Introduction
Most accomplished language learners will agree that to learn a language one needs massive exposure and practice. However, the language learning community is somewhat divided as to whether one should study grammar explicitly. The fact that I’ve written this book tells you what camp I’m in. Although I firmly believe that we assimilate most of our grammar through gleaning regardless of which path we take, I believe that studying it explicitly speeds the process and allows us to reach a higher level than gleaning alone. I would also like to point out that the time spent learning grammar this way is a relatively small percentage of the total study time spent learning a language. I can look back on the languages I’ve studied and honestly state that grammar amounted to less than 10%, and was well worth the investment.
At the time of this writing I have learned 9 languages and can currently speak them all at an intermediate or better level. Because I’m so convinced of the importance of the exposure and practice that I mention above, I prefer to spend most of my time with those things. I want to study grammar too, but I want to minimize my time doing it. I want a grammar resource that teaches only grammar. I will get vocabulary, massive reading and listening practice, cultural information, etc. from exposure and practice.
To further describe my ideal grammar course, I want short, light lessons so that I can quickly repeat the specific topics that cause me trouble. I want the course to cover all the basic grammar points in my target language, and be sufficient to take me to a high intermediate level in grammar. I want sample sentences to be the focus of the lessons, since experience has shown me that glancing at an English sentence and producing the target language is the most effective way for me to learn the grammar.
That being said, I’ve never found such a grammar course. I’ve used some good ones, but no exact matches. So I’ve made do with what’s been available over the years, and gotten along alright. But after studying Tagalog for a while, my newest language, I was shocked at how bad the grammar resources were. They were so bad that I had to do extensive research, ask many questions and take lots of notes – much more so than for any other language I’ve learned. After reaching an intermediate level in the language I looked at my notes and thought I had just about enough for a book. So I decided to go for it and cover the remaining topics needed to make a complete course. It turns out that I greatly underestimated this; I was only about 10% complete at that point. This project took in the neighborhood of 1000 hours to complete.
This book is in beta.
I used the desired parameters I listed previously to design this course, but you may notice some shortcomings. The main one is too much and an uneven distribution of vocabulary. There is far less vocabulary here than in any other Tagalog course that covers this much, but I want to eventually have around 5 new items per lesson.
Another problem is editing. I’ve had other eyes on all parts of the book, but it really needs a professional going-over.
Finally, content. Although I’ve had at least one native speaker check every lesson, I would be shocked if there aren’t some errors in my grammar explanations. Also, although I’m sure I covered the majority of common grammar points, I included a handful that could probably be replaced by a few omitted points which I later realized are more frequently used.
Therefore, this book is in beta right now. I figured “what better way to get the input required to iron out these remaining issues?” The online version of Tagalog Grammar Lite will always be free. When I’ve received enough input to upgrade it from Beta to Edition 1, I will publish and sell it on Amazon, but it will still be free on Language Tools. I hope that keeping it free online will help build a Tagalog learning community, and keep the book accurate and up to date.
Please be gentle with your corrections. Enjoy!