MomSpeak

Why parents should teach their kids Filipino

12:26 am | Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

During a recent trip abroad, the kids and I found ourselves in a park playing on the swings and slides like we always do.

Before I knew it, Adriana found herself a new playmate in the form of a 4-year-old Spanish girl who knew not a word of English. Meanwhile, my 3-year-old’s Spanish didn’t go beyond “Hola!” so I wondered how that encounter would go. Funnily enough, they got along just fine. The language barrier proved inconsequential as their laugher rang out, loud and clear.

They figured out ways to communicate on the essentials such as where to play next, whose turn it was and calling attention to themselves when they wanted the other to watch what she was doing. When it was time for us to go, Adriana cried out “Ba-bye!” while the other happily waved back with a matching “Adios!”

It was adorable to watch them and it got me thinking about language. Actually, it got me thinking about one language in particular, our mother tongue, Filipino.

I remembered a conversation I had in a children’s party with a number of friends about speaking Tagalog and the overwhelming consensus was that all the parents could speak it fluently but for some reason, many of their children were having difficulty with it.

We wondered about what was causing this. Did our parents speak to us in more Filipino than parents do to their children today? Or was it because we grew up during a time when Pong Pagong of “Batibot” was just as popular as Elmo of “Sesame Street” is today? “Mara Clara” was on TV every day as well and my friends and I all rooted for Clara because Mara was too much of a pushover though we all cried for Juday [Judy Ann Santos] when Gladys [Reyes] would prove to be too much.

Let me tell you, the new “Mara Clara” didn’t have anything on the original duo. And then of course, there was Little Miss Philippines on “Eat Bulaga” which I watched religiously as a child and where I honed my Tagalog as I practiced my own “Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat….” spiel with the matching wave.

Sadly, my parents never allowed me to join despite my constant pleas. There go my childhood issues!

Seriously, though, what is going on with Filipino and some kids today? There seems an increase in the number of children, who while speaking English fluently, can’t muster up more than a few sentences in Tagalog.

It seems that English is being given priority by a number of parents while Filipino is left in the dust under the assumption that the children will learn it on their own. Except that they don’t.

Unforgivable, unthinkable

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not assailing the importance of learning and mastering English and other languages that parents choose to teach their children. It would be foolish to pretend that we don’t need them and the great advantages they give. But in my view, it would be unforgivable if in the process of learning other tongues, Filipino is tossed aside and forgotten.

Can you imagine meeting a French woman in Paris who cannot speak her native tongue? Sacre bleu! Or a Spaniard who speaks English yet stumbles through his Spanish? That would be unthinkable for them. Why can’t it be the same for us?

Failing to teach our children Filipino is more than just taking away their opportunity to communicate in a language that is filled with so much beauty in the passion, complexity and affection of its words.

We have such a long and amazing history of courage and valor in the face of oppression. We have survived numerous calamities through sheer determination and tenacity. We have proven time and again that everyone is a true hero in our readiness to serve and help our fellow countrymen during the many disasters that have struck us. And who can doubt the ability of the Filipino to be truly world-class when we see the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Lea Salonga, Charise and many others, wowing audiences world wide?

What better way to stand tall and be proud of all that we are than through the mastery of Filipino? Our nation’s language is a like a beautiful collection of everything that we are as a people; in it we find our battle scars, quirks and traditions. Let us not give it up so quickly and readily.

We are Filipinos living in the Philippines. Not being able to speak our mother tongue, or at the very least giving it the appreciation and respect it deserves, is like a slap on our country’s face. And sadly, not by someone who comes from distant shores but by someone who should be the first to love it.

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Tags: Audrey Tan-Zubiri , Little Miss Philippines , parenting tips , Spanish encounter

Anonymous

Children can and will learn two languages if they are sufficiently exposed to them. This is a fact, proven over by many longitudinal studies conducted on bilinguals.

Parents, do not let your children suffer the humiliation of living in the Philippines knowing only English, or worse, getting stuck in that awful place of being poor in both English and Filipino. Let them be richly exposed to Filipino and English, concurrently. You may be worrying, “But won’t they get confused, or end up Taglishing all the time?” NO. As long as you speak in straight Filipino or English, and not intermingling them all the time when they’re around, they’ll end up learning and using both well. Model the languages properly and well, and they’ll end up learning them well, too.

Don’t be like those parents who banish Filipino in favor of English in their households, only to begrudgingly catch up because their kids end up failing in their Filipino subjects at school. We’re perhaps the only country in the world who does not seem to be proud of learning our own language first, and learning it well. A sad reflection of our national psyche.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SHKBBO273I7GMSQTA4ZWLZCG3U Max

A filipino is a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines, he is a human being. A filipino speaks bisaya, ilonggo, ilokano, kamayo, gutgut, tagalog etc. To equate filipino with tagalog is a highest form of ignorance. My native tongue is bisaya not tagalog or ‘filipino’ those who advocates and praises blindly that ‘filipino’ or tagalog MUST be spoken are dividing this country to shreds, and we will NEVER be united if Imperial Manila insist that ‘filipino’ or tagalog must be the ONLY language or dialect that we speak. Let’s stop this stupidity.

Toxic Waste

And what do you think is the language/dialect that can unify us? Tagalog is one of Phil major dialect and it so happen that it becomes our national and probably “unifying” language (or dialect). There must be only one language in the Philippines that can unify us and I can say it is Tagalog. Speaking tagalog does not mean forgetting your “native’ tongue. Speaking Tagalog shouldn’t only be insisted, it should be put into law. I dont mind kung iba-iba relihiyon natin or polical belief na dahilan ng di natin pagkakaisa pero at least man lang meron tayong iisang lenguahe na lahat tayo nagkakainitindihan. BTW, im also Bisaya.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SHKBBO273I7GMSQTA4ZWLZCG3U Max

’177 likes received’ of course they are ALL tagalog, praising their own, trumpeting the glory of their language looking down or underestimating non-tagalogs. Mga HAMBUGERO KAMO. WAY IJO RESPETO. (You’re all braggart, and unrespectful)
Robert Primicias

A foreigner’s or balikbayan’s attempt to speak filipino is often ridiculed by the locals if they detect a lack of fluency. They will say ‘baluktot ang tagalog nito’. This creates a hesitance to even try and discourages any attempt at speaking the language.

Also filipino is a bit of a ‘mutt’ language since it’s infected with so much english. e.g. ‘male-late ako’.

http://twitter.com/manangdi22 Dinah Balladeo

I disagree, locals appreciate foreigner’s attempt in speaking tagalog. It is those balikbayans and their kids who pretends not to know taglaog anymore and when they speak tagalog, they have this accent tha tis irritating to the locals.
Anonymous

Probably your own view, sir.

And ‘male-late ako’? Don’t worry. Languages go through that all the time. If it stayed the same, it would be like Latin, dead and static.

English itself has changed a lot over the past hundreds of years. Even during the 20th century, English underwent drastic changes. So no need to say Filipino is a ‘mutt’ for it is not.

Robert Primicias

If there’s a tagalog equivalent, then filipinos should use it but they have a tendency to just use the english word. So I still think filipinos themselves are ‘muttifying’ the language.

More examples:

organized = in-organize // taking drugs = nagda-drugs // will enroll/I enrolled = mag-e-enrol/in-enrol // pregnancy labor = pagle-labor // going to library = pagla-library // gave combat training = pinag-combat training // car-jacking = nagka-carjack // will install = i-install // to classify = i-classify // share = mag-share (mag-ambagan) // network = naka-network // export = ine-export // will be in college = magka-college // will play video games = magbi-video games // debate = makipag-debate // before the deadline = bago mag-deadline // rally = mag-rally // endorse = mag-endorse, i-endorse, nag-e-endorse // control = ma-control // enable = i-enable // set = i-set // will offer = mag-o-offer // apologize = mag-apologize // extend = ma-extend // considering = kino-consider // overdose = na-overdose // representing = nagre-represent // took an uppercut = in-uppercut (as in boxing) // donate = magdo-donate // schedule = ini-skedule // underestimate = in-underestimate // tolerating = tino-tolerate.
Anonymous

This is not in any way indicative of Filipino in general, at least not yet. And I mean for the entire Philippines.

I believe some studies are underway on this phenomenon, but so far, this seems limited to urbanized centers, and undoubtedly started in the Greater Manila area. You can perhaps call it the “Manila dialect” of Filipino, although this is still up for contention, since nobody seems to have tried to identify what exactly is the “Manila dialect” yet. The spread? No doubt media has to do with it, since it is an influential register. And since Manila controls the levers of power (media, government, commerce), it is not surprising that this morphological phenomenon has taken root in other places in our country as well.

It may be a product of our bilingual education which places heavy emphasis on the use of English, especially at work and at school. Or perhaps the Filipino diaspora. Don’t quote me on this, though. This is at best hypotheses.

Again, I don’t really think its “muttifying” the language. You’re welcome and entitled to that belief. Many others before you have similarly decried the way language changes over time, but in any case, change is welcome, as it tells us Filipino will continue to evolve and grow. This is not up for contention, since whether we like it or not, this will inevitably continue to take place, because language is a reflection and a product of a people at a particular time and place in history. If this is what suits us and our needs at a particular point in time, then so be it. Language is like that.

Remember, if languages stayed the same, we’ll probably be still speaking in Ye Olde English, and French, Italian, and other European languages will likely continue sounding more Gaulic than Roman (or Latin-ized, if you’re being pedantic.)

Emil

Why aren’t these articles about the Filipino language written in Tagalog?

In any case, just because one opts to speak in a foreign tongue does not mean one stops being for his country. It’s not what language you use, rather the message and for whom you say them. The point is to be able to communicate and get your meaning across. It just so happens that we live in a world that deems English the medium of communication; and being the interconnected sphere of relations that we are, conformity is inevitable lest we become divided.

The thing that makes the one-language for the world rule such a dangerous concept is that with language comes culture. You imbibe a culture through their language, and that makes it such a powerful tool for domination and manipulation. Our generation has never known a world that was not ruled by the West. If we wish to maintain our identity, which is what I assume these articles are screaming, we need only not forget. It is possible that a Filipino who’s fluent in his native tongue does not necessarily feel strongly for the Filipino as a whole; while a foreigner who’s grown to love the Filipino may be considered even more for the Filipino than the people themselves.
http://twitter.com/venissimo Divine Lim

“Why aren’t these articles about the Filipino language written in Tagalog?”
HAHA. Just as I thought.
Anonymous

There are some factual errors in this article. I’m not sure if this is due to gross ignorance or intentional. She assumed that Filipino and Tagalog are synonymous, hence she believes that Tagalog is the national language of the Philippines. That is a problematic assumption, full of contradictions if we base our definition of Filipino language on the constitution. She also implied that Tagalog is the mother tongue of all Filipinos. This one is absolute non-sense and has no basis in fact whatsoever! The Philippines has more than 170 languages (not dialects!) and Tagalog is the mother tongue of only 29% of Filipinos based on the 2000 NSO census. By the way, my mother tongue is Tagalog but I speak Bikol as my second language and English, third. Mutilingualism and multiculturalism are now the accepted ways of things internationally.

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