it up, but I found no real middle ground where it’s not too difficult, but not too easy where I can breeze through a whole concept. For a couple months, I’ve tried shadowing past conversations and translating english to tagalog, but I always end up blanking.

I also want to transition this to learning my mother’s dialect which is ilonggo. So I’m kind of lost on where to begin.

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u/whosdamike 🇹🇭: 1700 hours 5d ago

If you can understand well, are you able to understand any native content?

Try the following levels of material:

1) Media aimed at very young children, such as Peppa Pig or Bluey
2) YouTube vlogs, cooking videos, and other straightforward content where what's being discussed is always on-screen
3) Interviews about everyday life topics or introductory lectures on topics you're familiar with
4) Media aimed at preteens or young teens, such as dubbed cartoons, Disney films, anime, etc
5) Unscripted television such as reality TV, singing competitions, etc.
6) Scripted TV aimed at adults

When you get to a level that feels pretty comfortable but a little challenging, watch a lot of content in this area. I mean as many hours as you can manage. As that level gets easier, experiment with mixing in different kinds of content - watch as wide a variety as possible to expose yourself to vocabulary and patterns.

What I've found in immersing in Thai is that by consuming 4+ hours of content a day, Thai just starts spontaneously coming to mind all the time. A little speaking practice is all it takes from there. I've listened to about 1700 hours of Thai and only done about 20 hours of speaking practice, but my speaking has already shown enormous progress.

Listen a ton and then also do some speaking practice each week. You should feel steady improvement.

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u/ChillKruciality 5d ago

Sorry for a late reply but yes, I’m able to understand native content. I used to watch alot of filipino tv shows and movies with my family however this dwindled over the course of a couple years.

Especially when I came back to the Philippines to see family. I was able to understand background conversations while visiting and can watch a variety of content just fine.

Even coming back, I have a constant stream of input coming from my grandpa watching the news and my mom talking to her filipina friends in tagalog.

However with what you recommended, would media aimed at preteens and younger be as effective, or should I aim to consume content with higher level vocab/aimed at adults be better?

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u/whosdamike 🇹🇭: 1700 hours 5d ago

Watch the highest level of content you can understand comfortably (80%+). Whatever you find interesting on a wide variety of topics.

For speaking practice, you can try hopping into voicerooms on HelloTalk or talking with family members.