You got that right. I AM Filipino and I don’t speak Spanish (even after taking 2 years of it in high school). There are a lot of Spanish words adopted into Tagalog, but speak pure Spanish to a Filipino and they won’t understand you.
Actually, I tried watching a Filipino chick flick at home and my husband got frustrated because the dialog went back and forth between English and Tagalog (or Taglish, as it’s been called) so he couldn’t completely tune it out (He speaks only English). There’s a lot of English spoken in casual conversations between Filipinos, more so than a Spanish word here or there.
BTW, I’m with your buddy. I HATE when people ask me if I speak Spanish and I HATE it when I get asked if I speak English. Oddly enough, I got asked that while I was still living in California. I’ve only been asked that once in my 17 years of living in Arizona. I immigrated here legally when I was 10 years old. I speak English exclusively, and though I can still understand Tagalog, it feels very unnatural for me to speak it.
That’s why he grew his hair long. Now in L.A. Latinos shave their heads, grow a stache’ which is stereotypical. He’s pretty much had it to here’ LOL.
People assumed because he’s not white, he’s automatically a Democrat. Well..that’s another story I can post as he basically shamed this white liberal once who had an anti-Bush shirt. The lib just did not have any comebacks while I was sneering beside him...
There was Filipino lady that I wasn’t getting along with, despite my trying.
So, after giving up trying to get along with her, I would start singing songs I knew in English, but I would make up sounds that sounded like Tagalog, just to bug her.