Cebuano language is spoken by people living in Cebu, in bigger sense it is also called Bisaya language which is spoken not only by Cebuanos but by people in Visayas region of the Philippines. This includes neighboring provinces of Cebu and Mindanao. Bisaya become second most popular and spoken language in the Philippines next to Tagalog or Filipino language.
So, who said learning Bisaya is difficult?
Well it's easy, in fact, you can easily adopt it even by listening to the bisaya people conversing each other. All you have to do is ask for certain meaning then the next time you hear it, you can recall in a snap what that word means. I have a french friend went to Cebu and he always noticed a word "sige" or sige-sige, out of curiosity, he ask what that word means, we've answered, it means, "yes" or "let's go" or "okay". The next time, we already hear him saying, "sige-sige"! Isn't that fun? Isn't that amazing?
We also recommend to learn common phrases you can use anywhere, samples are below:
1. Thank you - Salamat
2. Thanks a lot - Salamat kaayo
3. You’re welcome - Way sapayan.
4. Excuse me - Tabi.
5. I’m sorry/Forgive me - Pasaylo ako.
6. I didn’t mean to do it - Wala nako tuyo-a.
7. Please don’t be offended - Ayaw ug kasuko.
8. May I pass? - Agi sa ko.
9. I don’t understand - Wa ko kasabot.
10. I don’t know - Ambot, wa ko kahibaw
11. Just a minute./One moment, please - Kadiyot/Kadali lang.
12. Please speak slowly - Palihog hinaya pagsulti.
Courtesy from Bisdak Words, more common phrases by visiting their site here.
Phrases really helps and it works. That works for us learning foreign languages too.
Alright? Sige-sige!