English speaking KIDS

[Len0523]

Mommies out there, english speaking ba mga anak nyo?
Can you please share on how you manage to do it or you teach your kids since they were infant?

[cheezecake]

my sons first language is English hindi dahil tinuturuan namin but because sa mga napapanood niya sa TV

[Len0523]

Oh really? 1 tip! thanks mommy. Sanayin ko rin sya paglabas nya pa lang. Para her first language din is English, kase tagalog naman is very easy to learn and adapt.

[chicafabulosa]

I let my son watch Disney and Nickelodeon. And then we talk to him in English since baby pa sya. So at first nung mga 2 na sya di sya nagsasalita pa, akala nga namin pipi yun pala di nakakaintindi ng Tagalog. english lang sya. So now my son talks in English even if you ask him something in Tagalog. It is very important too na nakakaintindi ng Tagalog kasi kawawa rin pagpasok sa big school kasi may Filipino subject sila.

[WandaWits]

Some people get the wrong notion that if your child speaks English, he is ahead of the others.
The truth is & based on experience, once na hindi mo na expose ang anak mo sa Tagalog mahihirapan siya once he's in big school na especially in reading comprehension. I have plenty of friends na English speaking ang anak, kaya nung ipapasok na nila sa big school yung kid, natataranta na sila turuan ng Tagalog. Some they even enroll in tutorials para lang mag excel in school. As per experience with my kids, mas mahirap intindihin at isalita ang Tagalog.  I would suggest you teach both languages. I find it smarter when kids are adept to speak in English & Tagalog. Yung tipong they can speak in English fluently pag kausap nila English speaking..and can understand & speak Filipino well kapag need nila mag Tagalog.

[khriseeee]

I speak to my daughter in English as it's really the only language I know. I can speak tagalog but it's not correct so I'd rather not teach her improper grammar.

I agree, kids need to learn both languages, some people think it makes their kids sound sosyal and really force it. Honestly when I hear some parents talking to their kids, it sounds so forced and worst is their grammar is incorrect! Speak to your kids in the language that you are comfortable with.

Do not let your kids learn just English, they will have a hard time at school, not just in the subject but also relating to other kids. I experienced this first hand. I attended an international school from grade school thru high school. I didn't learn any tagalog at all because we spoke English at home and I didn't have friends outside of my school. My cousins all learned English to play with us. Come university I had a really hard time and to think I went to Ateneo! They didn't offer an English for foreigners if you enroll as a Filipino so imagine I had to take all the regular Filipino classes. I wanted to cry every class and literally barely passed. Not only that my classmates teased me for being conyo and all. I eventually learned tagalog - enough to understand and give directions and hold a simple (very simple) conversation but there's still a lot that I don't understand.

So with my daughter I encourage our maids to talk to her in tagalog so she will get used to it. My only problem now is teaching her Chinese 

[TysLolakins]

^ sis khriseeee, maybe you should learn to speak Tagalog with your daughter since you said that it's important for Filipinos living in the Phils to speak both fluently...
hey, i'm just teasing you 


one thing i've noticed noong last time nandyan kami sa Pinas,  hindi masyadong maintindihan ng mga anak ko (born here) yung cousin nila na 'supposedly' English-speaking only diyan.  not trying to be mean,  sabi nila medyo fobbish accent daw. 
tama sabi mo,  some parents enforced English only pero the kids still pickup the way the parents talk in English.  parang yung mga batang Pinoy dito sa stet,  before they go to school may fobbish accent sila dahil ang kausap mostly ay yung family lang nila.  but once they start school,  ayon nagiging kano na magsalita.


anyway, the best way for kids to learn to speak conversational english is to watch american tv esp sitcoms.  but still talk to them in tagalog at the same time.


yung anak ko, born and raised siya dito pero marunong magTagalog,  we didn't really enforce that at all,  she learned just from hearing us adults talk to each other.  nasa Pinas kami visiting when she started talking straight Tagalog, nagulat nga kami ng dad niya.

[Len0523]

Yay, for me naman kase I dont have to put an extra effort to teach my daughter "tagalog" kase surely naman that will be the most common used language at home.
What I want sana is yung she will not having a hard time naman to understand english pag nagschooling na sya. And ofcourse I won't compromise naman tagalog.
Parang sayang yung effort kung marunong mag english pero hindi marunong magtagalog. Ganun din.
For me, much easier lang talaga ituro yung tagalog kase the environment naman is pure tagalog.
We speak in tagalog so yung english na lang mag extra effort. Its not the accent but atleast yung she can speak and understand english the accent will follow na lang. Bcoz the intention is not to impress other people, but for my daughter naman para hindi sya mahirapan. 

[ellipsis]

my nephew spoke english from watching cartoons, initially from kiddie cd's that his grandmother bought, and then later on from disney channel, nickelodeon, national geographic, discovery kids, etc. (yun lang, hindi kami pumapayag sa mga tagalized English cartoons, but this is for another topic)

we talk to him in English when he asks in English or if the conversation is in English, this is to correct grammar, for better sentence construction, and especially to broaden his vocabulary.

on the other hand, we talk to him in Filipino if the conversation is in Filipino for the same reasons as above, pero mostly for vocabulary, dahil madali naman ang grasp natin sa Filipino and madali mag-construct ng sentence, hindi lang madali mag-translate ng tagalog terms pag first time nya naririnig.

eventually, he became more comfortable with speaking English. so now he is speaking in English 60% to 70% of the time, Filipino fluently mga 20% of the time and then we translate deeper Filipino words that he doesn't know the meaning of. we did not choose this for him nor do we encourage/discourage either language, kung baga, kung saan sha comfortable. hindi lang kami pumapayag pag hinahalo nya ang English and Filipino sa isang sentence, o kaya pag sinisingit nya isang Filipino word sa gitna ng English na sentence (ex. that is so liit).

downside lang nito, we have to remind him to speak Filipino when he is with his playmates, pero wala naman problema dito dahil kaya naman nya. 

i have no problem with him sounding like a Filipino speaking English, basta tama ang sentence construction, tama ang grammar, may sense naman, walang omitted words.

and last na sis, with regard to teaching him anything specific, when he was younger, we just took our cue from him, when we saw na he was ready to advance to reading a kiddie thesaurus, we bought him one; when we saw na he was trying to speak English but his past tense was wrong, dun kami nagtuturo ng tamang past tense ng mga words, or tamang use ng articles. = )

[khriseeee]

Haha I would speak to my daughter in tagalog but I know I'm a lost cause. If it was the accent only then fine but my grammar is horrible! So I'd rather not 

[marose17]

My children's first language is English, second is Tagalog. We speak English at home although we encourage our helpers to speak to the kids in Tagalog. Siguro din kasi they are exposed to other children who speak the same language.   If I can bring back time, I would rather have them have Tagalog as a first language (like me) and English as the second language.  It's a bit embarrassing for me that they speak Tagalog with a twang dahil nandito kami sa Pilipinas.  So far, they have minimal difficulty understanding Tagalog because I read Adarna books to them. 

I disagree na mas madali ang Tagalog ha.  Filipino as a language can be quite complex, especially sa conjugation, pronunciation and usage.

If you really want your children to speak good English, speak to them daily and make sure that your diction and grammar are correct.  I also suggest reading stories to them (pang-enrich ng vocabulary nila).  I don't encourage having your children learn from tv shows because colloquial English/slang ang usually naririnig ko sa tv shows.  Some even have inappropriate content.  Children should first learn proper English and the right books will teach them that.  Read to them and when they are old enough, encourage them to read for leisure.

[aquacharly]

Typical:  we parents and our kids speak in English.  The kids watch English language movies, etc. I actually prefer the really old Disney and kiddie movies/shows: English therein is spoken correctly.

Parents & kids speak Tagalog to the house staff.   
(Staff  strictly instructed not to talk to kids in their dialects, only in Tagalog.  Not English.   Ayokong maka hear like somebody's yaya saying to her alaga: "Eh-pol" instead of apple. Susko)
We love the old Tagalog. The way P-Noy & Chiz Escudero speak it.  Lyrical.  So we also encourage that formal Tagalog, they talk to certain old family friends & relatives that way. 

My Lola talks to all her  apo sa tuhod in Spanish, as spoken here in the Phils. (Iba as spoken in, say Madrid).  But what can I do about that. When my Lolo was alive, no Spanish -- Tagalog lang or English.
My other Lola talks to them in Fookien too.  Habang tumatanda, she forgets her other languages.

My MIL will speak to the kids  in Fookien. My pop in law, in Cantonese. They talk to each other & their children in English.  Or Mandarin. But English is preferred.

So there, English is the common denominator.   The Rule is:  speak straight in any language. As in -- Bawal Taglish.

Since they are young, it is easy for them to absorb all these. It's said that one can learn 90% of any language in a month.  Fine, then, they grow up absorbing a few languages.  BUT para orderly thinking in their minds -- and orderly expression, the Strict Rule is:  complete each sentence in 1 language.

I speak to them all the time in English & make it a point to introduce adult words like: discern, assess, obscure, respond, query, interrogate, abscond ---  basta everyday, we have 3 new words discussed at breakfast, which they try to use during the day, and throw back to us dinner time.  Do not underestimate kids, they are sharp as nails and absorb info as well as organic sponges.  They also give the funniest, but correct sense, sentences in their cuentos.  I am also particular with their use of possessive pronouns & articles. Errors in their use are quite common in the Phils these days -- even in our diarios: que horror. 

When I speak to them in Tagalog: everybody knows -- galit na ko ha! 

[cheezecake]

my son is already 9 years old and until now ang hirap siya sa Tagalog kasi nga first language niya is English minsan kapag kinakausap mo hindi sumasagot kapag tagalog kapag english bago sasagot kaloko.  I don't think children speaking in English sounds sosyal unless may accent talaga kasi exposed na tayo sa mga international channels ngayon unlike before na BATIBOT ang pinapanood natin.

[twelvth_goddess]

My husband and I speak to my daughter in English. My family does the same to her but I encourage our helpers and her previous yayas to talk to her in Tagalog. She understands Tagalog too but can only speak it little by little.

It was only after my daughter turned 2 years old that I let her watch TV -- Disney Junior. Prior to that, we would let her watch some educational DVDs but limited to an hour a day lang. We would always read books to her and encourage her to 'read' it to us too. Plus, we talk to her like how a normal grown up would, bawal baby talk samin.

[bluish_mommy]

^wala ring baby talk sa amin, pag naririnig ko in-laws ko na bina-baby talk yung anak ko... pinasisita ko sa husband ko.

[TysLolakins]

sis TS, if your concern is your child not being able to keep up with the other kids once she starts school,  then you have nothing to worry about if your kid has been exposed to hearing english spoken or watched shows in english.  i said that kase i've seen how my two younger sisters adapted easily to the local schools here (US).  one entered school as an 8th grader in junior high, yung bunso as a 3rd grader.  usually immigrant kids are automatically put into ESL classes.  not in the case of my two sisters,  they were assessed very quickly and day 1 they were put into regular classes.  and mind you,  tagalog was and still their first language.  yung bunso, even if she only had 2.5 years of schooling sa Pinas,  she can read, write, understand english.  she used to watch a lot of Sesame Street and american cartoons, i think that's what did it for her.  that's her only exposure.  and partida pa na they went to a public school in the province before we move here ha where english is not spoken much, only inside the classroom when the subject is english, math, science, the rest are taught in tagalog.  that how it was before, i'm sure things have changed already.
what i'm trying to say is you have nothing to worry about. she will learn english whether she likes it or not bec she'll be formally taught in school and informally from her surroundings.  don't handicap her in tagalog in favor of english.
just like sis aquacharley said,  speak to her in the language you're comfortable speaking.  but if it's important to you that she only speaks english to start,  you're the mom,  you know what's best for your child.  nakikisawsaw lang kami dito sa topic mo, ha ha ha

[amethyst028]

i suggest let your child speak tagalog. english is easy kasi since nursery up to college our method of instruction in school is english so there is no way for your child not learn english. my son speaks enlgish dahil nung bata siya he watches little einstein, barney, nick and disney channel. now he is in grade 4, in his new school kids speak tagalog so wala gaano kumakausap sa kanya lalo na nung 1st two months, he has a hard time in filipino and hekasi. kahit anong pag turo ko sa kanya hirap siya para bang naka set na mind niya na english only. now i am having a hard time kasi pinililit ko na tagalog ang usapan namin.

cute tignan pag bata pa, pero ok din na well verse ang bata sa filipino after all andito tayo sa pilipinas wala naman tayo sa america. mahalin ang sarili nating wika.

[iwannabeasupermodel]

Some people get the wrong notion that if your child speaks English, he is ahead of the others.
The truth is & based on experience, once na hindi mo na expose ang anak mo sa Tagalog mahihirapan siya once he's in big school na especially in reading comprehension. I have plenty of friends na English speaking ang anak, kaya nung ipapasok na nila sa big school yung kid, natataranta na sila turuan ng Tagalog. Some they even enroll in tutorials para lang mag excel in school. As per experience with my kids, mas mahirap intindihin at isalita ang Tagalog.  I would suggest you teach both languages. I find it smarter when kids are adept to speak in English & Tagalog. Yung tipong they can speak in English fluently pag kausap nila English speaking..and can understand & speak Filipino well kapag need nila mag Tagalog.

Haha this is my point too! So parang mas sosyal pag english? I find it too trying hard. Tapos di naman sosyalin yung family talaga. Lol.

[Len0523]

Why associate english speaking kids sa "sosyal"? Don't get it? 
The kids don't even understand that they are "sosyal" if they speak english well.
The point here is, way for the kids to learn english not to associate speaking english to "sosyal".
Ang mean! 

Learning different languages of course is really an advantage for the kids, and that's the purpose.
Paano naging sosyal? 

Pag magaling magtagalog does it mean sosyal din ba? 

For me naman, it has nothing to do with the status of individuals. Parang too racist, if the MID-class or below is labeled or judged not to speak english kase some people find it awkward.



Thanks Mommies for the inputs. 

[oreo08]

how is it possible for someone living in the Philippines, living amongst Filipinos, with Filipino tv shows, to NOT be exposed in the language? Just wondering out loud

As we're living overseas, I talk to my 1 yr old daughter in Tagalog... sometimes. Hindi na ako aware minsan what language I use but I don't do broken taglish ("ayaw mo na this?" *shudders*) In my opinion, she will learn to speak English whether she likes it or not because we're living in 1. Australia, 2. living amongst (mostly) Australians and 3. English tv shows abound!! So when she does start her schooling, she will be exposed to kids speaking to her in English as well.