Filipinas have been coming to this country to work as house maids since the height of the civil war. What can I say, us Filipinos really do have the nerve. :) So it is not uncommon to meet a Filipina who has been married to a Lebanese or Palestinian man for 20+ years, has such and such many children, and speaks Arabic fluently.
Having been born and raised in the Philippines until I was almost 8 years old, Tagalog was technically my "first language." Sadly, I purposely dropped it once we moved to the U.S. because I wanted to fit in with all my American friends -- even though my elementary school in good ole Springfield actually consisted of more immigrants than Americans...but that's not the point here. :)
To this day, I understand Tagalog. Every word. I don't have to try to understand it, I just do. But for some reason, it is maharap na mag salita -- that is, very hard to speak. Not impossible, but it takes more effort to speak Tagalog than you would imagine. It's actually quite laughable (or just pitiful), because now that I've been in language immersion mode, I can speak more Arabic than Tagalog -- even though there is still a LOT of Arabic that I don't understand. I'm tellin you, there must be some major short circuiting going on in my brain. I remember during my first Arabic classes at the institute, it was not uncommon for Spanish to come out of my mouth, since it was one of those "classroom languages," I suppose. This thoroughly confused everyone, including myself! OK, my head is starting to hurt just thinking about all of this.
Sometimes Filipinas will speak to me in Tagalog, and I can only answer in Arabic. Sometimes Filipinas and I will speak in only Arabic together. Definitely did not ever see that one coming. I never imagined that I would ever hold full discussions with "my own people" in a different foreign language neither one of us is completely fluent in. :) Subhan Allah. What is going on here!
