February 2025. I set out on this journey because I had the privilege of sharing it with a dear friend.
I had been fortunate enough to receive a casual invitation before—something along the lines of, “Hey, want to stay together?”—as if it were as simple as sharing a meal. At the time, it was Europe, and I couldn’t afford the time or budget, so I had to let go of the opportunity, regretting it ever since. But this time, it was Manila. With my lingering regret over missing the last invitation, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wait, I… I want to go!”
A quick search revealed that, even in this era of a weakened yen, Manila remained an affordable and accessible destination. Yet, it had never been on my small radar. My knowledge of the place was limited to what I had learned in world history classes.
I had deeply regretted not studying in advance for my trip to Thailand, so this time, I made an effort to learn a little Tagalog and read Japanese novels set in the Philippines. ( In contrast, I had approached Thailand with a bit of overconfidence—perhaps because Thai culture is more familiar in Japan that you absorb bits of it without even trying. Maybe. Except for the language, of course.)
But about of Philippines, just four to five hours away by plane, I realized I knew absolutely nothing. What kind of food do people eat? What colors are preferred? What do people create? Of course, I wouldn’t claim that I grasped it all in just five days. But thanks to the wonderful friend I traveled with, I had an experience that was 200% richer and more fulfilling than I had ever imagined.
It was thanks to her that I even considered learning Tagalog in the first place. Before I met her, I had already begun to feel that we were living in the best possible era for language learning. English, of course, but any language could be learned effortlessly by immersing oneself in native pronunciation. With the collective intelligence of the internet at our fingertips, I had thought it was a shame to leave such a vast sea of knowledge only for AI to navigate. But meeting her made me realize—I didn’t know how to swim in it.
She had a cool philosophy: Before visiting a country for the first time, she would learn its language. In just a few months, she had mastered enough Mandarin to navigate Taiwan with ease last spring. It was astonishing.
Embarrassingly, Mandarin was technically my second foreign language. In my twenties, I had traveled deep into China for the lab research and learned directly from local children. And yet, I struggled even with basic greetings. I had studied tones, and four tones were manageable. Learning Chinese, one of the foundational roots of Japanese culture, had been an intellectually enjoyable experience. However, pronunciation remained an insurmountable challenge, and I eventually gave up.
The pronunciation of “Ri” in Mandarin—a sound so crucial yet elusive for Japanese speakers—had defeated me. I practiced it countless times with two northern Chinese exchange students in my university lab, but my tongue cramped up, and I eventually gave up. Only recently did I learn that the “R” sound in northern Mandarin is particularly distinct, but two decades ago, such insights weren’t readily available to an amateur like me. At the time, I believed that mastering a language required talent, motivation, and time—none of which I had.
But when I asked her how she learned, she introduced me to Pimsleur, a well-known language-learning app among polyglots. The method is simple: 30 minutes a day, no prior knowledge required, learning purely by listening and speaking. It mimics the way children learn languages—through auditory input and timely reinforcement.
I had never tried anything like it, but the logic made perfect sense to me. So, I downloaded it on the spot and started learning. Since the lessons were in English, it doubled as listening practice, and thinking in a new language through English was a fantastic mental exercise. I struggled to set aside 30 minutes every day, but it wasn’t a job—it was just a fun hobby, something I could do at my own pace.
Once I started, I noticed that well-known multilingual YouTubers also praised Pimsleur. It had been around for ages, with some people even learning from cassette tapes and CDs in the past. At the time, the app didn’t offer a Japanese-to-English course, but I later found out that a Japanese company had acquired it, and now it does.
I had already been dabbling with various languages on Duolingo for a while, but recently, I’ve been combining it with Pimsleur. Since last year, I’ve been working with a Brazilian woman who speaks fluent Japanese, so I decided to challenge myself by learning Portuguese from scratch. To my surprise, it came to me more smoothly than any language I had ever attempted. And, getting occasional feedback and praise from a native speaker was incredibly motivating—even if I could only manage a simple self-introduction so far.
That said, when I decided on the Manila trip, it was already late December, leaving me with only about a month to prepare. I wasn’t sure how far I could get, but I decided to try learning Tagalog with Pimsleur exclusively, even if it was just in bits and pieces. Unlike many other languages, Tagalog wasn’t available on Duolingo. At first, nothing stuck—not even basic greetings—but when I heard my friend was already on her second round of lessons, I felt encouraged. In the final days before the trip, I focused and gave it another try. And then, finally, a few words stuck. Just a little. Kaunti.
The feeling of words sinking in—of truly acquiring a language—might be something unique to Pimsleur. Perhaps other methods offer it too, but for me, it was a first. This was what learning a language felt like. With English, I had always felt like I was being forced to study, and I had likely absorbed the input incorrectly all these years. And, with Duolingo, I sometimes feel that the visual elements get in the way, so I wish there were more purely audio-based learning tools.
Of course, my level is not quite up to par, but it’s better than not doing it at all. So, I’m not very complimentary. However, it is an enjoyable experience and I would be happy if I could increase the number of Pimsleur friends.
OK, anyway, this was supposed to be a travelogue. But the introduction has already become way too long.
Let’s get back to the trip to Manila in the next article.
Photo: Colorful bags finding at the big mall nearby the hotel. After considering one night, I got 2 of them.
