question for Ricardo_Tizon

Tagalog: Our Native Language
There are more than 100 different languages and dialects spoken in the Philippines. Tagalog is spoken by 15 million Filipinos, and English is understood by 13 million. The ten major tongues are Tagalog, Cebuano, spoken in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Occidental, Eastern Leyte, and parts of Mindanao; Hiligaynon spoken in Negros Occidental and the Panay provinces; Waray spoken in Samar and Western Leyte; Bikolano, spoken in Bicol provinces; Kapampangan, spoken in Pampanga and Tarlac; Ilokano, spoken in Pangasinan, part of Tarlac, La Union and the Ilocos provinces; Maguindanao, spoken in some of the Moslem regions; and Tausog, spoken by the Muslims of Zamboanga and the Sulu archipelago. These languages are mainly of Malayo-Polynesian and Sanskrit origin, but many have assimilated words from the Indian, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, and English languages.

In 1937, President Manuel Quezon of the then Commonwealth of the Philippines proclaimed Tagalog as the basis of the national language. The National Assembly later passed an act making the Filipino national language (now Pilipino) one of the official languages of the Philippines effective July 4, 1946, which date marks the beginning of the third Philippine Republic.

From Tagalog: Our native language.

thank you!

I think these words are Ilokano:
talon - taltalon
biag - bibiag
ulo - ululo
I don't know what they mean though..

By the way, does anyone know what language this is:

Sa yalana o Viliame a ona ti'i ni qele

My voice coach has a wife who came to the US from the Philippines a few years ago. She told me there are a lot of languages because there are so many islands. But are they similar enough that others could understand each other?
She also told me that some are very close to Spanish because Spain occupied the Philippines for a long time -- even the president you mentioned sounds Spanish!
I also heard that Tagalog is perhaps the most difficult language for foreigners to learn. Do you think that's true?