Refold - Tagalog

Table of Contents
Table of Contents

Introduction
Contributions
Document Structure

Tools By Stage
Stage 0
Stage 1: Lay the Foundation
1A: Tools and Habits
1B: Building Blocks
1C: Jumpstart Comprehension
Stage 2: Build Comprehension
2A: Overcoming the Curve
2B: Increasing Difficulty
2C: Mastering a Domain
Stage 3
Stage 4
Advice

Native Content
TV/Movies
Reading: Comics/Novels
Listening: Podcasts/Audiobooks
Video by Genre/Interest
Introduction
Welcome to the Refold public crowdsource document for Tagalog. There are so
many resources around the internet that they can be hard to navigate. This
document provides a map of Tagalog content and tools for immersion learners. The
information in this document will always be free to the public.
This content is maintained and curated by Refold. If it helped you and you want to
see us build more guides and tools, please support us on Patreon!

Contributions
This document is open for public comments and suggestions. If you would like to
contribute, edit the document and a moderator will review your submission to
make sure it is in the correct place and formatted correctly.

When submitting content, please explain:

● What is the content about?
● What dialect is used (If applicable)?
● Does it have matching subtitles?
● Specific format:
○ Title (hyperlinked): description/summary. Dialect. Difficulty level.

Thank you for your contributions!

Document Structure
The document is broken into 2 sections: Stage-Specific Tools and Native Content.
Stage-Specific Tools includes things like vocabulary decks, simplified beginner
content, and good language parents.
Native Content is a library of interesting content organized by type and genre.
Note: it is ok to duplicate content between the two sections.
Tools By Stage

Stage 0
● Mindset
○ Unfortunately, Tagalog is widely misunderstood as both an easy
language, and a language that is dying out due to the encroachment of
English upon different domains. Similarly, people think there is no
good media in Tagalog with which to immerse. This simply is not true.
Tagalog is still used in the media, people cite old books from the 1800s
that even natives struggle to understand, as proof that Tagalog is
dying. I humbly request that a native English speaker look towards
historical books from the 1700s and see just how much they
understand.
○ Tagalog has a lexicon with a large amount of Spanish and English
loans, the grammar is however totally different. The percentage of
loan words from Spanish in Tagalog is about the same as the
percentage of French words into English. Unless you have studied
French, you, an English speaker, do not understand French. The
grammar is totally different.
○ Tagalog is a Category 3 language as per the US Department of State.
This puts it in the same Category as languages such as Russian,
Finnish, Georgian. Please do not fall under the myth that “Speaking
Spanish gets you Tagalog for free” or “Tagalog is a fast language to
learn”. All languages are hard to learn, no one language is better than
another, but Tagalog is not a language one gets for free.
○ Tagalog verbs probably deserve a lot of explicit grammar study. The
Japanese community uses Taekim, further below are several suggested
grammar guides. Try to do 10 minutes of grammar study a day.
○ Taglish has rules, there are ways of speaking Taglish that native
speakers deem correct. One common mistake new learners make is
using English words in Tagalog willy nilly. Outputting with Taglish a
 learner makes, and has not seen, is still a bad form of Early Output.
Taglish must be acquired, just like any foreign language.
● Core Practices
○ Many Tagalog courses teach a type of Tagalog that sounds
Shakespearean to modern Filipinos. Some affixes, words, and
expressions are not used in modern Tagalog. They do however provide
a good stepping stone, however as a Refolder the bulk of your learning
will be via input. You will need to supplement this with informal
domain Tagalog as used in modern Teleserye, pocketbooks, and online
chat groups such as discord.
○ Take part in the Filipino communities online and on Refold. Filipinos
are a highly online people and can be found in almost every hobby
community.
○ Not all Filipinos are good at Tagalog. Native Tagalogs are only about
30% of the population. Be very careful when choosing a language
parent. You can think of Tagalog as English in Europe. Some speakers
are very good (but still with flaws), and some speakers may hardly
speak it at all.
○ Here are some good links for communities with which to connect:
■ The Filipino Learning Discord
■ Tagalog Hub: New Server on the scene. Weekly VC learning
sessions, memes. Dominated by Filipinos and Indonesians (who
speak a related language).
■ TDC Discord: Former patreon only discord for Tagalog.com,
direct line to the mind behind the site, and other power users.
■ Mga Nagmamarunong: Tiny niche server with dedicated
learners who believe in Antimoon and Krashen principles.

Stage 1: Lay the Foundation

1A: Tools and Habits

● Beginner Immersion Content
 ○ Video
■ Filipino the Natural Way with Papa Jedder: Learning Tagalog with
TPRS 100% monolingual
■ Filipino for Kids: Bilingual videos with pictures for learners of
Tagalog
■ MagicBox Filipino: Fairy Tales and Aesop's fables in Tagalog
■ Filipino Fairy Tales: Hardcoded English Subs, bad animation,
good voice acting
■ Talk to me in Tagalog: A mix between a glossika style sentence
course and a beginners grammar course
■ Robie Channel: Kids songs in Tag with soft subs!
○ Children's Books
■ Letsreadasia.org - Books in many languages including Tagalog
■ Storybooks Canada - Books in many languages including
Tagalog
○ Audio
■
● Tools
○ SRS
■ Anki: The most commonly used SRS software, highly
customizable with tons of addons.
● Anki Decks
○ Tagalog.com decks: of note are the TAG1k, TAG2k,
and the specific thematic decks. You will need to
export to Anki.
■ Memrise: Closed source alternative to Anki, requires internet.
Larger variety of premade decks for Tagalog than Anki.
● Memrise Decks
 ○ Learning Tagalog: Free audio course made from
the learningtagalog.com paid course. Very modern
with Taglish.
○ Ahkasi Learns Roots: 800 common roots by
tagalog.com forum member Ahkasi
● Assistive Readers
○ Tagalog.com Reader Tool: Best Tagalog reader due
to its seamless integration with other TDC tools,
totally FREE and prepacked with many of the best
dictionaries

● Passive listening archives

○ TBA

1B: Building Blocks

● 1B: Phonology
○ Blogs/Websites
■ Shacter and Oates: Chapter 1 Pronunciation. Very detailed
guide, covers pitch rules, stress rules, and even assimilation
rules.
■ Wikipedia: Wikipedia article on Tagalog Phonology
■ Tagalog.com: Tagalog.com (TDC) pronunciation and spelling
lessons
■ Tutaga: Pronunciation lessons
○ Youtube Videos
■
● 1B: Writing System
○ Blogs/Websites
 ■ Tagalog.com: TDC has a large overview of pronunciation and
spelling.
○ Youtube Videos
■

1C: Jumpstart Comprehension

● 1C: Grammar
○ Blogs/Websites
■ Tagalog.com: TDC’s grammar lessons.
■ Tutaga.com: Grammar Lessons
■ OPLingo’s Tagalog Grammar Lite: Easy to use grammar with
audio by the makers of OPlingo (LingQ clone).
■ Filipino Lessons Ebooks: Modern tagalog course with audio and
notes on grammar. Teaches from beginner to intermediate.
■ LearningTagalog.com (DeVos): Free reference grammar (often
referred to as DeVos, to distinguish it from other grammar
books). The reference-grammar is free, the course is not.
■ Shacter and Otanes Search: Search for specific grammar points
here.
○ Youtube Videos
■ Tutor of Manila (TOM) Grammar Playlist
■ Talk to me in Tagalog: A mix between a glossika style sentence
course and a beginners grammar course
■ Speak Tagalog with JC
● 1C: Vocabulary
○ Frequency Lists
■ Unfortunately TDC doesn’t give raw lists, you can reverse
engineer the anki decks for a private list though.
○ Decks
 ■ Tagalog.com 1k (no verbs): TDC, can export to anki
■ Tagalog.com 2k (youtube frequency) TDC, can export to anki
■ Tagalog.com 200 roots TDC, can export to anki
■ Ahkasi’s 800 roots Memrise
○ Peace Corps Packet
■ Tagalog Language Packet: Public Domain very extensive survival
phrasebook made in the 1990s for Tagalog. Great for mining
and for thematic vocab lists.

Stage 2: Build Comprehension

2A: Overcoming the Curve

● 2A: Simplified Video Content
○ Streaming Services
■ Netflix PAID
■ iWantTFC PAID: The Filipino Channel by ABS-CBN has dramas
and movies, as well as a large library of dubbed Korean dramas.
■ Amazon Prime Tagalog PAID
■ Regal Cinema: Full videos from Regal Cinema on youtube,
drama, music, and many movies.
■ PopTV: Lots of East Asian (think china/korea) and SEA (think
Thailand) dubbed series, as well as anime. They’re actively
dubbing a anime into Tagalog at the time of this comment with
new episodes weekly 3/22/2021 (Requires a +63 Filipino phone
number to sign up.)
○ Native with matching subs
■ Netflix PAID
 ■ Tagalog.com Listening Tool: Listening Practice Youtube Videos:
For Intermediate Tagalog Learners. 172.7 hours of video in 718
videos with transcribed Tagalog text and dictionary for
practicing your Tagalog listening skills as of 2/19/2021
■ Pao Adventure: TDC Version with transcripts
■ Robie Channel: Kids songs in Tag with soft subs!

○ Native, no subs
■ Tutaga.com Immersion: Over 1000 Tagalog YouTube videos in
one place for practicing Tagalog listening skills (as of
23/05/2022).
○ Dubbed, no subs
■ Anime Revival: needs an adblocker, Tagalog anime
■ Youtube: most tagalog dubbed anime can be found in full on
youtube
○ Dubbed, Mismatched subs
■
○ Dubbed with matching subs
■
● Bilingual dictionaries
○ Tagalog.com Dictionary: Good bilingual dictionary with pronunciation
and stress markers, often with audio and example sentences.
○ Pinoy Dictionary: Good for when TDC doesn’t have something.

2B: Increasing Difficulty

● Comics
○ Webtoons in Tagalog
○ Penlab.ink Filipino Komiks for 2021
○ Translated Manga can be found on shopee
 ● Monolingual Dictionaries
○ UPDF Online: Not as complete as the paper version
○ Diksiyonaryong Adarna: For your monolingual transition, a
monolingual learner’s dict
○ https://web.buribooks.com/dictionary: Account needed for access, no
payment

2C: Mastering a Domain

● Pure Reading
○ Blogs/News
■ Bandera: Philippine Entertainment Tabloid
○ Graded Readers
■
○ Children’s Novels
■ Buribooks: PAID library of bilingual EN-TL children books
■ https://freelanguagebooks.com/tagaloggiv/

○ Adolescent Novels
■ Anvil Publishing: Paid ebooks from anvil (on google play books
and amazon/kobo as well)
○ Standard Novels
■ Anvil Publishing: Paid ebooks from anvil (on google play books
and amazon/kobo as well)
■ Aklatang Bayan: UP Diliman Aklatang Bayan, lots of big boy
books and essays
● Pure Listening + video (if video doesn’t help much)
○ Narrative
■
○ Single Topic, Single Speaker, Structured
 ■
○ Single Topic, Multiple Speakers, Unstructured
■ Pumapodcast: News (May have political bent)
■ Rappler: News podcast (may have political bent)
○ Audiobooks
■ B1 Gang Podcast: Narrations of the famous B1 Gang hardy-boys
style books.
■ Tagalog Bibles: Linked is New Contemporary version, several
versions available here in dramas and non-drama forms. (also
available in other languages)
■ HORROR PODCASTS: One of many podcast-style audiobook
podcasts in Tagalog. There are quite a handful, search spotify
for more. Horror or “katatakutan” stories are very popular in PH.
■ Creepsilog: Creepsilog, hosted by Gideon Mendoza and Glenn
Tabarejos, discusses a wide range of topics - from the creepy
and weird to the disturbing and scary. Paranormal events,
strange phenomena, true crime - it's all covered in light and
twisted Pinoy humor.

○ Multiple Topics, Multiple Speakers, Unstructured

■

Stage 3
● Parents
○ Male
■ Age
■ Accent
○ Female
 ■ Age
■ Accent

Stage 4

Advice
Include your discord handle with your advice
●

Native Content

TV/Movies
● Netflix: Full catalogue
○
●

Reading: Comics/Novels/News/Tabloids/Games
● Comics
○ Webtoons in Tagalog
○
○ Set of tagalog comics (PDF)
○
● Novels
○ Wattpad
 ● Tabloids
○ Pilipino Star Ngayon
○ Dr. Love Love advice / Gossip
● Games
○ Itch.io indie games: Lots of Tagalog language RPGs and VNs

Listening: Podcasts/Audiobooks
● Listening Services
○
● Personal Development:
○
● Nerd/Weeb content
○ D’ Anime PH: Anime news, trivia, plotlines explained, etc in Tagalog.
● News
○ ABS-CBN NEWS (TV PATROL)
○ Pumapodcast: News (May have political bent)
○ Rappler: News podcast (may have political bent)
● Sports
○
● Talkshows
○ Boys Night Out - Variety Show with multiple speakers
○ TheHelloMamSir Show - 3 Pinoys talking about various subjects
○ Machong Chismisan - Comedy Podcasts
○
● Business
○
● Paranormal, stranger than fiction
 ○ HORROR PODCASTS: One of many podcast-style audiobook podcasts
in Tagalog. There are quite a handful, search for more on Spotify.
Horror or “katatakutan” stories are very popular in PH.
○ Creepsilog: Creepsilog, hosted by Gideon Mendoza and Glenn
Tabarejos, discusses a wide range of topics - from the creepy and
weird to the disturbing and scary. Paranormal events, strange
phenomena, true crime - it's all covered in light and twisted Pinoy
humor.
● Gardening
○

Video by Genre/Interest
● News/Documentary
○ Kapuso Mo by Jessica Soho YOUTUBE
○ ABS-CBN News - TV PATROL YOUTUBE
● Talk Show
○ It’s Showtime YOUTUBE
● Education
○ Knowledge Channel YOUTUBE
● Various Entertainment Topics
○ Comedy
■ Bubble Gang YOUTUBE
○ Online Gaming
■
○ Anime/Oktaku
■ Lele Ch: Filipino V-Tuber YOUTUBE
■ Kaheru Ch: Another Filipino V-Tuber YOUTUBE
■ Hanami Arisa Ch: Another Filipino V-TuberYOUTUBE
 ■ D’ Anime PH: Anime news, trivia, plotlines explained, etc in
Tagalog. YOUTUBE
■
○ Self Help
■
○ Culture
■ Pinoy FAQ: Tabloid/Fake News interest stories YOUTUBE
■ Tagalog Kwento Tabloid tier news and or fake news pieces
YOUTUBE
○ Cooking
■ Panlasang Pinoy YOUTUBE
■ Ninong Ry YOUTUBE
■ Judy Ann’s Kitchen YOUTUBE
■ Pinas Sarap YOUTUBE
■ Jeff Simun Channel YOUTUBE
○ Chess
■
○ Travel
■ Pao Adventurer: YOUTUBE no transcripts
○ Vloggers
■ Tagalog.com Vloggers TDC
■ Japer Sniper Official YOUTUBE
■ Julia Barretto YOUTUBE
■ Bea Alonzo YOUTUBE
■ Pat & Agnes YOUTUBE
■ Yeng Constantino YOUTUBE
■ Karen Davila YOUTUBE
Pinoy Equivalents
● Websites/apps for socializing and sharing
○ Streaming Platforms (like Twitch)
■ Facebook Live: Due to facebook’s strangle hold on Pinoy social
media.
■ Kumu: As self described as an app that aims to become a "super
app" that combines the functionalities of other apps like
YouTube, TikTok, Shopee, Instagram and Facebook Messenger
into one.
■ Bigo.TV: Multi Language/Region streaming, sort by Philippines
○ Message board Platforms (Like Reddit)
■ Reddit Philippines: Has links to other Philippine related stuff in
sidebar.
■ Pinoy Multi-reddit: Run by some reddit mods, WARNING
INCLUDES NSFW, mega list of all active Filipino subs.
○ Blog Platforms (Like blogger)
■
○ Messaging Platforms (like WeChat)
■ Messenger by Facebook: Facebook messenger is free in the
Philippines and is used by a large majority of the population
● Online Stores
○ Online Stores (Like Amazon)
■ Shopee: Like Ali-Express for PH, best for small ticket items.
■ Lazada: Best for high ticket items.
● Services
○ Driving and rides (Like Uber, or Rent-a-car)
■ Grab: Uber pulled out of PH long ago.
○ Food Delivery (Like doordash or Uber-eats)
 ■ Grab: Like uber eats. Has higher priority than food panda on
orders
■ Foodpanda
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