What do I mean by 'In Search of Bisaya'?
Bisaya is a very widely spoken dialect in the Visayan are of the Philippines, but at the same time it is extremely difficult to learn. There just are no real sources out there for you to learn it apart from a hotch potch spread of websites and books that dish out phrases. I've learnt one language very well since I left high school and the one big lesson I learnt from that is that phrase books are practically useless for really learning a new language. One must learn basic grammar structures, have some vocabulary to plug into these structures so that when new words are learnt they can be simply 'plugged in'. And if you don't have the word you need you can just use the English for now within the Bisaya structure. Let's face it, most people you will interact with will already speak English pretty well and it is extremely common to mix the languages already.
So why not just learn Tagalog? It's easier to find better material to learn from and is much more useful in the Philippines. Because I am in love with a Cebuana, and for me that means I should speak in her first language. Anyway, I'm a bit of a rebel and I adore the unusual. That's probably why I speak Cantonese first instead of Mandarin.
So from time to time I will fill in posts with a simple structure and vocab, more so to remind myself but if you wish to follow along or get something from the material then you are most welcome.
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