In 1937, the First National Assembly created the National Language Institute, their aim was to select a national language among the other regional languages. Ultimately, Tagalog was chosen as the base language December 30, 1937.



Filipino also had the distinction of being a national language that was to be developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. Although not explicitly stated in the constitution, Filipino is in practice almost completely composed of the Tagalog as spoken in the capital, Manila.



Filipino is an official language of education, but less important than English. It is the major language of the broadcast media and cinema, but less important than English as a language of publication and less important for academic-scientific-technological discourse. English and Filipino compete in the domains of business and government.



Filipino is used as a lingua franca in all regions of the Philippines as well as within overseas Filipino communities, and is the dominant language of the armed forces and of a large part of the civil service, most of whom are non-Tagalogs.



According to our research, almost half of the Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong use Tagalog to communicate with each other, together with other Filipino native languages. Speaking Tagalog gives them a sense of ‘home” and they feel comfortable in their native languages. Nearly  half of the respondents will use Tagalog when talking to acquaintances as well. Respondents explained  that Tagalog is a tool to show their identity when meeting new friends.



In the church we conducted the interviews and gave out the questionnaires, most of the sisters there and the members of the church are from the Philippines. Therefore, while they are having meetings and social gatherings, they use Tagalog most because all of them are able to understand it. Therefore, even after these Filipino domestic helpers came to Hong Kong, they are able to maintain their own languages because every week they will gather with friends from the same place and use Tagalog to communicate with each other.