Studying Filipino Language and Culture to help heal our communities amidst AAPI-directed hate

We all deal differently with Asian hate and how we can contribute to stop the violence, directly or indirectly. For one UC Berkeley lecturer, teaching Filipino/Tagalog and promoting the Filipino culture is one path. Karen Llagas, an award-winning poet and writer who teaches Filipino language, literature and culture, created Tagalog Classes atbp., which is an online space that brings teachers and learners together, and to be a hub for resources related to studying Filipino  www.tagalogclasses.com.

She initially taught Tagalog classes at the Bayanihan Center in San Francisco back in the late 2000’s with face-to-face classes designed for adults and children. She has since left to teach Filipino full-time in UC Berkeley but has always felt the need to make Filipino classes available for learners outside of academia. Together with her friend, Ferlie Andong, a constant champion of the Filipino American community and equally  passionate  about creating accessible and sustainable Tagalog classes,  they have recently launched Tagalog Classes atbp.

Both of them agree that our language gets enriched as it is passed down to younger generations. For many second generation immigrants, the Tagalog language sometimes gets lost when children do not learn it directly from their families and English then becomes the primary (or sometimes the only) language spoken at home. It used to be that parents feared talking to their children in Tagalog because this would make it hard for their children to easily assimilate at school. Thankfully, things are changing. Parents, especially second and third generation Filipino Americans, have become more open to empowering their children to learn Tagalog and embrace their culture.

Karen and Ferlie envision Tagalog Classes atbp. to be a meeting place where teachers and students can meet, and a place to cultivate resources in learning Tagalog. In the long term, they hope that it will also encourage and feature community-based classes for other Philippine languages, such as Ilocano, Cebuano, and others.

The Tagalog Classes atbp for Kids’ Summer Program will run from June 21 - July 2, 2021 and from July 19 - July 30, 2021. The Beginner - Conversational Tagalog Classes (for adults) will start on August 9, 2021. 

For more details and to register, check out their website www.tagalogclasses.com and Facebook page www.facebook.com/tagalogclasses