Yale to offer Filipino (Tagalog) courses in fall 2025
Following monthslong student advocacy efforts, the Council on Southeast Asian Studies has posted a job advertisement for a Filipino (Tagalog) lector, who initially will be appointed for three years. Tagalog is one of the major languages spoken in the Philippines whose population is now more than 100 million. It is the native tongue of the people in the Tagalog region in the northern island Luzon. It was declared the basis for the national language in 1937 by then President of the Commonwealth Republic, Manuel L.
Last September, the Council on Southeast Asian Studies at Yale posted a job advertisement for a lector in Filipino (Tagalog) who will begin to teach courses next fall.
The new course offering comes after months of formalized student advocacy from Tagalog @ Yale, an initiative within Yale’s Filipinx club, Kasama. Since fall 2023, students in the initiative have been working with faculty in CSEAS and the Center for Language Study as well as members of the Yale College Council to make the course offerings a reality. Previously, students were able to learn Filipino (Tagalog) through the Directed Independent Language Study, a program that matched students to a language partner, rather than a professor, and did not offer course credit.
“Tagalog is the fourth most-spoken language in the US,” Janina Gbenoba ’27, a Kasama member active in the initiative, told the News. “So we feel very strongly about it having a place at Yale, both for members of Yale’s Filipino community and because we really do believe that even people outside of the Filipino culture would have an interest in studying it.”
According to Gbenoba and Marissa Halagao ’27, another advocate in Tagalog @ Yale, students were in contact with CSEAS Chair Erik Harms throughout the 2023–24 academic year to demonstrate high student interest in the Filipino (Tagalog) language. Harms filed a formal proposal for the language to be taught at Yale, which was approved by CLS and the Yale College Dean’s Office.
While the government of the Philippines designates Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, as its national language, Halagao said that the label “Filipino (Tagalog)” is meant to recognize a broader set of experiences with Filipino languages and culture.
“We called it Tagalog @ Yale because a lot of us grew up referring to the language as Tagalog,”Halagao said. “Filipino (Tagalog) gives the distinction that it’s not the only Filipino language.”
Outside of Filipino (Tagalog), there are over 180 other languages spoken in the Philippines, such as Ilokano, Cebuano and Ilonggo, according to Halagao.
“Yale, like any institution, is an evidence-based place,” Harms told the News. “So the smart thing that Kasama students did was actually start to generate numbers and things like that to show there’s a strong interest among students.”
The Tagalog @ Yale petition garnered over 380 signatures from students and faculty last year.
“Our formal advocacy began in fall 2023 with the petition, but informal discussions among Filipino students have been ongoing for years,” Fajardo wrote in an email to the News. “Prior efforts were mostly individual — students inquiring about Tagalog courses or expressing interest to language departments. The petition marked our shift to organized, strategic advocacy.”
According to the job posting, the Filipino (Tagalog) lector will teach six courses each year and initially will be appointed for three years, with the possibility of renewal. The lector will also work with lectors in the Vietnamese and Indonesian languages to further develop Southeast Asian Studies programming at Yale, including study abroad opportunities.
Beyond language course offerings, Gbenoba and Halagao said that there is still a need for courses in Filipinx studies more broadly.
“I really hope that the momentum that we have from Tagalog @ Yale will lead to more departments offering Filipinx Studies,” Halagao said. “I’m an ER&M major — ethnicity, race and migrations — and even though ER&M is a very interdisciplinary field, there is still not one class that is dedicated to Filipinx studies, and there’s also not a hired professor who is Filipino in our department.”
Both Gbenoba and Halagao also expressed hope that Yale may offer courses in more Filipino languages in the future, as well as other languages that they say currently lack academic support at Yale, such as Cantonese and Bangla (Bengali).
This Saturday, Kasama will be hosting a workshop in collaboration with the Asian American Cultural Center on Filipino language empowerment and colonial linguistic suppression. During the workshop, students will celebrate the new Filipino (Tagalog) course offering and learn about Yale’s role in colonial histories in the Philippines.
“Tagalog at Yale is very much a testament to the power of student voice and the power of coming together as a community,” Gbenoba said. “So Tagalog at Yale is not the end. It’s just something that we’ll be able to draw inspiration from as we continue our advocacy efforts moving forward.”
Lastly, enjoy this photo of my Parol ( Philippines Christmas Lantern) to be lighted on the start of Advent this coming December 17th, Christmas, 2024
Hope you have a Fantastic Wednesday!
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