The fastest way to learn Filipino is to spend most of your study time on Filipino you can mostly understand. That kind of Filipino is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short dialogues with audio and a translation, and listen to each one twice. Add the free Tagalog picture books on Storybooks Canada, which you can hear read aloud, and say a few lines yourself.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Watch the easy videos from Comprehensible Filipino on YouTube, and start short talks with a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Add the free Comprehensible Tagalog Podcast, which covers Filipino history and culture in slow, clear Tagalog. Listen to each lesson once more without reading along, and talk about what you heard for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch the Filipino vlogs and cooking shows in Tagalog.com's listening practice, and read along with their transcripts. Retell each one in a few sentences.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to the news and podcasts from SBS Filipino, part of Australia's public broadcaster, and look up only the words that block the story.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch the full Filipino movies that Regal Entertainment posts free on YouTube. Read novels and the news, and talk about them, for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Filipino?
Filipino is not on the U.S. Foreign Service Institute's list, and its closest relatives there, Indonesian and Malay, take about 828 class hours to reach professional fluency. An older version of the list put Tagalog, the language Filipino grew out of, in the group it calls hard languages, which takes about 1,012 class hours today.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish, French | Category I | 30 |
| Indonesian, Malay | Category II | 36 |
| Tagalog (older list), Vietnamese, Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Korean, Japanese, Mandarin | Category IV | 88 |
Here is how long 828 and 1,012 class hours take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | Indonesian and Malay (828 hours) | FSI hard group (1,012 hours) |
|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 4½ years | About 5½ years |
| 7 hours | About 2¼ years | About 2¾ years |
| 14 hours | About 14 months | About 17 months |
| 28 hours | About 7 months | About 8 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Filipino on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Verb Charts AloneA Filipino verb changes to show when something happens, so kain (eat) becomes kumain, kumakain and kakain (ate, is eating, will eat). A chart of these forms is hard to use until you have read each one in many sentences.
- Only Textbook FilipinoMany Filipinos mix English words into their Filipino when they talk. Listen to real conversations and shows early, so the mix sounds normal when you meet it.
- Content Far Too HardA Filipino TV drama where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Filipino app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Filipino, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Filipino app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Filipino in three months?
You can learn enough Filipino to greet people politely and order food. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is less than a quarter of the 828 class hours the Foreign Service Institute gives Indonesian and Malay.
How much should I study Filipino each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Filipino you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Filipino hard for English speakers?
Somewhat, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure: an older version of its list put Tagalog in its hard group, one group below Japanese and Korean. You can read Filipino aloud from the first day, and most of the time goes into the verb forms and everyday words, which you pick up fastest from Filipino you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
The Filipino lessons on this site are also free and need no account.
Sources
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- U.S. Department of State, FSI language categories (archived May 2018, with Tagalog in Category III)
- Wikipedia: Malayo-Polynesian languages (Indonesian, Malay and Tagalog)
- Philippine News Agency: Tagalog or Filipino? Experts set record straight on national language
- Wiktionary: kumain
- University of Saskatchewan Undergraduate Research Journal: The Conversational Functions and Effects of Tagalog-English Code-Switching on Filipino Television
