Karen Ortiz, age 11, of  Winkelman, Arizona, for her question:

Do the Philippines have a native language

The official native language of the Philippine Republic is Pilipino. However, nine different languages    including about 90 local dialects    are spoken by various peoples living on the scattered islands. Their ancestors settled the islands in the past and they still use forms of older languages brought from Malaya and parts of Polynesia. The native language of Luzon is Tagalog and about a third of the other islanders speak it, often along with their local dialects. Pilipino, the official native language, is based mainly on Tagalog.

A large number of Filipinos also speak English or Spanish or both. These two languages are used by many businessmen and government officials. And compared with Filipino students, your language classes in school should be no trouble at all. They are expected to cope with their studies in three different languages    Pilipino. English and Spanish.