I would say that my first year at Princeton was a melting pot, with people of different backgrounds and ways of thinking swirling around in our beloved orange bubble. The friends I made were from a variety of backgrounds, many of them second-generation Asian Americans. Some of them spoke Chinese or compared regional dialects. Others shared funny Vietnamese jokes that were better left to themselves. My boyfriend spoke Korean on the phone only to his mother.
I'll admit it, I'm jealous.
It's not about them, it's about their bilingual ability. I grew up in a big family. I remember my aunts and uncles gossiping in Tagalog while their kids were playing Nintendo Wii in the next room. As kids, we always responded to them in English, but now some of them have completely lost the ability to understand.
Although I consider myself the most fluent Tagalog speaker among my cousins, my Tagalog is still broken. I understand the words, but they get stuck in my head and the vocabulary and grammar puzzle pieces necessary for fluent conversation get jumbled up. This is a classic example of receptive bilingualism: understanding the language like a native speaker, but not being able to actively use it in conversation.
Although I am a proud Filipino, I have been fighting against my own culture all my life. As someone who has spoken Spanish since middle school and studied Korean at Princeton University, prioritizing another language feels like a betrayal of my mother tongue.
A few months ago, my twin sister, a classmate at Princeton, discovered Princeton's new Less Commonly Taught Language Summer Initiative (LCTL), a funding opportunity that provides resources for students to independently study a language not taught at Princeton. After some application and paperwork, I was connected with a tutor in the Philippines for 1.5 hours of lessons twice a week.
My instructor was quick to point out that I was already fluent in English, but that felt like a double-edged sword. I got through the first few chapters of the textbook, which mostly dealt with vocabulary and greetings, in a flash. But when it came to freestyle conversation, I was slow to construct sentences. More importantly, when sentence structures were explained to me, I struggled to explain why they were the way they were. All I needed was one thing: practice.
Outside of class, I created a quizlet on verb tenses, but with a bit of a twist. In Tagalog, verb conjugation also depends on the intent of the verb. Who is doing the action? What is the verb acting on? Is the verb doing something for someone's benefit? For example, river It means to do or make, Gumagawa Focus on the manufacturer Ginagawa If we focus on what is being done, it is also Ginagawan That's important if you're creating something for someone else. As a result, my Quizlet word count is at 400 and growing. I've found that memorizing the origin of each verb and its different conjugations helps me more in conversations because it makes my intentions clearer to the listener.
The key to learning a language is immersion. I have understood Tagalog my whole life, but I had to force myself to speak to my family in Tagalog. I am a very talkative person, so it was hard for me to consciously connect words with pauses. However, I found myself responding in a smoother, more natural tone.
I try to speak Tagalog at work, where most people speak Tagalog. I speak short sentences with the staff to practice. But what's even more memorable is when a patient asked me: “FilipinoWhenever someone asks me, “Are you Filipino?” or “Are you Filipino?”, I feel more confident in answering, even in small talk. In my Filipino American neighborhood, many of the older people are starting to speak English, so sharing the language creates a sense of belonging and community.
As the summer draws to a close, I've been thinking about a question asked on my LCTL application: How will you use the language you study when you return to Princeton? As an active member of the Princeton Filipino Community, a campus organization, I understand the importance of promoting and celebrating Filipino culture in all its forms. Whether I continue my language studies to study abroad in the Philippines or teach my peers some Tagalog phrases, being Filipino is about more than knowing the language. It's important to put the community first in your words and actions.
Brianna Melanie Sligin is a staff writer for The Prospect. She is a member of the Honors Class of 2027 and is originally from Toms River, N.J. She can be reached at bs7122@princeton.edu.