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If anyone wants the real paperback edition of Cristina S Canonigo's Conversational English-Cebuano Made Easy, there is a new one available on Amazon for $25 (sorry, I just bought the only used one there for $11.91 + shipping), and there are three used copies available at Ebay & Abebooks for $18.xx (several more sellers are also offering it for extortionary prices on Abebooks .... ptui on that!).

Hey I'm considering either getting a Cebuano language tutor or lessons, preferably around Lahug, though I'd consider anywhere on the island. Does anyone have experience with a good tutor or language school they can recommend? I searched past threads, and I'm not interested in online courses at this stage. Thanks...

In the eleven years that I have been here I have found that no matter how much I want to learn Cebuano it seems almost fruitless and here is why I come to this conclusion. (Pronunciation)! It seems like everyone has their own pronunciation of a word and if you learn from one person and they tell you "perfect"....then the next person you speak with will smugly or laughingly tell you that you are mispronouncing the word or it is the wrong word. So if you change it, the next person tells you (THAT) is the wrong pronunciation or wrong word. Now I used to think it was just me, you know blaming in on my hearing or stroke or whatever. But then I started watching and listening and the locals do the same thing with each other,,,, You have three people talking #1 says something to #2. # 2 says "huh?" and this is repeated 3 or 4 times until # 3 tells #2 what #1 said... # 2 then says "ah..." or "emm" and they all smile and look at each other like "ah...we took care of that".... Now I am not trying to put anybody down my wife and her family do the same thing and I have seen it everywhere I go..... So I guess my question is "IF YOU WANT TO LEARN CEBUANO BUT DON'T WANT TO BE LAUGHED AT, and DON'T KNOW which way to pronounce it for which people..... (WHAT DO YOU DO?)

Hey all, I'm a newbie here. A Kiwi ex-pat married to a Filipina and we are living in Cebu city. I've been trying (very informally) to learn Visaya for years and don't seem to be getting very far. So now that I'm living here I'd live to get some lessons in conversation to prompt me to converse more in Visaya/Cebuano. I keep reading that Angie is the person all knowledgeable on this topic. So maybe Angie can help me out? I basically want to do 3-4 hours a week of mainly conversation lessons in the afternoons or early evenings (like 2 hours twice a week). Terms and pay are negotiable. It's not too seryuso...just for fun, keep the brain ticking and so I can be a bit more immersed in local culture here. If anyone knows a teacher with some experience teaching Visaya could you kindly post here or email me on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (email removed) Cheers... Painter

Some foreigners visiting or living in the Philippines have been lead to believe that the local languages of Cebuano and Tagalog do not have gender words. This is not true. There are many words in Cebuano and Tagalog which are gender specific. And, like in English there are words which can be either gender. To me, it wouldn't seem practical to have a language that doesn't have words which refer to a male or female. Can you imagine this happening? You heard that your mother just had a baby so you call to ask her about the baby. "Hi mom, how are ? I'm fine. What does your baby have between it's legs?" Remember, there are no words for boy or girl. What kind of language would that be? Well, I knew that couldn't be true so with the assistance of a Filipina, I made a gender words list that foreigners can use when trying to learn the local languages. I also attched a link to the list where you can translate words for yourself. Gender Words Translated.docx