Since the Spanish established Manila as their primary base for colonization in 1571, thousands of Hokkein people came in the hope of getting the silver from the Americas. To trade and to live there, they had to learn Spanish and the local language of Tagalog. There have been substantial results from studies of the cultural exchange between the Hokkien and Spanish speaking populations, but there is little discussion of the studies of the cultural and linguistic exchange between the Hokkien and Tagalog speaking populations due to the limitations on the quantity of historical materials. By examining the translations between Hokkien and Tagalog in the Philippine Chinese Manuscripts in the Herzog August Library, this article explores how the Hokkien people in the 17th century learned Tagalog, and how they spelled out the pronunciation with Chinese characters. This article also explores the daily interactions between the two peoples by studying the word choices in the manuscripts.