Me & My Languages

Hello everyone! My name is Amber Somera. As an individual who would like to travel the world, I aspire to learn the different cultures and languages of the places I'd like to visit. The languages that I currently know is English (primary), French, Ilocano, and Tagalog.

I've always dreamed of visiting France. This is because since I was young, all the films that I've watched associated with France were romantical. And not that I need romance, but it's the idea of going to Paris and seeing the "City of Love". Hence the reason why I've learned French, and also with my interest in their culture.

As for Ilocano and Tagalog, these are heritage languages from both of my parents. I've always tried to learn but was never able to fully grasp the language and be more fluent in it. Since this language is sometimes spoken at home, and definitely in the workplace, I am more inclined to be more invested to learn it. I also plan to travel to the Philippines since I haven't visited since I was 4.

Languages that I'd like to learn after mastering or semi-mastering these languages are Greek, Korean, and Arabic. My friends and family want to travel to Greece and Korea in 2027. And I would like to travel to Egypt during that year as well.

Hello again everyone! Since I have already covered my experience with the language of love, French, I am here to talk about my heritage languages! Ilocano and Tagalog. Both of my parents were originally from the Philippines and had moved to Hawaii before their teens. My mom from Santa, Ilocos Sur and my dad is from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur. My dad had moved here at a younger age than my mom, so he wasn't as connected to the language in comparison to her. Specifically, he could understand but rarely spoke. My mom on the other hand still speaks her home language today, which is mainly Ilocano.

I would say that my creativity in this language is in the different ways of learning it in the first place. I've always wanted to learn this language since everyone on my mom's side of the family was fluent in it and I wanted to understand. There are a few phrases that I frequently used. Which were:

Shower:

Digos (Tagalog)/Luloy (Ilocano)

Time to eat:

Ka in natayo (Tagalog)/Mangan tayon (Ilocano)

Let's go shopping/holoholo:

In tayo ahgpasyar (Ilocano)

However, I wasn't able to get a full grasp of it since I was never fully committed to learning. Until recently that is...Starting from last year, I have tried to learn more Ilocano and Tagalog. Especially since my mama and papa (mom's parents) now live with us from spring to late summer of every year. I started learning phrases with my mom. This was while I was still at my previous institution in North Dakota, so I would have phone calls with her. A few of the phrases that I learned were mainly for simple everyday conversation. For example:

Where are we going? :

Sa'an taiyo pupunta? (Tagalog)/Papanantaiyo? (Ilocano)

Where are you going? :

Sa'an ka pupunta? (Tagalog)/Papanam? (Ilocano)

Come here :

Punta ka dito (Tagalog)/Oomaika di toi (Ilocano)

I would learn phrases similar to these and would try to apply them to my everyday life. It also helped that my roommate at the time was open to learning Ilocano and Tagalog, so repeating the phrases to someone helped me to learn and remember them better. When I had returned home, I have been trying to use these phrases in everyday life.

Unexpectedly when I moved back home, I'd also gotten a job in an environment that had many Filipino speaking aunties and uncles. They knew how to speak both Ilocano and Tagalog, so this allows me to practice using the phrases I learned with them as well. Since they learned that I've been trying to learn more about the languages, they've also been teaching me simple phrases.

On the creativity side of learning Ilocano and Tagalog, I have begun to have a better understanding of the changes of perspectives that comes with learning a new language, and to be more involved with a culture. This connects with Aine Furlongs article named, "The Relation of Plurilingualism/Creativity: A Matter of Perception". This article ultimately discusses how having the knowledge of multiple languages encourage you to put yourself in different shoes of the culture of that language that you can speak.

Do you speak French ? I do ! Or at least, I am trying to. I started my journey with this language at my previous college in North Dakota. I took two semesters of this class, and I can happily say that I enjoyed every minute of it. And of course, there were many factors to my liking. My teacher who was fluent in French and had lived in France for some time, my classmates who I knew from extracurriculars which made the time much more enjoyable, and just the ability to progress in learning a new language.

Mon professeur vivait en France depuis près de 5 ans (My professor had lived in France for almost 5 years). Like me, she enjoys traveling and has visited many other countries and was able to speak multiple other languages. She shared how she loved living in France and being a part of the culture. She was very open with us in understanding the different paces that we were learning at. A lot of her time was focused on helping us learn the sentence structures, conjugations of the verbs that were often used, and how to portray the speaking styles of the locals. She often took her time with us individually to help us improve our pronunciation. J’ai adoré l’avoir comme professeur ! (I loved having her as my professor!)

Mes camarades de classe étaient mes amis (My classmates were my friends. (My classmates were my friends). Around the area that I sat in, was majorly people that I knew outside of school. This made it easier to learn and take critique without misunderstanding that they were just trying to help me out. Not to mention that it boosted me when learning and remembering what we learn. This is because I was comfortable learning with them, and I would do study groups with them. My favorite part was when we would all see the growth that we had in the class.

En général, my learning experience while being at this university was very enjoyable and was a great start to learning French. I'm currently not taking any courses in this language; however, I am still trying to learn. Whether it's through texts, notes from my previous university, Duolingo, and different films.

C’est tout jusqu’à présent, merci ! (That's all for now, thank you!)