Author: jamilamimi

I was talking to a friend last night about children who was born outside the Philippines with a Filipino parents and speaks fluent English but have difficulty in speaking our very own language “Tagalog”. He was very passionate discussing his views that our conversation lasted for three hours OMG! nosebleed 🙂

English or Tagalog

Why do you think mostly of Filipino children born outside the Philippines speak English more than Tagalog?

Why do we have to speak English at home? Why do we encourage them to speak English only at home and not our own Language? Isn’t it that they are learning English at school? With their friends?… after all, they live outside Philippines and the common Language is English!

Who is a better teacher in English, the teacher whose native Language is English? or the Filipino parents whose native Language is Tagalog?..so why not speak Tagalog at home? Don’t you think you are rubbing them off of the opportunity to be bilingual?

Universal Language

First of all, English is a universal Language, it is a common knowledge ..if children speak English fluently, they will have an edge to those who does not..they have a better opportunity to find a job and a better interaction to people around the world.

Guilty as Charged

I can only speak for myself, I am guilty as charged of not speaking Tagalog at home with my sons while they were growing up, not because we lost our patriotism or I didn’t think they are smart enough to be bilingual but because my priority for them is to speak English fluently… yes they learned English at school but practicing at home will also help.Thank goodness, they didn’t acquire my Filipino English accent! 🙂 not that it is wrong to acquire it but my philosophy is.. you have to learn it the right way!

For awhile, I have to agree that it was a struggle for my eldest son not to speak Tagalog fluently, he lost his own identity in his own birth place because he does not speak Tagalog but eventually he did learned the Language. It would have been better if I taught him myself,.. moving on…it was a blessing that he speaks both English and Tagalog and a bit of Arabic as well.

Native Language

My youngest son, was born in Jeddah obviously his first Language is English, should I say his native language is Tagalog?

What is native Language? a Language a child learned first at home versus a language learned later in life.

but because he was born to a Filipino parents, he also learned how to speak tagalog though not as fluent as he speaks English. He only goes home to Philippines once a year just for a short holiday and not totally emerged to the Filipino culture. He was born in Jeddah but did not acquired the Saudi culture instead he was exposed to a multi cultural environment which gave him the benefits of interacting/learning different culture which help him to be a well- rounded person, of not being judgemental of others belief, attitude and behaviour. I am so proud to say he is now multi lingual (English,Tagalog,Arabic,German, French) and holds a very high interpersonal and social skills which will lead him to better path in a near future.

I say his native Language and primary Language is bilingual, English and Tagalog.

He might not be as proficient or as fluent in Tagalog but he can understand and able to appropriately response back.

My verdict?

There is nothing wrong in speaking English at home as long as the child knows he can also speak and understand Tagalog. It is not about patriotism because English is widely used as a form of communication in and out of the country. It helps to identify you as a Filipino but it doesn’t defines who you are!

What is wrong then?..if you imposed or encouraged not to speak Tagalog at all!

” Learn English well and connect to the world. Learn Filipino well and connect to our country. ” – (Aquino 2010)

I rest my case 🙂 😉

Ladies, feed me up, I like to hear from you 🙂

Cheers,

Jamilamimi