Help! How to TEACH MY KID TAGALOG

[eekai]

We started talking to our daughter English since day one, thinking she'd learn Filipino from family, friends and school.

She was almost 3 y/o when we decided to leave Pinas but by this time, her Tagalog was already almost non-existent.

Call it lazyness on our part but it was just so much easier for us to talk to her in English kasi that's the language she understands. Minsan nakakapagod na to have to repeat and teach in Tagalog so we just talk to her in English instead.

Syempre naman hubby and I are both Pinoys pero my kid no longer seems to be interested in Tagalog. My nieces are also based abroad and when they visit home, naku nga nga talaga sila.

Any tips?

[mommyxthree]

Teach her simple tagalog words repeatedly everyday.
Let her watch tagalog children's shows if any are available.
Or have one parent talk to your child in English and the other will talk to her in tagalog.

Hope this helps!

[ri-anne]

Exposure sis. How do you and your hubby talk to each other at home? English din ba?

Our kids grew up outside pinas so english first language nila. We talk to them in english. But since hubby & i talk to each other in tagalog sa bahay, our kids eventually are able to pick up and understand tagalog words. So now even when i talk to them in tagalog, they'll understand, but they would answer in english.

Exposure lang talaga. Talk to your child in tagalog, and lahat ng sa bahay sana magtagalog din para yun lang naririnig nya. how old is your child? Baka naman your child is too young pa, hintayin mo lang.

[shinies]

Consistency

Kaya ng bata matuto kung ang isang tao eh iisang lengwahe lang gamit sa pakikipagusap sa kanya.

Pili na lang kayo sino sa inyo ni mister ang magtatagalog at sino ang magingles. Tapos kailangan ang pagsagot ng bata eh kung aling lengwahe ang ginamit sa kanya.

Kaso, kailangan niyo ng pasensya lalo kung sanay kayo mismo na ingles na lang kasi nakakapagod..

[belle_v2g]

My son moved overseas in 2014. He doesn't speak English at all but eventually got used to it since he's enrolled in Kinder, tapos he went to prep and now he's in year 1. Dati marunong pa sya ng kapampangan. Never ko naman yan pinaturuan ng English nung nasa pinas pa sya. Tagalog kami lagi sa bahay, pati dito. now he only answers in english. Nasanay kase sa school lalo na mag isa lang syang pinoy doon. Pero may kondisyon kami, we told him that he's not coming with us when we have our holidays in manila pag di sya nagtatagalog. Ayun, nagsstart na ulit sya.

[happie]

If sanay na sya sa english, honing your daughter's english will be easy later on. Try talking in tagalog in your household and it will force her to learn the language to understand you. If she finds how important for her to learn tagalog, she will be interested.

[daisy_duck]

Same problem here but were not out of the country. My son is comfortable in English and Hiligaynon but super hirap sa Filipino to the point that he hates his Filipino subject. I tried to ask him to watch cartoons in tagalog but ayaw niya. waaaahhh I miss Batibot tuloy coz that's where I learned Filipino. I never had a problem with the language, ewan ko ba sa mga kabataan ngayon even his cousins had difficulty with the Filipino language.

[jowvxyz]

All of my kids (ages 11, 9, 7, 2) were born and raised here in Canada so their first language is English. The older ones are pretty fluent in French too so third language nila is Filipino. What we do is we talk to them in tagalog para ma-familiarize sila sa words kahit basic ones lang and of course gusto namin matuto sila ng "po" "opo" and "lolo/lola/tito/tita/ate/kuya" most of the time they answer back in English but at least they can understand. Whenever we go to Manila for a vacation, pag tinatanong sila kung marunong mag-tagalog, sasagot sila ng "konti lang po" hehe. Natutuwa pa family and friends namin because of their accent.

[[-c-h-a-]]

our 3 yr old daughter can speak Tagalog even better than English (we're in Australia and she goes to preschool 3x a week for an enitre day so she's exposed to the English language quite a lot)... as much as possible, hindi namin sya iniingles sa bahay, and pag english ang salita nya samin, lagi namin sinasabi na di namin naiintindihan so kelangan tagalog sya!

I read before kasi na madalas, nakakaintindi lang ang mga bata pero they can't speak the language. Kasi daw it stems from realizing na my parents can understand it naman and they don't enforce me to speak it, so why should I bother? (http://bilingualmonkeys.com/when-your-bilingual-child-wont-speak-your-language/)

From the same website, I also got tips na pati sa songs, books, dapat expose sya. Luckily, madami kami binili na tagalog na libro so we read this to her every night. I also sing mga Tagalog nursery rhymes like tong tong tong pakitong kitong, bahay kubo, ako ay may lobo, pen pen de sarapen etc and she has all these memorized!

Recently lang, she said pumpkin... as usual I pretended di ko naintindihan so I said Tagalog baby... and she said kalabasa. Her Dad who was in our bedroom overheard and exclaimed hindi ko alam yun a! Ang galing! (my husband now too can speak better Tagalog than when I first met him so 2 natututo haha)

I've personally taken it a challenge... a lot of discouraging comments like oh pag nagschool yan, mawawala rin pagtatagalog nyan. Okay, sige I take that as a challenge so I told my husband na WHEN she grows up fluently speaking in Tagalog, it'll be my achievement moreso than my daughter herself! Kasi mahirap naman talaga esp since tito at tita nya di marunong magtagalog... and the only other native Tagalog/Filipino speakers around (my brother, SIL, my husband's parents and grandmother), ineenglish din sya minsan! Hayyy...

[daisy_duck]

Problem ko talaga to sa Grade 1 ko. He has difficulty with the language talaga and nahihirapan din akong magtutor sa kanya sa Filipino and Araling Panlipunan kasi hindi niya talaga naiintindihan. Ayaw din niyang manuod nang tagalog cartoons. Any parents here living outside of Luzon na hirap din ang mga anak nila sa Filipino?

[hushush]

I have a preschool kid na hindi din marunong magtagalog dati. Then prep na sya ngayon.last year naforsee ko nang mahihirapan sya sa filipino subject nya kung hindi sya matututo.kaya lang kahit anong turo ko indi naman nya maabsorb yun tinuturo ko..then nitong summer bago sya mag-prep ay nagbakasyon kami sa mga pinsan nya.madami kasi sya pinsan.at madami din mga bata syang nakalaro na tagalog speaking..dun sya nag-umpisa magkainteres matuto.ako naman opportunity na yun sakin para turuan sya.so everyday, i would randomly give him a tagalog lesson.nag-umpisa lang sa mga pasimple. Like sentence construction.pronouns..medyo mabusisi din mga pinagdaanan namin at ayoko na balikan.then sa umpisa nakakairita sya magtagalog like "nagkumain ako ng food". Laging may "nag" o "mag" like "magliligo ako sa cr". Kapag ganun kinokorek ko talaga sya kahit paulit ulit at nakakaumay na.pero tinyaga ko na lang.kasi kung hahayaan ko magiging katawa tawa ang pagtatagalog nya.until now may instances na baliko pa rin ang pananagalog nya at minsan pag may nagtatanong sa kanya minsan hindi sya makasagot then iinglesin ko naman para maintindihan nya.then dun ko na ulit sya lelecturan para next time may magtanong alam nya isasagot. Nevertheless, when it comes to Filipino subject ay wala sya problema.may pagkakataon na napeperfect pa nya exams nya at daig pa nya yun iba nya kaklase na matatas sa tagalog..7mos pa lang sya nag-aaral ng tagalog pero masasabi ko na malaki-laki na din ang inimprove nya. Tyaga lang mga sis...yun maliit na inputs kapag lagi mo iniinputan yun bata magugulat ka na lang sa result..

[pandalicious]

Yung sister ko born and raise sa US, 14 na siya ngayon pero marunong magtagalog, nakakaintindi at nakakapag-salita. Ang ginawa ng mama ko tagalog lang talaga sila pag nasa bahay, pati pinapanood sa tv tfc madalas. Nung mas bata pa siya mas magaling siya magtagalog, no accent at all, nung nag-middle school naging slang na, siguro dahil mas mahaba na yung oras niya sa school na puro english lang. Actually sa kanya ko narealize na mahirap nga pala ang tagalog kesa english. Hindi ko ma-explain nung tinanong ako ano pinagkaiba ng lumalakad sa naglalakad, bakit nagkaiba sila eh isa lang meaning Minsan naman nung nasa greenhills kami tanong siya ng tanong, ilan ito? Yun pala ibig niya sabihin magkano, marami nga palang pwedeng tagalog translation ang how much.

[Shadow Angel]

nasa tummy ko pa lang si baby now pero iniisip ko na to. kailangan ko na rin turuan si hubby magtagalog. Pero gusto nya primary language ng baby namin french then english then tagalog. Sabi nya sa labas french inside house english gamit so saan ko isisinggit ang tagalog conversation.Wala pa ako nakikilalang bata dito na marunong magtagalog I feel sad kapag naiisip ko baby ko baka hindi rin matuto ng tagalog.

[sarsingkit]

^Ako din. Sana marunong magtagalog anak namin. Our plan is to teach tagalog sa bahay and then English sa friends sa school. Luckily, French immersion yung school near our place so at least the kid will learn French sa school din.

[Shadow Angel]

^agree naman ako kay hubby na most important sa place namin ang french and english language. Hindi naman sya tutol na magtagalog si baby yun nga lang pinag iisip na nya ako ng way paano matuto sa way na gusto ko.

[jowvxyz]

My 11-year old son is being bullied in school by his Filipino classmates because he could not speak Tagalog, he understands the language naman but no matter what I do he is having a hard time to speak Tagalog because he was born & raised here in Canada and his second language is French. Sabi daw ng mga classmates nya eh Filipino sya kaya dapat mag-tagalog. Kung hindi sya magta-tagalog, hindi daw nila kakaibiganin, sobra sobra pa yung mga bata kasi minumura yung son ko as in P.I. daw, meaning daw nun ??ouŕe nice?. I transferred him nalang to another school because dun talaga sa catholic school outnumbered yung English-speaking because sa dami ng FIlipinos.

[[-c-h-a-]]

Our daughter is now 4 yrs old, turning 5 this year... she goes to preschool 4 days a week na since last year. Medyo napapadalas na nageenglish sya sa bahay pero we gently remind her na Tagalog kami dapat maguusap. She's actually very proud she can speak 2 languages... nakukuwento samin ng teacher nya

Frustrated pa rin ako kasi my in laws (like I previously mentioned, the only other native Tagalog speakers around her) talagang iniingles sya. So kami ni hubby, super vigilant and I get my husband talaga to say "Tagalog!" pag magkakasama kami and they're talking to her in English.

Nakakatawa minsan when their friends are over. They're amazed because magaling magtagalog daughter namin and yun sa kanila daw hindi. So I ask how come hindi natuto? So reasons here and there... and they say, dahil daw kay Lolo and Lola kaya marunong magtagalog anak namin. LOL *snort* yeah right... my in laws were quiet lang. Buti hubby ko spoke up and said "No way!! It's all us! They speak to her in English all the time!"

She'll be starting school na talaga next year so we'll have to work harder para di nya makalimutan yun Tagalog nya. Eto yun sinasabi nila kasi samin paulit ulit na makakalimutan nya yan pag nagschool sya. we shall see...

[MRSlosingweight]

Hi. How are you coping with this? Saw this post was in 2016 pa

I have 2 kids of my own and we are facing the same issue. My son, who is now 8 y/o, rarely speaks Tagalog as he was born and raised here in New Zealand. He can understand some words but would answer back in english. We speak to him in Filipino at home, regardless if he answers back in English. That way he could still pick up the words which he can use sentence in the future. He is really trying though. At times, he would say "Mommy, I am sorry I am makulit" or "I finished my water kanina". Those little things matter. I will continue the same technique to his younger sibling who just turned 9 months old last week!

[[-c-h-a-]]

MRSlosingweight, our daughter's also born and raised here in Australia. We have no TFC so all the TV shows she watches are in English. She started going to preschool when she was only 2 years old so she's heavily exposed in the English language talaga.

Like I mentioned in my previous posts, we enforce the Tagalog Only rule when we're together. We don't respond to her when she speaks in English and I pretend I don't understand what she's saying. Usually kasi, napansin ko with Filipino parents, since we're bilingual, hinahayaan natin na in English tayo kausapin (and Tagalog tayo sasagot) kasi naiintindihan naman natin sila. But if they're forced to speak it kasi, edi no choice sila. Matututo talaga silang magTagalog.


"When you bilingual child won't speak your language"
http://bilingualmonkeys.com/when-your-bilingual-child-wont-speak-your-language/

[charmed30]

my 2 year old daughter only  talks to us in english but she knows some filipino words kasi our helper sometimes talk to her in tagalog. we are based overseas kaya medyo challenging i-instill ang mag-tagalog kasi she doesn't respond at all! we are migrating soon in australia so no helper na kami tapos naka childcare/school pa siya most of the days so mas challenging talaga na turuan siya.