Book Description
This simple and effective introduction to Tagalog will teach you everything you need to speak, understand, read, and write in Tagalog.This program assumes no background in the language, and it explains each new concept clearly with plenty of examples, making it ideal for beginners or anyone who wants a thorough review.Living Language Tagalog includes:

·A course book and six audio CDs
·Two unique sets of recordings, one for use with the book, and a second for use anywhere to review and reinforce
·Natural dialogues, clear grammar notes, vocabulary building, and key expressions
·Plenty of practice, both written and recorded
·Notes on culture, cuisine, history, geography, and more
·Real life “discovery” activities and internet resources
·An extensive two-way glossary ... Read more

Product Description
The 2007 edition of Basic Tagalog for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs contains more than 500 new words and expressions spread throughout 50 lessons and vocabulary lists; a succinct introduction to the language and a description of the character of Filipinos; and an MP3 audio CD containing a voice recording of the 50 lessons to facilitate the correct pronunciation of Tagalog words and phrases. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

silent CD
I have just bought the new edition (2007)with audio CD included.
It's certainly better than the old edition BUT the CD is silent, too bad and unpleasant for the price.

Pusong pinoy ako!
For the low price, this book is worthwhile even for beginners. however, the beginner should use this as a reference and jump into it once some foundations are grasped. And do the written exercises!

The ideal beginning book for me, "Beginning Tagalog; a course for speakers of English", is an audiolingual textbook from 1965 that I just happened to find gathering dust in my university library (no luck finding the original reel-to-reel tapes!). I wish I had Aspillera's book as a reference when I plowed through this textbook, as all the tourist phrasebooks are useless.

Though I had read "Basic Tagalog" cover-to-cover earlier this year, I put it in my backpack this summer, so that I could do some of the written exercises while living in the RP. I strongly recommend doing this, as it helps reinforce grammar. Also, speak out loud to yourself, and your understanding will also grow exponentially.

BTW, I met one westerner in Taiwan who learned Tagalog from the Aspillera book, and raved about it. Since he was quite fluent, I took this as evidence that language learning is what you make of it. Don't blame the books, just be thankful they are out there!

The subtitle of this book is "for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs"; at the end of the summer my Visayan wife took this book home to Mindanao. She told me that the design of the book really is helpful to Pilipinos whose mothertongue is not Pilipino, despite the language training they get in school.

In sum, this book is very valuable for the serious learner of Tagalog, the basis of the official Pilipino language. Save your money by buying this instead of any of the tourist phrasebooks that might tempt you. Mabuhay!

Basic Tagalog for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs (Tuttle Language Library)
This book is basically in the middle. If your first starting depending on your intelligence level and prior knowledge of the language you may be able to SLOWLY progress through the book. This book is somewhat useful, although it's mostly not because there are no explanations for alot of the exercises and even for some lessons, of course that can change depending on how much Tagalog you already know. I reccommend it for accustomed begginers. For complete begginers and those not able to grasp on quickly pick a more guided-learner book.

In all the books 800 words are useful and the extra grammar knowledge possesed is good, but the lack of explanations, briskness through the lessons, the incomplete glossary, increased grammar terminology, grammatical errors within the book itself, and leaving the reader to rely on himself is what makes this book bot reccommended for a complete begginner. Although, once you understand the basics get this book, definitely. There are too few Tagalog books available and some things in this book like "Verbal Roots" are not even mentionedd in another books I have bought

Not a good book for Beginners
When I first got the book I thought it was basic Tagalog, but it wasn't. This book is for people that know some Tagalog. It was very hard to use for learning the language. Not a good book for beginners.

A decent book
Basic Tagalog for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs By: Paraluman S. Aspillera
Tuttle Publishing, 1993, 235 pages
Reference Book
This book is a basic introduction to Tagalog, which is the national language of the Philippines. It includes the basic from introducing yourself to excusing yourself from a conversation.It teaches the language in 50 short lessons and has a short Tagalog-English and English-Tagalog dictionary in the back.

This book contains the basics needed for an everyday conversation in Tagalog.It helps if a person understands a language close to Tagalog to learn it easier, like Spanish for instance.
Basic Tagalog says in the foreword that this book is set up to help a person learn the language faster, by setting it in a more practical, rather than a strict grammatical order.Each lesson is a foundational base for each of the lessons following the first.
The Basic Tagalog book has a vocabulary of about 800 words, enough words to speak, write, understand and be understood.This is a very effective book, and a tutor has told me what a great increase I have had in pronunciation and what little I actually know.I would recommend this book to anyone trying to learn Tagalog.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A So-So learning experience
I have studied Pilipino before and would saY HONESTLY THATTHIS BOOK IS MARGINAL BECAUSE IT USES SEMANTIC AND GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES THAT DO NOT INCORPORATE THE TRUE ESSENCE OF THE TAGALOG USED IN THE PHILIPPINES AS I LEARNED AND USED WHEN I LIVED IN MANILA. In any case, it is a marginal usage of Tagalog and I would not buy this book if I were serious about learning Tagalog for anything other than getting in and out of manila International Airport....if that...if at all.

Excellent Phrase book
This is an excellent phrase book to use for travelers and anyone interested in learning this interesting language. It has very good phonetic spellings and easy-to-read layouts of pages.

I highly recommend this book as a must-have companion to additional study materials.

Bad product
I have found many mispellings and grammatical errors in both english and tagalog in this book. It is inaccurate and inadequate. I would strongly recommend the hippocrene standard dictionary: tagalog-english over this book. I do not recommend this book to anyone.

Suits its purpose
This is more like a handbook of useful phrases. For a beginner this is a great start. It by no means will teach you tagalog but you will be able to understand and use common speech. Good entry level book.

Good phrase book.
I thought this book was great for simple phrases, easy to follow, very easy and helpful to use. Great first step in to learning Tagalog basics. ... Read more

Book Description

Thriller in Manila? Teach yourself Tagalog!

With Teach Yourself it's possible for virtually anyone to learn and experience the languages of the world, from Afrikaans to Zulu; Ancient Greek to Modern Persian; Beginner's Latin to Biblical Hebrew.Follow any of the Teach Yourself Language Courses at your own pace or use them as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are professionally designed for self-guided study, making them one of the most enjoyable and easy to use language courses you can find.

Customer Reviews (1)

Wrong wrong wrong
May be a good book but this ISBN is not shipped with cd's as stated here and the shipped copy was published in 2003.

McGraw-Hill sent me an email saying that this ISBN is shipped with two cd's and cost $24.95 which is what Amazon says is the retail price.

I recommend you buy from McGraw and get the cd's. ... Read more

Book Description
Over ten million Filipinos speak Tagalog, a language more and more Westerners are studying -- with precious few learning materials.This dictionary changes the status quo, providing a reliable compendium of over 6,000 of the most common English words in Tagalog.Pronunciation guidelines created by the Institute of National Language allow the student to develop thorough familiarity with tricky stresses and glottal vowels.Inexpensive and expansive, the Concise English-Tagalog Dictionary will prove invaluable for teachers, students, travelers, and business people who are drawn into contact with this surging nation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not very helpful
I still don't know what the Tagalog word is for "wheelchair" - anybody?

Dated, but useful
This dictionary is specifically intended for beginning students, it contains a limited vocabulary(I guess about 7000-8000) English entries, each entry is given from 1 to 4-5 Tagalog equivalents,different meanings of English entry words are shown by synonyms, eg. english_entry - (english_synonym1) tagalog_meaning1, (english_synonym2) tagalog_meaning2, (english_synonym3) tagalog_meaning3 etc. Accent place and glottal stops - an important feature of Tagalog - is clearly shown. The list of affixes appears to be very useful.

In short introduction the author relates the troubled circumstances of the WWII in whgich this short dictionary was born.

Of course the dictionary is dated, however since it deals only with the very basics of the language which change but very little with the time, it can be quite useful for the contemporary student.

Disappointing in some respects, useful in others...
Mr. Panganiban is (was?) a respected Philippine linguist.So I am a bit disappointed that this dictionary is only one-way.But the content is useful.However some words have multiple meanings and it doesn't say howthey should be used.

However, I did like the section with the affixcharts and their meanings.. That was very useful.

I also feel that thedictionary should have been updated more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lame
This CD is so lame.It's pretty much just made to teach a man how to pick up on a chick in tagalog.Other than that, it's worthless.Waste of time and money. ... Read more

Book Description
Conversational Tagalog includes the first 16 lessons from the Pimsleur Comprehensive Tagalog Level I program. This Conversational program contains 8 hours of interactive audio-only instruction, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions.

The Pimsleur Method provides the most effective language-learning program ever developed. The Pimsleur Method gives you quick command of Tagalog structure without tedious drills. Learning to speak Tagalog can actually be enjoyable and rewarding.

The key reason most people struggle with new languages is that they aren't given proper instruction, only bits and pieces of a language. Other language programs sell only these pieces -- dictionaries; grammar books and instructions; lists of hundreds or thousands words and definitions; audios containing useless drills. They leave it to you to assemble these pieces as you try to speak. Pimsleur enables you to spend your time learning to speak the language rather than just studying its parts.

When you were learning English, could you speak before you knew how to conjugate verbs? Of course you could. That learning process is what Pimsleur replicates. Pimsleur presents the whole language as one integrated piece so you can succeed.

With Pimsleur you get:

• Grammar and vocabulary taught together in everyday conversation,
• Interactive audio-only instruction that teaches spoken language organically,
• The flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere,
• 30-minute lessons designed to optimize the amount of language you can learn in one sitting.

Millions of people have used Pimsleur to gain real conversational skills in new languages quickly and easily, wherever and whenever -- without textbooks, written exercises, or drills.

Conversational Tagalog includes the 10 lessons from Pimsleur's Basic Tagalog plus an additional 6 lessons.

The 16 lessons in Conversational Tagalog are the same first 16 lessons in the Pimsleur Comprehensive Tagalog Level 1.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great way to get started
The half-hour a day is just the right amount of time -- it's not that much of a commitment if you really want to learn the language. At first I thought the repetition would make it boring but the interactive nature of the CD's keep it interesting and keep your brain engaged. Of course, like any other language, you'll learn only if you have the desire to learn it and are willing to put in the time. In this case, it doesn't demand much. Use what you learn with each lesson so you can make the imprints in your brain. Be honest with yourself and do not advance to the next level until you are comfortable with how much you've picked up. If I remember right, this program just asks for 70% retention. As I said, it's a great way to get started! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A concise review of Tagalog grammar
This book is excellent for those who learned some Tagalog word and expressions and like to see the structure behind this language.The way Tagalog is structured is very different from Western languages, so if you want to learn it from scrap then "Conversational Tagalog" by Teresita Ramos is the book you need; if you want to clarify your ideas on the language rules or if you love grammar, this book is an excellent introduction. ... Read more

Book Description
Comprehensive Tagalog I includes 30 lessons of essential grammar and vocabulary -- 16 hours of real-life spoken practice sessions -- plus an introduction to reading.

Upon completion of this Level I program, you will have functional spoken proficiency with the most-frequently-used vocabulary and grammatical structures. You will be able to:

* initiate and maintain face-to-face conversations,

* deal with every day situations -- ask for information, directions, and give basic information about yourself and family,

* communicate basic information on informal topics and participate in casual conversations,

* avoid basic cultural errors and handle minimum courtesy and travel requirements,

* satisfy personal needs and limited social demands,

* establish rapport with strangers in foreign countries,

* begin reading and sounding out items with native-like pronunciation.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

pimsleur's tagalog 30 lesson
Great course for conversational Tagalog.Simple clear lessons take the student up to a level where student can interact in casual conversation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

4000 entries. Contains basic words, slang, other entries
Excellent. A basic Tagalog/English dictionary. I used it when I was learning Tagalog among the Philippino people in the Bay Area. A complement to the two other books by Ramos. Great for basic interpretation andunderstanding Tagalog words, assuming one understands grammar andconjugation of verbs, etc. ... Read more

Book Description

More than 20 million people speak Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines. As a beginner you will find Teach Yourself Tagalog a comprehensive course with grammar exercises, culture notes, and dialogues, available with two cassettes in an audio package. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Good Buy
I think this book was definitely helpful in helping me learn Tagalog, especially when there aren't many places to learn the language firsthand, such as a college or university.The tapes were also very helpful.The only complaint I have is that the book was made badly.The pages are only held together by a thin layer of glue.My pages fall out on a regular basis.Otherwise, an altogether good buy.

Easy to follow book
This was an excellent English - Tagalog book. I also bought a cassette to properly HEAR the words. However, I wish they would have an American college course in Tagalog, I am tired of learning to speak Spanish or French. My wish is that we could have a college course professor who would teach this language as an elective in school.

Very readable.
This book has a story which starts from their arrival at the airport. You will see dialogs of conversation. I am a local who is very familiar with Tagalog. I bought this for my European wife who wishes to learn. One thing we found is that the translations is around 98% correct. But the format is enough for one to learn the language. The approach is practical. We don't have the accompanying tape and I didn't know it had one as an option. So I would do the talking for my wife to get the proper pronunciation. I don't know how foreigners would read this book but I assume they are likely to get the wrong pronunciation without help. The phrases have no indication how you would pronouce them but I think it might be a distraction.

I found that the best way for a foreigner to learn is to be exposed to it by speaking it and being spoken to in Tagalog, or listening to an actual conversation. If this isn't available to you, then this book is close enough. I assume the tape would be a bonus if you can get it.

You can also join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tagalog-e/ Here you can learn with others how to speak it or write it.

Far and away the best Tagalog book available
At last!A Tagalog course I can use!And tapes to go with it!

The Tagalog language has been long-neglected by publishers of language materials.This fine course helps make up for the deficiency.The lessons are very well-designed,the explanations of a grammar very different from our own are not difficult to follow,and there is a lot of interesting material about Filipino culture.Also,the tape I purchased with the book is excellent and an invaluable help in picking up the pronunciation.

Much has been made of the lack of accent marking in the text.I for one don't see why accents are not marked in the vocabulary lists for each lesson- that is the usual practice in texts on other languages with unpredictable accentuation- Russian,for instance- so that if the reader forgets the stress in the main body of the text,she can always refer back to the vocabulary. The book does have all entries in the back marked with accents,however it is a nuisance to have to consult the glossary to learn the stress of each new word,if you don't have the tape right at hand.That's a minor fault,however.

And I'm so happy to have a usable Tagalog course at last that I don't even mind.

This book is not for a self-instruction
I was pleasantly surprised to see a Teach Yourself Tagalog book was finally offered to the public. Upon opening the book, however, it was clear that the book would not do its job. The authors, for one thing, neglected to write stress marking on the Tagalog words so whoever uses this book and tries to pronounce will end up sounding like a blundering idiot. They had a lot of Tagalog literature at their disposal to help them with their explanations that it appears they didn't use. Whoever buys this book will have to ask a native to write the stress marking on each word so they can really learn to speak the Tagalog language. What a shame they published it in its current state! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

good overall
pros:books size, pretty much every word you can think of is in this book

cons:does not have commonly used phrases(what is your name?,how old are you?,etc.),not for people that don't know any tagalog and are using this to learn.

Very helpful
For someone learning Tagalog this is a pretty comprehensive dictionary. It's easy to use and not too bulky. I highly recommend this dictionary.

Good... but a little vague on certain definitions
My fiancee is Filipina and I have been learning Tagalog.She always gets a good laugh whenever I try to formulate a sentence by looking up words (I'll always end up putting something in the wrong order or using some word that isn't exactly appropriate for the context).This dictionary has been very helpful in learning new words.Occasionally, however, there will be a definition that needs a little more than what is given.The best example I can think of is the word "syota".The dictionary defines it as "boyfriend / girlfriend".When I lovingly referred to my fiancee one day as "aking magandang syota" ("my beautiful girlfriend"), she asked me what I meant by the word "syota".When I explained, she told me that "syota" is a colloquial term that derives from the word for "short" and typically means a short-term boyfriend / girlfriend.

Overall, this is a very good dictionary with a lot of great information.It won't teach you everything, but you will typically learn the most of a language by practice and studying.This is a very handy reference supplement.

easy to carry with you
I like to carry this dictionary with me while learning and speaking Tagalog. It is comprehensive enough that every word I've searched for has been in it.

A good product
This is a really good dictionary to use while learning the Tagalog language. My only word of advise it to have someone who knows the language who can help you on what words to use. The dictionary covers many dialects and also covers words that are everywhere from very formal to very crude. ... Read more

Book Description
Written for the non-native Filipino (Tagalog) reader who wants to learn the language to communicate with Filipino family and friends. Emphasis on conversation. First fifteen lessons provide a tutorial introduction to the language; last fifteen lessons engage reader in complete conversations. Tutorial has two concurrent threads: 1) structure of the language and 2) vocabulary for and conversations about events in a typical work or school day. Regular use of accompanying CD a must for success. At end of book, student can expect to have vocabulary of 250 top Filipino words and speak at intermediate level. Book made lively by more than 100 line drawings, comic strips and photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Poor Packaging
When I ordered this, I was super excited to learn Tagalog. But when I got the package I noticed that the Cd's were within the book (paper protected) and the book itself wrapped in ordinary plastic (no box). When I pulled the Cd's out to listen to, both of the Cd's were broken! I was so upset! Plus, I wasn't able to order the Cd's alone without ordering the book again. So now I just have to learn with the book and just hope that I'm saying it right. :( For future reference, whoever sells this book needs to ship the Cd's in a case or something! A paper cover just won't cut it.

CDs useless
There is basically no English on the CDs --it's almost exclusively all Tagalag, so there's no way to learn Tagalag from listening to the CDs. I bought this item mostly for the CDs, and I'm very disappointed.

Learn Filipino one
I've also tried several other books, cd's and cd-rom's to learn tagalog. They're ok for phrases and some vocabulary, but with studying Learn Filipino I'm finally understanding grammar, making sentences, and basic conversation skills. Learning the complex verbs in Tagalog seems overwhelming at first, but I've found this book's approach to be very helpful.
The cd and website add even more to the book's effectiveness. This is how language books should be done. Maraming salamat to the author and staff who put this together. I'm looking forward to book 2!

Excellent book for beginners learning tagalog
After visiting the Philippines for the first time this summer, I really wanted to learn to speak tagalog/filipino to communicate with people better the next time I return.Although I had some background knowledge with the language knowing many of the key phrases and vocabulary, I still found that this book did an excellent job increasing my knowledge of the grammer, verb tenses, and object/actor focus which I had no prior knowledge of before I read the book. It's nice that the book also has some side notes on the culture of the Philippines at the end of each chapter,along with some songs to learn. In order to get the most out of this book it is important to spend at least 30 minutes a day practicing what you learned and speaking with somebody who speaks filipino well (if possible).The author of the book is very helpful too responding to questions and e-mailing back within 24 hours. I am looking forward to increasing my knowledge of the language by purchasing book two.

Skip the CD's
This book wasn't bad - pretty easy to get through if you work on it diligently.However, I thought the CD's sounded very hokey and I didn't think the speakers' pronunciation of certain words and phrases sounded anything like I've heard from my relatives (most are recent immigrants).I'd suggest just listening to the CD's to get an idea of how the words are supposed to sound, but don't try too hard to copy - find a Filipino friend or relative to help you out! ... Read more

Book Description
Learn to speak the colloquial language of the Philippines with the Essential Tagalog Phrase Book. This phrase book is an excellent guide to the modern Tagalog spoken in everyday interactions. The essential information needed by travelers—novices and old hands alike—is presented in a way that's concise, accessible and easy to understand.
The Essential Tagalog Phrase Book is your indispensable pocket travel companion.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not bad
The book is divided into section such as "emergency," "food," etc.Being someone who understands the language it's a nice refresher on how to speak when traveling.It does not have a pronouncination guide so someone who's still learning or has never spoken it may have trouble. It about the height/width of a paperback but thin. It can fit in a small purse, not so much in a "pocket." ... Read more

Book Description
Over the last twenty years or so, most of the work on the syntax of Philippine languages has been focused on the question of whether or not these languages can be said to have grammatical subjects, and if so which argument of a basic transitive clause should be analysed as being the subject. Paul Kroeger's contribution to this debate asserts that grammatical relations such as subject and object are syntactic notions, and must be identified on the basis of syntactic properties, rather than by semantic roles or discourse functions. A large number of syntactic processes in Tagalog uniquely select the argument which bears the nominative case. On the other hand, the data which have been used in the debate to assert the ambiguity of subjecthood are best analysed in terms of semantic rather than syntactic constraints. Together these facts support an analysis that takes the nominative argument as the subject. Kroeger examines the history of the subjecthood debate and uses data from Tagalog to test the theories that have been put forth. His conclusions entail consequences for certain linguistic concepts and theories, and lead Kroeger to assert that grammatical relations are not defined in terms of surface phrase structure configurations, contrary to the assumptions of many approaches to syntax including the Government-Binding theory. Paul Kroeger is presently doing fieldwork in Austronesian languages and teaching linguistics to fieldworkers from around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Useful for teaching a class, but just as a guide
The best thing about this book is that it presents all kinds of situations that are culturally relevant to the Philippines, and are good conversation-starters for in-class dialogues and improvisation. With a teacher, the book can be quite useful, and the lessons are broken up neatly into 1-day segments, without depending much on the sequence in which they are used. The grammar is spotty and there are better places to go for that. (Wolff's books are the best for grammar in my opinion.) Also, this book won't tell you what many words mean, and even the vocab sections don't have pronunciations listed. This can be a problem, as it's not always clear how to find a work in a dictionary, plus accent often changes from the forms that you find in the dictionary. In short, this book is much less useful if you don't have a teacher that you see every day. Nonetheless, as far as I know, it is the most widely used book for instruction in Tagalog university courses around the US.

OK, but with reservations
For self-instruction, this book is just OK.It does provide a decent introduction to the vocabulary and grammar, but don't expect to be able to speak or understand much Tagalog at the end. The grammatical explanations are confined to describing the forms of the word, but almost nothing is said about HOW the forms are used (especially the different verb forms, the heart of the language).You will have no idea how to use an actor-focus verb versus an object-focus verb.On the other hand, I do like the vocabulary lists at the back that are arranged by topic. Ramos' strong point is providing some information about Filipino culture.This one not bad given some limitations; you could do worse.But for serious learners, I recommend Pilipino Through Self-Instruction, by John Wolff, et al., from Cornell.

O ano ba kumusta kayo?! This is a nice way to learn!
This was a wonderful. It is a great way to learn to speak tagalog and unlike other products almost everything I say, my Tagalog speaking friends understand just exactly what I'm talking about. If you buy this book you should Definitely buy a tagalog-english/english-tagalog dictionary because this book was designed for a class room that has a teacher to explain pronunciation and different words. It has a tagalog-english glossary in the back, but if you are like me (still learning) you will be looking back there (in the glossary) at least 4 to 5 times per page that you read and there is only a 50% chance that the word you will be looking for is there. By the end of this book you will have a better understanding of tagalog sentence structure, be able to speak conversationally in a variety of situation (not all situations), and will be impressing your filipinofriends and their famlies. O sige, Diyan ka na. Pupunta ako sa aklatan. Paalam

good introductory-level text
I found this book complimented my other books well in learning Tagalog. There are many gramatical explinations and good vocabulary builders. The focus is not pure memorization but to develop your skills in the languageand understand how it works.The text is probably better for a morestructured learning environment.It is not geared towards the "Teachyourself" learner.

a good place to start
This book does include many useful phrases, and will teach you some basic vocabulary.However, the instruction on grammar stops at giving examples of phrases.Given a slightly different situation, the examples you've memorized could be rendered useless.A good book for those going to the Philippines for the first time and those who want just enough to get by on.If your aim is fluency or actual conversation, however, I would look somewhere else. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Beyond the Basic Level
If you read the back cover of this book, it states that is is for the student that has advanced beyond the basic level... it is exactly what it states, a grammar book that was written to follow after Dr. Ramos' book Tagalog Structures. I find this book very useful in furthering my knowledge of Tagalog and would recommend it to any serious student of the language.

NOT FOR NON-NATIVES
Be aware, this book is NOT FOR NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS! 80% or more of this book is in Tagalog. If your not a native speaker or don't know a lot of the language, best to steer clear of this title for now.

Great help
This is an excellent book for those of us who learn languages through a rules-based approach rather than the more common intuitive "use some common expressions and try to figure out why along the way" found in many books.

On the other hand, if you always hated and never understood grammar and prefer to just dive in to everyday language, you'll probably prefer one of the other books.

In either case, you'll probably want to remember that Teresita Ramos teaches proper Tagalog and some of the expressions/word choices in her books may not be the vernacular used on the streets of Makati.

Ultimately however, if you have an analytical vice artistic mind and need to understand things from a mechanical framework, this is the best book available.

Great Book!
Many people have reviewed this book as not being for begginers, on the contrary though its is a very good book for slightly learned begginers.

The reason why people may have stated that it's not for begginers is because of the lingo in the book particularly on the chapters on Pronounciation and Sentence Expansion. Those are probrably the only two chapters that are seriously even difficult. If you have trouble with any other chapter either A) your not really interested in learning the language structure and getting your setences grammatically correct and understandable, or B) the slight use of linguistics terms is confusing, although that can be cured by simply using an "online dictionary". (I didn't know what transitive and intransitive meant but I do know.) For the most part most of the technincality of this book doesn't rise into real high complexity.

This book is great because, it's concise, easy to read ,not to difficult to understand, and actually if you read closely you may notice some rules grammar-wise that you may not have been taught whic is why this is a great book. I use Modern Tagalog book with Basic Tagalog (which is not reccommended by me for slow begginers) because they complement each other well, in helping to improve the grammar.

The only negatives of this book is that although it does reveal extra grammar information sometimes like in the section on "May/Mayroon" and "Naka" you may be left hanging just a little bit. Also, it's not as complex and in-depth into the language as I thought it was gonna go so that disappointed me.

Great buy!

DEFINITELY not for the introductory beginner
I definitely agree that this is NOT for the introductory beginner. I bought this as a gift for someone. Just browsing through the book without reading it in depth, I found it very difficult to follow. Many times, there are no translations in English, even though they are giving sample sentences and explaining grammatical usage.

Seems to be very lacking compared with other books I've used to study a different language.

Maybe the receiver of this book, who already knows basic Tagalog, would have understood everything. But I'm not taking a chance. I'm returning this one and finding a book with better explanations. ... Read more

Book Description
This handy, convenient volume is the ideal dictionary for beginning students and travelers. Featuring the essential vocabulary appropriate to beginning and lower intermediate students, the Pocket Tagalog Dictionary covers all the words needed for the everyday situations encountered by travelers.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Adequate
I used this book as a supplement to a Tagalog class.I am a Filipina, born & raised in the US and can understand the language & I needed a refresher course on certain words.It does have the most common words, the book itself is thin, about the size of a paperbook so it's not exactly "pocket-sized." But it can fit into a small purse.

Seems pretty simplistic
I bought this dictionary as a gift, choosing this one because of it's "pocket" size feature and being quite cheap.

After receiving it, I was very surprised at how simplistic this book is, and is quite big for being "pocket size".I have a different brand of pocket dictionary of another foreign language that is quite small and use very religiously.This Tagalog one pales in comparison to what I used and what I was expecting.

There are no pronuciation explanations, as I guess they assume you know how to pronounce the words already. But then again, reading Tagalog is pretty straightfoward, as opposed to trying to read, say, Chinese or Russian, where the characters are totally different. But you wouldn't even know where to accent the syllables either...

A total for 88 pages with 44 pages devoted to each Tagalog - English, and English - Tagalog.I guess you get what you pay for. And I'm not paying this much for this book. I'm returning this one! ... Read more