The educated city folk refer to those who - in terms of complexion, language, and habits - carry a larger proportion of the Visyan heritage as "Bisaya dako," or Bisdak (meaning "very Bisaya"). This term is disparaging, and you should not use it to the face of someone who is actually Bisdak. However, the term Bisdak has lately been undergoing a subtle change, and, confusingly, it is now often used by city-dwelling mestizo Cebuanos to describe themselves, and in this sense imparts a connotation of pride - even though the city folk are in most cases not Bisdak at all.

Whereas all inhabitants of Cebu use Bisaya in conversation, the city folk, especially the better-educated ones, often have a far more limited vocabulary than the rural Visayans who continue to speak the original Bisaya. City folk describe Bisaya words that they are unfamiliar with as "deep." Since educated Cebuanos rely almost exclusively on English-language media - radio stations and newspapers - they may be confounded by numerous words used in an article in the Bisaya-language tabloid, Super Balita. "I don't know this word, it's very deep already," they'll readily admit. One common complaint is that Cebuanos are not taught their own language in school, since the curriculum relies entirely on the official languages of Tagalog and English.

Here's an example. "This is for Mark" would be "Para ni kang Mark" in Cebuano, and "Alang ni kang Mark" in Bisaya. In Cebuano, the Spanish term para, meaning "for," has replaced the original Bisayan word alang. City folk will tell you that alang is "deep," but that's the term commonly used by the "real" Visayans, the rural and urban poor.

Let us now consider the difference between Tagalog and Bisaya. The languages are not mutually intelligible. I'd guess that less than 20 percent of the vocabulary is shared. Sometimes the same word may have different meanings. For example, langgam means "ant" in Tagalog and "bird" in Cebuano. (People here like to brag that we're more advanced because here it's already flying while in Manila it's still crawling.) Grammar seems to be essentially the same in both languages, but intonation is completely different. After a while, you'll be able to tell if a person is a Tagalog or a Visayan just from the accent when he or she is speaking in English.

There is one interesting trait that distinguishes a speaker of Cebuano, no matter what language she is using. A Cebuano will not help but pepper all utterances with references to the addressee. Whereas you might say, "It's so hot," a Cebuano will say, "Friend, it's so hot, friend." We will use someone's name, or call her girl, friend, cousin, boss, or just about anything, as long as we call her something. Here's a brief list of the more common terms.

References may be based on the profession of the addressee. Doctors are called "Doc." It may seem cumbersome, but lawyers are referred to as "attorney" and engineers are referred to as "engineer." Hence: "Attorney, listen Attorney, you know I've been having problems with my landlord, Attorney, and the other day, Attorney, I was just a little late with my rent, Attorney, and now he sent me this eviction notice, Attorney, what should I do, Attorney? Attorney, I really need your help, Attorney." You may think I'm exaggerating, but this is how Cebuanos talk, even when conversing in English.

Lack of English fluency in all but the highest social classes is exarcebated by the fact that in the Philippines it is not a crime to freely mix indigenous languages with English. The reverse is true; Cebuanos are expected to spice up their sentences with English words and phrases. When making a phone call, even those who barely speak any English at all will at first greet the other person in English ("Good Morning") and then lapse into Cebuano. In most conversations, every now and then an English phrase or word will pop up.

You CAN get by on English alone. But you will have an easier time if you know some Cebuano. Irrespective of how well they speak it, for most Cebuanos using English is more tiring than the local dialect.

Cebuano English is based on American English, and, on the whole, the two are pretty much the same. However, there are some expressions which have evolved locally and are used only here.

I'm sure that, when asked for the location of a thing or person, people in your country point with the hand, the finger, or a quick tilt of the head. But when it comes to pointing, Cebuanos are in a league of their own. When asked where something is, they might point with their lips. If something is on the left of the person, the lips jerk all the way to the left, while the head stays completely motionless. Similarly, if something is straight ahead of a person, the lips will come forward in a quick pout.

A rapid momentary raising of the eyebrows means "yes.". Sometimes, the mouth may accompany this gesture by forming a quick O, since "yes" in Cebuano is o-o. The chin may also be raised slightly, tilting the head back a little - a reverse nod, if you will.

"No" is the same as in most countries - the head is shaken sideways - but in Cebu the lower lip may also protrude to accentuate the negation.

Forming a circle with your thumb and index finger signifies money, rather than "OK." I guess the circle thus formed symbolizes a coin. To signal OK, just give a thumbs up.

Lastly, the gesture for "come here." This can be confusing, especially when used by traffic wardens. The hand, relaxed and palm downwards, will be brought down in a very quick - almost violent - motion, as if to swat a fly in mid-air. The gesture is usually repeated several times, with an interval of about a second. You can also get someone's attention with the sound made by pouting and sucking in air through the mouth, or a quick Pssst! These are only slightly rude.

You only need to know how to pronounce three vowel sounds: A, I, and O. The A is pronounced as the vowel in the English word duck. The I sound is halfway between the I in "pit" and E in "pet"; sometimes it is more like the I and sometimes it is more like the E. However, the sounds may be used interchangeably. In fact, in Cebu you can say melk instead of milk, or pin instead of pen, and nobody will know. Moreover, there is no difference between the long and short E. You can get away with saying deenner instead of dinner, or spikker instead of speaker. The O and the U are also interchangeable. Doog and dog, foot and fot sound exactly the same to Visayan ears. When Cebuano is written - which is rare - either spelling is correct; as in Shakespearean English, the writer's preference determines the spelling.

Some consonants are interchangeable as well. There is no F in the original Visayan language. The closest is the P, and consequently Cebuanos are always getting confused between the two. Another pair of interchangeable consonants is V and B. English speakers may call it the Visayas, but in Cebu we call it the Bisayas.

What Cebuanos will not let you get away with is improper intonation and accenting. For example, bangko can mean either bank or chair, depending on how it is pronounced. I'm sorry; I can't help in this regard. The only practical way you can learn intonation and accenting is by conversing with Cebuanos and aping their speech.

It should be noted that Cebuano is not a written language; it exists in written format only in the form of text messages, posts on the Internet, and the Super Balita, a tabloid. Hence, no standardized spelling exists for Cebuano words. Where vowels or diphtongs are interchangeable, any spelling can be used.

Lastly, in Cebuano - but not Bisaya - an L separated by two vowels often becomes a W. Hence, ulan is often pronounced as uwan. Incidentally, when the W follows an A or I, it functions like a vowel, just like the Y.

When counting money, 1 is simply piso. For time, one o'clock is ala una; all other hours are Spanish preceded by alas. For example, 3:00 is alas tres. Used only for time, the Spanish y medya indicates the 30-minute-mark. Hence, 4:30 is pronounced alas kwatro y medya. AM and PM are sa buntag and sa hapon respectively.

When counting things, Cebuanos always specify the object being counted. For example, three sacks of rice is "tulo ka sako." In most cases, "buok," the word for pieces, will suffice. It even works for humans. So instead of just saying "tulo," say "tulo ka buok."

Pronouns are a bit hard in Cebuano. Let's take "you" as an example. In English, the word "you" is used for both "You are so beautiful" and "I'll kill you". The Cebuano language distinguishes between the two usages because in the first instance, "you" is the object, while in the second instance, "you" is the subject. Moreover, as in many other languages, a distinction is made between the singular and plural you.

As you can see, Cebuano makes no distinction between "his" and "her." Consequently even Cebuanos fluent in English inevitably get their genders wrong. They'll say, without realizing their mistake, things like "My brother and her wife are coming over" and so on.

There are two words that are essential in Cebuano, na and pa. The former means "already" and the latter means "still" or "yet"; together these two terms indicate tense and time.

Tense and time are also indicated by the prefix attached to verbs, which is mi for past tense and mo for future tense. The exception is when something hasn't taken place, when mo is used for a past occurrence (that hasn't actually occurred).

In addition, the form of negation also changes according to space in time. There are two forms of "no." While wala is for things that happened in the past, dili is for things in the future. Hence, the negative response to "Did you eat?" is "Wala" and the negative response to "Do you speak Cebuano?" is "Dili." Wala and dili can also mean "didn't" or "won't."

Describing things is fairly easy. The word meaning "very" or "excessive" (ka-ayo) goes behind the adjective. Otherwise, describe something by putting the adjective in front and using nga. If the adjective ends in a vowel, nga may be abbreviated into ng and attached to the end of the adjective. Now, nga is pronounced exactly as it is spelled, which makes it a bit hard for Anglophones. Practice by saying NNNG!Ha! and squeezing everything together as quickly as possible.

Let's try descriptive sentences. Use ang if the object being described is a thing, or si if you are describing something with a proper name, such as a person or a pet.

Similarly, "of" is either sa if the possessor is a thing, or ni if the possessor has a proper name.

Just one more lesson and you'll be up and running (or sputtering). You can think of "the" as being ug or sa. This may be confusing because both of these words have other meanings (ug means "and"; sa means "of" or "at"). Though ug and sa are interchangeable, it seems that ug is slightly more common, so I usually stick to ug.

Congratulations! You've just completed a crash course in colloquial Cebuano. Since Cebuano reading material is limited, and instructive literature is hard to come by and of questionable quality, you'd better enroll at a language school if you want to take it to the next level. There are plenty to choose from. Market rates seem to be about 2500 - 5000 pesos per month, and courses last about six months. I've come across Mormon missionaries who speak beautiful Cebuano despite having arrived fairly recently, so I guess it is possible to rapidly become fluent if you work hard at it.