MANILA, Philippines – Tagalog is now the fastest-growing language in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.
Based on StatCan’s 2011 Census of Population: Linguistic Characteristics of Canadians, Tagalog is now the fifth most common non-official language spoken in Canadian households.
The survey showed there has been strong growth of Asian languages between 2006 and 2011.
“Nearly 279,000 people reported speaking Tagalog most often in 2011, up from 170,000 five years earlier,” the report said.
The top 10 immigrant languages spoken most often in Canadian homes in 2011 were: Punjabi, Chinese n.o.s., Cantonese, Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Mandarin, Italian, Urdu and German.
Vancouver has one of the biggest populations of Tagalog speakers in Canada with 47,600 Tagalog-speakers in 2011.
In Edmonton, Tagalog is the common immigrant home language, while it is the second most common in Calgary.
Philippine Ambassador to Canada Leslie Gatan said many Filipinos have found opportunities in Western Canada, with many new immigrants going to Edmonton, Winnipeg and Regina for jobs.
The Philippine embassy held trial Tagalog classes in Ottawa for second-generation Filipinos. –ABS-CBNnews.com
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