Posts Tagged ‘Filipino’

Wikang Filipino Information for Students

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

Wikang Filipino is actually a compilation of different languages spoken in the Philippines, Tagalog being the main one. Nonetheless, a number of other languages like Cebuano and Kapampangan are also considered official languages rather than dialects. The diversity of the languages reflect the culture and literature in the Philippines, and this is apparent with the country’s literature throughout the decades. Wikang Filipino in itself is already rich in history. The origins of the different languages can even be considered fantastical and a worthy piece of literature in itself. That’s why when students begin to study the Filipino language, they are usually exposed to literature not only in Tagalog but also in Cebuano, Ilokano, Kapampangan, and others.

Learning the Filipino languages is important not only for students, but for everyone. It serves as one of the things that make us distinct from people from other countries. That’s why it’s essential for people to learn about Wikang Filipino early on in the life. But for people in this age of the internet, going to the library is already a very taxing task for them. Gone are the days when people’s first choice to do research is the local or school library. Nowadays, almost everyone relies solely on the internet for their research. That’s why it’s good to know that there is an online resource for everyone to learn more about Wikang Filipino.

There are a number of sites today that you could visit and from which you could read what you want to know. While it’s true that nothing beats the information that you get from actual books from libraries, it helps a lot if you could research the information you’re looking for in just a matter of minutes. It saves you the time and effort, especially if you are on a tight deadline in school. Wikang Filipino is something that is worth researching for, especially if you want to learn more about the ways of the Filipinos. Languages contain a very rich historical and cultural implication and almost all the information that you’re going to need is thankfully provided by different sites today.

Filipino Martial Arts

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

The three major branches of Filipino martial arts are Arnis typically from the northern Luzon regions, Eskrima from the central Visayas regions, and Kali from the southern Mindanao regions. Within these branches dwell a long line of masters, families, systems and history. Most Filipino systems will associate with one of these terms and their respective regions of the Philippines. As a guerilla combat art it has proved to be extremely effective. The local warriors would make use of whatever they had around them to use against many invading cultures. Today is it widely practiced as a exploration into the history of the Filipino culture.

The use of the stick and the dagger is most common in all of the Filipino martial arts, but like all traditional martial arts it has gotten away from simple and effective to complicated and useless. At its core, the indigenous martial arts of the Philippines are based on the bolo, a machete like weapon used for everything from farm work to fighting. Born from guerilla combat, Filipino martial arts are not a systemized form of combat. Traditions and teachings are transferred from father to son, master to student. Teaching methods vary and documentation of these methods only occurred over the last 2 decades.

Most traditional martial arts fall victim to this same problem. Instructors begin to make things complicated in order to fill up time and keep students occupied. Take a look at the Japanese during the Edo period. With no one to fight, the samurai warriors began to over analyze, write poetry and arrange flowers. The same is true with the Filipino martial arts, from the basic techniques of what actually worked, today we have a complicated and confusing symbolic representation of what happened in the jungle. For effective fighting technique and real self defense it does not need to be complicated, just simple and adaptable to the today’s modern world.