Resolve: To Teach or Not to Teach Your Young One's our Native Tongue: Filipino

[joebloggs]

I think I would feel ashamed if i will not teach my kids my native tongue (if i have one, one day)
I can foresee my future husband talking to them in Tagalog anyway hehehe

That would be fun to watch! lol

if the kids are going to be living in the uk, i would be more ashamed that i would be teaching they tag instead of english , i'm sure most kids who come from the phils to the uk will be behind the average uk kid at the same age in many subjects at school. get your priorities right

[mavid]

if the kids are going to be living in the uk, i would be more ashamed that i would be teaching they tag instead of english , i'm sure most kids who come from the phils to the uk will be behind the average uk kid at the same age in many subjects at school. get your priorities right

I never said i will not be teaching them English lol... it's a given fact that they will learn English if they are born & live in the UK.

Just saying that it is also my responsibility to teach them Tagalog.

[Jay&Zobel]

if the kids are going to be living in the uk, i would be more ashamed that i would be teaching they tag instead of english , i'm sure most kids who come from the phils to the uk will be behind the average uk kid at the same age in many subjects at school. get your priorities right

yeah, i know a family whose kids are also filipinos but when they migrated here 3 yrs ago ... the kids (6-8y/o) find it difficult to adjust because of the language... a year after, they can't speak Filipino!

Now, the parents talk to them in English. Kids, can't understand them when they speak in Filipino or Bicol Dialect.


Quite a dilemma there... that is why i'm asking some your opinions re. this...

Thanks

[andypaul]

yeah, i know a family whose kids are also filipinos but when they migrated here 3 yrs ago ... the kids (6-8y/o) find it difficult to adjust because of the language... a year after, they can't speak Filipino!

Now, the parents talk to them in English. Kids, can't understand them when they speak in Filipino or Bicol Dialect.


Quite a dilemma there... that is why i'm asking some your opinions re. this...

Thanks

Im surprised schools dont have teachers/parents who can give advice
on this. As its surprsing how similar familys and pupils i meet have varying levels of mother tongue skills. From non existant mother tongue skills to parents holding back children by not helping them with their English at all.

So how do Parents here ensure a good balance?

Do they thinking oral skills are enough or are written skills important as well?

[keithAngel]

My youngest daughter was brought up in Portugal she was 16 months when we arrived there and she learned English in the house and Portuguese at the neighbors and was fluent in both by age 4 because she played with other kids (in the Local language ) she would also play in the house always in Portuguese and later when she was seven and I lived in Spain she was fluent in this language (more so than I ) within 6 months and could also transfer to French when we lived there so my experience suggests the more you expose your kids to languages and the earlier the better the easier it is for them to become multi-lingual

[Jay&Zobel]

My youngest daughter was brought up in Portugal she was 16 months when we arrived there and she learned English in the house and Portuguese at the neighbors and was fluent in both by age 4 because she played with other kids (in the Local language ) she would also play in the house always in Portuguese and later when she was seven and I lived in Spain she was fluent in this language (more so than I ) within 6 months and could also transfer to French when we lived there so my experience suggests the more you expose your kids to languages and the earlier the better the easier it is for them to become multi-lingual

wow! that is so amazing... hmm i have read somewhere (long time ago) that kids do speak lots of languages without them/us knowing it! yep, very true, maybe observe your young ones when they are playing alone... they sometimes talk to their toys/ dolls speaking in different words that you cant even understand (hmmm... hehe) they might not know it but WOW! That is magnificent!

so with these, u mean to say (ermm i mean to say...) we once spoke in different languages too hehehe... coooooolllll....

[Jay&Zobel]

Im surprised schools dont have teachers/parents who can give advice
on this. As its surprsing how similar familys and pupils i meet have varying levels of mother tongue skills. From non existant mother tongue skills to parents holding back children by not helping them with their English at all.

So how do Parents here ensure a good balance?

Do they thinking oral skills are enough or are written skills important as well?

yeah.. there should be a parenting course regarding this hehe