Written by Joi Barrios as the continuation of her best-selling Tagalog for Beginners book, Intermediate Tagalog is the first intermediate-level book designed specifically for people who already speak or understand some basic Tagalog and now wish to achieve greater fluency in speaking, reading and writing standard Filipino--the national language of the Philippines.

The carefully-constructed lessons in this book point out common grammatical errors that English speakers make when speaking Tagalog, and present "real-life" conversations demonstrating how the language is spoken in Manila today. Extensive cultural notes are provided, along with exercises and activities that introduce the use of the Tagalog language in a wide range of everyday situations.

The 20 lessons give you all the basic skills needed to speak Tagalog fluently: paglalarawan (the ability to describe people, places and feelings); pagsasalaysay (the ability to tell a story--whether a news story, a folktale, or an anecdote); paglalahad (how to explain something--for example, a custom or tradition, or how to cook a dish); and pangangatuwiran (reasoning and abstract thinking).

Each lesson is carefully structured in six key parts:

• A "real-life" dialogue providing valuable conversational skills.
• A vocabulary list to expand your familiarity with common, everyday Tagalog words and expressions.
• A grammar review section (for example, on the correct uses of affixes in various sentence constructions).
• Insightful cultural notes presenting aspects of the Philippines that may seem "odd" to outsiders, to explain how Filipino culture shapes the way people speak.
• A reading passage from a story or newspaper article, with comprehension questions.
• A writing exercise designed to teach a specific writing skill.