English speaking KIDS

[Msfi]

The problem here in the Philippines is in our system of education, majority of textbooks eh written in English.  Kahit gustuhin mo purong tagalog ang ituro sa anak mo hindi maaari. Mihihirapan na maka adopt ang bata sa school lessons.  Ewan ko ba, dito sa asia tayo Lang yata ang ganito.

[Angelite]

Exactly. That's why it is important that the kids are comfortable in English. Paano cya sasagot ng Math problem if instruction pa lang given in English eh hindi na maintindihan?

[tiggerlily]

^^ yan ang problem ko rin with filipino subject. hindi pa naman ganun karequired since grade 1 pa lang naman anak ko. pero gusto ko maituro ko rin sa kanya ang tamang paggamit ng filipino katulad ng english. yung ibang mga story books in tagalog, kapag binasa mo imbes na paaralan e eskwelahan ang ginagamit. syempre hindi na yun pure filipino di ba? ang nakakainis kasi may filipino translation naman e kung bakit ginagamit pa yung slang (slang ba nag tawag doon?)

anyways, when I tried to solve this by purchasing a story book naman na talagang purely tagalog (as in talagang iniscan scan ko yung book), nangamote naman ako sa translation. kinailangan ko pa gumamit ng dictionary para maintindihan yung ibang words. tapos wala rin naman matinong tagalog dictionary.

eto pa iniisip ko before. ano ang tagalog ng color orange? I looked it up, it is either "kahel" or "orens". ayus. hahaha! ang hirap talaga magtranslate.

[stacies83221]

When they were little, we talk to them in Tagalog and yes, English pero seldom lang. Ngayon na they are older na, we speak to them even in Bicolano dialect.

I see thanks for your input sis!

[twelvth_goddess]

I just wish that our schools would change the Filipino curriculum and make it adaptable to the current times. What they're teaching in school is old Filipino and nobody uses that now. It makes our language more difficult to use tuloy. They can teach the more advanced or deeper Filipino to higher grade levels or even high school.

[TysLolakins]

i hope this is not ot...
speaking of which,  ano ba talaga ang tawag sa wika natin,  Pilipino or Filipino?  i always thought Filipino are the people and Pilipino ang language (then Tagalog yung dialect).  sorry confused lang ang lola nyo.

[sarsingkit]

^I think it is the other way around. Pilipino for the People and Filipino for the language just to give a collective term for Philippine languages. Like some foreigners would ask a person from China is he/she speaks "Chinese" but really it is broken down into Fookien, Mandarin and Cantonese (mostly spoken in HK) and others. But that breakdown is not called dialect. Language din ang tawag. Tagalog language, Bisaya language, Ilocano, etc. A dialect is just a variation of a language. English, I think would be an example. English spoken in the US has quite some differences in English spoken in the UK. But still, it is English. They will understand each other but accent and some modern slang are already different. So in general basta hindi mo naiintindihan ang isang tao magsalita. language na ang refenrece dun.

To go back to the topic, I would prefer teaching kids Tagalog first then let the kids learn English in school. Para mas fundamental because you start from the basics. There is a difference when a kid learns English naturally than really learn it from the basics. Minsan kasi may mga ibang bata or kahit ibang tao na graduate na ng college, ang ganda magsalita ng Ingles, pagdating sa sulatan ng report kung saan pormal dapat ang pagkakasulat, naku nakakaloka na! At isa pa, wag mag alala, mula elementary hanggang highshool eh tinuturo naman ang Ingles. Ilang taon din yun! Matututo at matutuo din yan.

But if you are just opting for conversational, then learning languages through books, music, movies etc can be enough.

[pinkpotato]

langley, I think it depends to the parents. My daughter speaks english mainly because we live abroad. We talk tagalog at home so she picks some words and sometimes use it.

We talk tagalog to her she answers English. Sometimes she talks tagalog din, its just that sometimes awkward to hear kasi parang wrong pagka construct ng tagalog sentence.

What's great is that when were in the PH, few days pa lang ang galing galing na magtagalog. Esp when we went to my parent's place in the province, she plays with mga batang taga brgy, most of them just imagine would knock in our house as early as 8am di pa iba nag susuklay. haha. nagugulat anak ko but I just have to explain na yun uso sa kanila so please understand and ask the kids to take a bath first and come back. LOL. May ibang maayos naman.

Then they would play. My daughter can right away adjust to these kids. she actually thought she has to really speak in pure tagalog (well, suppose to be ilonggo but she cant so no choice) but she was surprise. the kids can speak in english. di nga lang with accent and all but they can be understood! therefore I can also call them english speaking kids din, no? di nga lang nabibigyan ng chance. belib talaga ako sa mga batang pinoy. im so sure it will be easy for them to apply in a call center someday.

[daisy_duck]

We're living in the province and my son is comfortable with both English and Hiligaynon. Effort lang coz he is now in Kindergarten and Im having difficulty tutoring him in Filipino. I tried to watch with him cartoons or TV shows for kids that are in Filipino such as those in Knowledge channel pero waley! Ayaw niya. Ewan ko ba! I can't remember having difficulty with the language. I can still remember my college classmates asking me how come Im very good in "tagalog" na walang accent knowing iba talaga ang accent nang mga hiligaynon. Maybe because nung time namin, maraming worthy panoorin na "tagalog" shows for kids such as Batibot and even TVJ movies me sense. Sana ibalik ang Batibot noh?

[Nuriko]

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. 

fobbish pala yung tawag dun. may natutunan ako sayo.  sa totoo lang, hindi lang accent ang halata, pati yung choice of words. Philippine English kasi ang gamit natin dito, hindi American English. yung pag e-english ng mga pilipino eh patterned pa rin sa tagalog kaya kitang kita kung sino yung talagang native english speaker at yung pinoy inglesero na dito sa pinas natuto mag english

kaya kung ako tatanungin, tutal dito lang naman kami sa pinas nakatira eh tagalog na talaga ang ituturo ko kasi dun ako bihasa. at saka gusto ko yung anak ko eh master na master ang pag tatagalog dahil pilipino sya. at isa pa, marami akong mapapamanang malalim na salita dahil purong tagalog ako, pati punto ko medyo luma. tipong amaya. hehe. matututo naman sya mag english sa ayaw man nya o sa gusto dahil puro english na rin naman yung nasa paligid natin. nga lang, ayoko na english ang first language nya

minsan nawi-weirdohan na nga ako kasi yung mga bata ngayon ini-slang yung tagalog nila parang ganito : "muh-nohng, para po dzan sa tabeh" imbes na simpleng "manong para po dyan sa tabi."

naalala ko yung mom ko dun sa kwento mo tungkol sa anak mo. english teacher kasi mom ko tapos meron daw sya estudyanteng galing US. lagi daw umiiyak yung bata sa klase kasi di raw masyado maintindihan yung tinuturo. tapos pag nililinaw nya raw sa bata eh alam naman pala nya yung topic tapos ang sabi daw ng bata "why do you make things hard for me?" hahah. eh yung mom ko mahusay mag english. bat da prablem is her aksent is beri tik. hehe

[swtgrl_bee]

Sis Nuriko natawa naman ako sa example mo. Tulad din ito ng mga lugar dito sa Pinas, Ilow Ilow Mekete etc. Kakaloka yung iba.

Bilingual anak ko, pero Filipino ang unang wika niya. Nung nagkaroon kami ng cable ayun natuto ng mag English, sa school nila bilingual din halos lahat. Kagandahan nito, kapag may kumausap sa kanya ng Tagalog sasagot siya ng Tagalog. Kapag English, English din naman ang sagot niya.

[Rezzia]

ako, i think I have no choice, Bristish yung dad ng baby ko, as much as syempre gusto ko sya tagalugin, I have to make sure that in the long run magkakaintindihan sila ng dad nya, what I worry kasi is if i mix talking to her in tagalog and english baka pag nagusap sila mag taglish si baby, hindi sya maiintidhan ni dad nya.

however, i would really like her to learn tagalog too, syempre I have my relatives din naman so baka unfair na english lang yung alam nung bata, thoug, particulary ako, hindi ako fluent sa tagalog kasi first language sa bahay is english, mas updated kami sa US series kesa sa soap opera sa local channels. So bahala na. hehe

[DV]

...kinailangan ko pa gumamit ng dictionary para maintindihan yung ibang words. tapos wala rin naman matinong tagalog dictionary.

Meron na po: UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino. Available in National Bookstore and UP Press. P650 na lang yata ngayon.

fobbish pala yung tawag dun. may natutunan ako sayo.  sa totoo lang, hindi lang accent ang halata, pati yung choice of words.

Fobbish came from FOB, meaning Fresh Off the Boat, describing Asian immigrants (their lifestyle, broken English, etc) in the US. It is/was actually derogatory/politically incorrect, but has become a commonly used, acceptable term.

[sarsingkit]

^Not here in Canada or at least where I am in Canada. It is still not acceptable. Racist term pa rin.

[DV]

^That's good... I mean it's good that it's not an acceptable term in Canada.

[KVsWahmmy]

My kid can only speak English from around 1-3 years old. But, before we enrolled her to big school, we made sure she would also be comfortable speaking in Tagalog. Now that she's five, she may not be very fluent in speaking Tagalog just yet, but she can definitely carry on a conversation using the language. She also effortlessly expresses herself in English when you talk to her in English. And this early, I make it a point to correct pronunciation and grammar lapses, para bata pa lang alam na nya ang tamang paggamit.

[archimom]

Right now, hubby and I are having a hard time to teach my 2 sons (ages 6 and 5) na mag-Tagalog. Their first language is English then Mandarin. They're enrolled in a Chinese school so pati friends nila English-Mandarin ang mas alam na languages.

We hired a tutor for them, kasi nahihirapan na yung eldest ko sa Filipino subject nya. And lately sinasanay na rin namin sila kausapin in Tagalog.

[oreo08]

The problem here in the Philippines is in our system of education, majority of textbooks eh written in English.  Kahit gustuhin mo purong tagalog ang ituro sa anak mo hindi maaari. Mihihirapan na maka adopt ang bata sa school lessons.  Ewan ko ba, dito sa asia tayo Lang yata ang ganito.

Exactly. That's why it is important that the kids are comfortable in English. Paano cya sasagot ng Math problem if instruction pa lang given in English eh hindi na maintindihan?

I don't think this should really matter because they can learn English the same time they learn Math naman right?

Anyway, my daughter will attend school very, very soon and I'm actually more worried about her forgetting the Filipino language. I'm not worried about how she will cope in an English speaking environment at all. Kids are like sponges and no doubt, she will pick it up without any effort.

Kami ng Mum ko sa bahay, nauubusan na ng Tagalog halos kasi lahat talaga kelangan tagalog. Bawal inglesin ang anak ko sa bahay at talagang very sensitive ang ears ko dyan. Konting "come to Lola", kahit "yes", bawal!!! 

Anyway, this will pay off in the end kasi my daughter will be proud that she's bilingual at the very least. My brother in law, hubby's youngest brother, can barely speak and understand Filipino. They moved here when he was 3. He never learned because, his parents never made the effort to teach him. They only conversed in English and they just didn't push it. He wishes he can learn, so now I'm teaching our daughter, it's given him a chance to practice

[mei-mei]

From day 1, have one person speak to the child in English then the other in Tagalog. If done strictly and consistently, the child will be fluent at both.

You can even add other languages or dialects basta no fail na yun ang gamit ng isang tao sa bata.

Yes, this is the best method. I have a friend who lives in a French-speaking environment. We've read testimonies of kids speaking 3-5 languages of trained properly. So she talks to her kid in Tagalog, her husband talks to her in English, and the kid learns French in school and with playmates. So voila, fluent ang kid in all 3 languages! Sabi nga nila, do not underestimate kids' language learning abilities. Their brains are like sponges, they can absorb languages very easily. Once they're grown up na, it'll be harder to teach them new languages.

[oreo08]

^that's what some of my friends are doing too. Chinese sila and they speak to their child in Mandarin when they're together. Sa school, English. Yung isa naman Japanese wife, Aussie hubby. The wife speaks to their son in Japanese, English naman si hubby... so ayun, fluent yung mga bata sa 2 language.

I think talagang tyaga lang eh. Basta ako, sinabi ko na matututo anak ko ng Filipino and I will make sure of that. Ineenglish sya ng mga in laws ko, and everytime may english word silang nababanggit, my hubby and I would simply say "Mag Tagalog pls"