Our first Filipino-Indonesian language video hit 10.1 million views on TikTok. This is the deeper conversation behind it.
Kloe (🇵🇭) and Asa (🇮🇩) are back for Part 2 of Tagalog Tea Time —
unpacking why two countries that aren't even next to each other ended up with languages that sound like cousins. From Austronesian migration and Malay trade routes to the curse words you only learn from playing Roblox with Southeast Asians, this episode covers the cultural and linguistic ground a textbook can't.
Tara let's!
In this episode:
- Why Filipino and Indonesian sound so similar (it's older than you think)
- Counting 1–10 in Tagalog, Indonesian, and Javanese — and what the numbers reveal
- How prefixes and suffixes work the same way in both languages
- The "sayang" problem — one word, two completely different meanings
- Curse words, fanfiction vocabulary, and Roblox slang
- A live Tagalog immersion read-through where Asa hunts for Indonesian cognates
- Why Filipinos and Indonesians always seem to click
Whether you're Filipino curious about Indonesian, Indonesian curious about Filipino, or just here for the language nerdery — pull up a chair.
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Tagalog Tea Time is the official podcast of Ling, a language learning app for the languages most apps ignore — Tagalog, Indonesian, Javanese, Thai, Khmer, Burmese, and 60+ more. Lessons are written by native speakers, including Asa herself.
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Chapters:
00:00 We're back (and our first video hit 10.1M views)
01:50 Why Filipino and Indonesian sound similar
04:15 Indonesia has 700+ languages
06:30 Language vs dialect
07:55 Counting in Tagalog, Indonesian & Javanese
12:30 Learning languages through Roblox
14:00 K-pop fanfiction vocabulary
16:00 The two meanings of "sayang"
17:30 Curse words: bobo, tolol, babi
20:00 What's a "bebot"?
23:30 How word conjugation works
26:00 The kantut moment
28:30 Why Filipinos and Indonesians get along
32:00 Tagalog immersion challenge
36:30 Outro