Introduction
Why I created this course
Hello. My name is Bud Brown. I’ve been studying languages most all my life. I learned Spanish while living with a Mexican family, in Mexico, when I was in high school. I learned Vietnamese and served as an interpretor in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. I studied several languages in the university while earning my B.A. Degree in linguistics. I have studied Tagalog up close and personal while living with my Filipina wife for close to 40 years. And now that I am living on the island of Cebu, Philippines, I have been learning the second most spoken language in the Philippines, Cebuano.
As unbelievable as it seems I have found very few sources to learn this language. In the National Book Store in Cebu City, there was one gigantic English-Cebuano dictionary. That’s it! Nothing about grammar. Nothing about pronunciation. Nothing to explain how to speak this language.
So I decided to roll up my sleeves, grab a voice recorder in one hand and pencil and paper in the other hand, and pick the brains of as many local, native Cebuano speakers as I could. I have now been here six months and the big puzzle is starting to come together to form the big picture. Now I feel comfortable speaking Cebuano and can understand mostly what they are saying in a conversation. I will admit that sometimes I do have to ask them to repeat something they just said or ask them what a certain word means. But, in general, I’m very happy with my progress in this language. I just wish I had found this course when I began learning Cebuano! I’m going to save you lots of time and frustration by giving you what you need to be able to understand and speak Cebuano, also known as Bisaya. Not only am I giving you good, everyday, working vocabulary and everyday conversations, but I’m going to take you by the hand and walk you through this course with my commentary after each lesson.
Good luck and if you are ever in Cebu (which I have a feeling you will be) be sure to look me up.
Bud
Click here to listen to the audio file for this introduction.