The Filipinos Who Fought on Both Sides of a War That Wasn't Theirs

Learn Tagalog Numbers: How to Count 1-100 in Tagalog (& Why Filipinos Count 3 Different Ways)

Learn Tagalog here ➡️ https://ling-app.onelink.me/Ue3y/s7y8y7e8 Filipinos have three complete number systems, and they switch between all of them without thinking about it. Native Tagalog, Spanish-derived, and English — each one has its own territory. Kloe breaks down how counting in Tagalog actually works: why isa, dalawa, tatlo lives alongside uno, dos, tres, why 333 years of Spanish rule left numbers behind but not the grammar, and the unwritten rules for which system to use when you're telling time, haggling at the market, or reading out a phone number. Plus the mistakes learners make when they default to the wrong one.

The Filipinos Who Fought on Both Sides of a War That Wasn't Theirs

Learn Tagalog here: https://ling-app.onelink.me/Ue3y/q4211fss In the 1540s, Burma invaded Siam — and warriors from Luzon were fighting on both sides of it. Portuguese chroniclers called them the Lucoes: Tagalog and Kapampangan seafarers from Manila Bay who traded across Southeast Asia, made their own firearms, and were hired by rival kings — decades before the Spanish arrived in the Philippines. Kloe unpacks this forgotten chapter of precolonial Philippine history through four Tagalog words: Lucoes, the name outsiders gave these warriors; mandirigma (warrior), from digma, war; bayani (hero), in its older, communal sense tied to bayanihan; and bayaran — paid, bought, a mercenary. Were our ancestors heroes, or hired blades? The language holds both answers at once. New episodes every Thursday.

Is Language Political? A Filipino & Sri Lankan on Colonialism & Identity

Learn Tagalog here: https://ling-app.onelink.me/Ue3y/q4211fss Can the language you speak — or the one you lost — be a political statement? Kloe and Michael compare two passports, two colonial histories, and two very different relationships with a mother tongue. In this episode of Tagalog Tea Time, Kloe (Filipino, raised in Manila) and Michael from the Ling team (Sri Lankan, raised in Dubai) get into how colonialism reshaped the languages they grew up around. They cover the pre-colonial Baybayin script the Philippines nearly lost, why English became a marker of class in both countries, the Spanish and American occupations of the Philippines, Sri Lanka's Sinhala–Tamil divide, and whether reclaiming a heritage language is resistance, nostalgia, or simply knowledge. Ling is built on teaching non-dominant, heritage languages — Tagalog, Cebuano, Sinhala, Tamil, and dozens more that other apps skip. Prefer to watch? This episode is also on YouTube (Ling Learn Languages), where you can see the passports, the Baybayin script, and the full conversation. Poll: Do you think language is political? Vote yes or no.

When Britain Ruled Manila: The Invasion No One Talks About

Learn Tagalog here ➡️ https://ling-app.onelink.me/Ue3y/q4211fss Everybody knows the Philippines was a Spanish colony for 333 years. Almost nobody knows that for 18 months, Manila belonged to the British Empire. From 1762 to 1764, British warships sat in Manila Bay, a British governor ruled from Intramuros, and Manila fell in under two weeks. But the people who actually fought back weren't the Spanish elite — they were ordinary Filipinos from Bulacan and Pampanga whose names most of us never learned. In this episode, Kloe unpacks the British occupation nobody talks about: why Britain even came, how the "greatest Spanish fortress in the Pacific" collapsed so fast, the Silang betrayal, and the surname myth that won't die. Along the way, she teaches you real Tagalog rooted in the history itself.

Tagalog vs Cebuano: Can an Indonesian Understand?

Learn Tagalog here ➡️ https://ling-app.onelink.me/Ue3y/q4211fss Is Indonesian closer to Tagalog or to Cebuano? The comments kept asking, so Kloe (native Tagalog speaker) brings back Monika (native Indonesian speaker) to settle it for good. They put it to the test in real time: the same sentence spoken in all three languages, false friends that trip everyone up — like "langam," which means "ant" in Tagalog but "bird" in Cebuano — and a number-by-number count from one to ten that takes a surprising turn when Javanese enters the chat. Along the way they get into why Spanish shaped Tagalog while Dutch shaped Indonesian, the Dutch loanwords Indonesians still use every day, and why two "sister" Filipino languages can sound completely foreign to each other. The final verdict? Even the native speaker changed her answer. Which do you think is closer to Indonesian — Tagalog or Cebuano? Let us know.