About this item
The most enjoyable way to learn about an unfamiliar culture is through its stories - especially when they're told in two languages!This book introduces 40 stories from the Philippines through bilingual Tagalog and English texts presented on facing pages. Paired with cultural notes, vocabulary lists, exercises, comprehension questions and free online audio recordings, Tagalog Stories for Language Learners is an excellent resource for intermediate language learners.This compilation includes a mix of traditional folktales retold for a modern audience, as well as several well-known works of contemporary Philippine literature. Along the way, you will meet fabulous mythological characters like the Bagobo goddess Mebuyan and the shape-shifting Aswang. Other characters cope with day-to-day issues, such as the domestic worker who cannot find her keys and a beauty queen who leaves behind her comfortable city life in order to help peasants in the countryside.
About the Author
Maria Josephine Barrios, popularly known as Joi Barrios, is a poet, activist, scriptwriter, actress, translator and teacher. Born in 1962, she completed her Ph.D. in Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines (UP) . She taught at the University and also served as an Associate for Fiction at the UP Likhaan: Creative Writing Center. She has won various honors and awards, including the Palanca Award, the most prestigious literary award in the Philippines. During the Marcos dictatorship and the tumultuous years that followed, she became well-known as a freedom activist and rally poet. She has taught in Korea, Japan, and is currently working as a visiting Professor at the University of California, Irvine.
Her works include Ang Pagiging Babae ay Pamumuhay sa Panahon ng Digma (1990) ; Bailaya: Mga Dula Para sa Kababaihan (1997) ; Minatamis at iba pang Tula ng Pag-ibig (1998) ; and Prince Charming at iba pang Nobelang Romantiko (2001) .
Virgilio Almario, one of the best recognized literary critics and a scholar of Filipino poetry, has stated that Barrios is one of only four recognizable women poets in Philippine literature.
