You’d have to snopes it to check its validity, but I remember hearing back in high school that a study was done concluding that linguists especially liked studying the habits of Fil-Ams because they weren’t necessarily bilingual, but were able to know enough of the language to hold conversations with their parents.

And for you eagle-eye readers, yes, Esme’s fam speaks Tagalog while Basil’s speaks Ilocano.

Additional and: my long-form graphic novel’s now out in case you missed it! Read at tapastic here: https://tapastic.com/episode/293804