TOS_Programs

THE TOS PROGRAM are meant to be integrative and interdisciplinary rather than specialist oriented. The TOS experience is academic and personal at the same time. Language instruction is reinforced by frequent assignments that require participants to practice Filipino (Tagalog) language skills with the local community. Classroom lectures and workshops on history and culture are complemented with activities that strongly encourage community interaction and discourse. Through the combination of study and experience, participants come to a deeper understanding of how history and circumstances have shaped the lives of the average Filipino, and how these in turn have affected our participants’ personal histories as Filipinos of the diaspora.

The TOS Summer program is a study-abroad program for Filipinos who were born an/or raised outside of their ethnic homeland. This seven-to-eight week program* offers intensive Filipino language instruction coupled with a history and culture curriculum meant to assist second- and third- generation overseas Filipinos come to terms with their ethnic heritage. The TOS Summer Program consists of the following:

*The eighth week is an optional exposure trip to the Cordillera region. Although optional, participants are highly encouraged to join the trip as it is a unique experience in itself. Expenses for the Cordillera trip are not covered by TOS program fees and will have to be shouldered by the participants.

Our participants complete at least 120 hours of language instruction. Classes have a small student teacher ratio — a maximum of five students are assigned to a teacher. These 120 hours of instruction are completed in daily classroom sessions, five days a week for a total of seven weeks. Classes are held for beginning, intermediate and advanced language students. Our students’ language proficiency is assessed with academic rigor before, during and after the program. The average TOS participant increases his/her knowledge of Filipino by 2-4 proficiency levels in eight-weeks.

Our language teachers are experienced language instructors who have taught Filipino (Tagalog) to visiting American (Peace Corps), British, Dutch, and Japanese service volunteers. Our teacher trainers and curriculum writers are accredited by the American Council of Testers for Foreign Language Learners.

Through our community interaction activities, TOS participants are encouraged to “practice” using Filipino. They are assigned to interview various members of the local community. This activity allows participants to hone language skills as well as gain a sense of the concerns and issues prevalent in the locality. Besides frequent quizzes and examinations to test learning, language students are also required to submit written exercises and a five-to-ten page final essay in Filipino. They also prepare a culminating presentation, all done in the language — a program of thanks presented to the host community.

Tagalog On Site uses an interdisciplinary approach to teaching history and culture. It is our belief that culture is best experienced and that history should be studied in the light of its effects on contemporary life. With this in mind, TOS integrated day and week-long trips designed to complement its culture and history curriculum.

Noted authorities, including faculty from the Ateneo de Manila University, the University of the Philippines, conduct regular weekly lectures and workshops on Philippine history, Filipino psychology, politics culture and the arts. Speakers from local non-government organizations are likewise invited to discuss contemporary issues and concerns. In the past, the lecture/workshop series has included the following topics:

Philippine Precolonial History — The Indigenous Period
The Spanish Colonization of the Islands
The Philippine Revolution against Spain
The Filipino-American War
The American Occupation
The Second World War and the Hukbalahap Movement
Post World War II Philippines — with a focus on the Years of Martial Law under Ferdinand Marcos
A History of Filipino Muslims
Philippine Political Economy
Philippine Popular Culture
Filipino Psychology
The Status of the Filipina
The OFW Phenomenon
Indigenous Music Workshop
Indigenous Dance Workshop
Interviews with Women/Men in Prostitution
Grassroots Environmental Campaigns
Philippine Literature – a Mirror of History

Afternoon, day trips, and week-long exposure trips are integrated into the TOS Summer Program to allow participants to visit local areas of interest, and to have a concrete sense of the concerns of the “average” Filipino. These trips avoid the usual tourist track. Instead, they are meant to develop an appreciation of Filipino tradition, to deepen an understanding of the consequences of history, and to provide a realistic picture of the Philippines today.

In the past, TOS participants have trekked through the sacred mountain Banahaw, where 400 benevolent religious groups have made their home for centuries. The religion they practice is a mixture of Catholicism, folk animism and nationalist fervor. Here, modest churches are decorated with the Philippine flag, the banners of the Katipunan, and paintings of heroes of the revolution against Spain.

The optional week-long exposure trip to the Banaue Rice Terraces and the town of Sagada in the Cordillera region is a TOS staple. At rice terraces, participants step knee-deep into paddies, and join the local Ifugao in planting or harvesting rice according to the dictates of a 2,000-year old tradition. They join the community in slaughtering pigs, duck or chickens to thank the gods for the harvest while shamans chant and chew betel nut.

TOS participants visit what once was the US military bases in Clark, Pampanga and Subic, Zambales. They meet the child victims of toxic waste contamination from refuse abandoned by US military personnel. In Olongapo, sons and daughters of former American GIs still hope to somehow meet their fathers.

The public school systems in the Philippines, especially in the provinces, suffer from a chronic lack of funds and facilities. TOS participants spend time to sit-in in classes and have an open dialogue with high school and college students and teachers. The dialogue helps clear the myths of life in the First World. Our participants learn of the effects of public policy at the grassroots level, or simply, how a game of volleyball can bridge gaps of culture and distance.

Our participants have learned to make herbal medicine: cough syrup from native lemon, sampalok leaves and ginger, and anti-fungal ointment from candle wax and kakawati leaves. They’ve tried their hand at traditional crafts — Paete paper mache figures, Christmas paper lanterns, pottery, bamboo flutes and squirt guns. They’ve shared evenings with musicians who taught them to play indigenous instruments, and learned a T’boli dance that mimics a bird whose song marks the beginning and end of the planting season. Our participants have entered the mining caves of Itogon, Benguet and interviewed small-scale miners whose homes and livelihood are threatened by the mining operations of foreign-owned corporations. They have interacted with the residents of urban poor areas, played with the children of Overseas Filipino Workers, and have visited various indigenous communities — the Tagbanua of Palawan, Ifugao of Banaue, T’boli of South Cotabato (Mindanao), and the Aeta of Pampanga.

TOS will offer its Fall Program if there are 15 or more applicants who apply and send in their deposits by June 15, 2005. The Fall program follows the same curriculum, itinerary, and program fees as the Summer Program. The Fall program runs from mid-September to mid-November 2005. Interested applicants should complete the online application at the TOS website www.tagalogonsite.org

When the Summer Program is not in session, TOS language instructors are available for individual or group tutorials for Filipino/Tagalog. Tutorials are for all levels — beginning, intermediate and advanced. Rates vary depending on the number of learners and the length of study.