This Caviteña Is Harvard University's First Filipino Language Instructor

(SPOT.ph) Harvard University is finally offering a Filipino course for the Academic Year 2023-2024, and adding to this significant milestone is another first—the hiring of the inaugural Filipino language instructor for the course.

The Department of South Asian Studies welcomes Lady Aileen Orsal as a preceptor in Filipino (Tagalog) courses, who started teaching elementary and intermediate courses on September 5.  “We are extremely happy to welcome Lady Aileen Orsal to the Harvard community,” said James Robson, Victor and William Fung Director at Harvard University Asia Center.

“We look forward to working with her to develop, highlight, and showcase the richness and variety of the history and cultures of the Philippines through events on the Harvard campus.”

Orsal’s historic entrance follows Harvard University’s recent announcement on Filipino (Tagalog) as a new language course offering in March. Rightly so, as it’s currently the fourth most spoken language in the U.S.

Also read: "Result in" or "Result to": Is It Time for Philippine English to be Accepted?

Harvard University’s first Tagalog instructor is here

Orsal is no stranger to teaching Filipino. She worked as a teaching assistant for Filipino classes at the Northern Illinois University from August 2018 to May 2019 as part of the Fulbright Foreign Language Assistantship Program.

Orsal is also a former faculty member at the Cavite State University (CvSU), where she taught Journalism, Communication, and Filipino for 10 years. During the pandemic, she took to teaching international students Filipino at no charge, shares the preceptor in an online exchange with SPOT.ph. Orsal has a background in Philippine culture, history, and politics.

She is also in the process of completing an M.A. in Communication from Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in Philippine Studies from De La Salle University while teaching at Harvard.

“The hiring of a Tagalog preceptor is a necessary first step” for Harvard to fully recognize the Filipino language within its walls, Harvard Philippine Forum Co-President Eleanor Wikstrom wrote in her opinion piece in March. Before the introduction of the Filipino (Tagalog) Tagalog course, there was only one other course about the Philippines at Harvard, which is part of a survey course of the history of Southeast Asia.

Generous funding for Orsal's position also ensures that Filipino languages will continue to be taught at Harvard University, according to The Harvard Gazette.

UPDATED (September 11, 2023): This article was updated to correct details of Orsal's work background following an exchange with the preceptor.

Also read: Harvard, Cornell + More: The International Universities That Have Philippine Studies