would you teach your kid to speak in english or tagalog?

if i have my way, i will exert effort at making my child speak in english at the very start. when they start to listen to local tv, and talk with children and other people around us, they will learn about tagalog. however, if i am living in another country, i will exert effort at making my child speack tagalog at the very start. then, when they listen to local tv and, talk with children and other people around us, they will learn the language of the country where we are in. there is nothing wrong about our kids learning how to speak english well. i have trained my kids to be english-tagalog speaking while they were very young, they were confined then to the four corners of our home. now, they are good at cebuano also. they have learned the skill from their playmates and classmates once they attended school. you are making me think now, does this mean that from where you live, none of the neighbors speak tagalog? and that in school, none of the classmates speak tagalog either?

I will teach them both... Its up to them which language will they use, after all they have their own decisions we don't do all the decisions for them. In how I see it they will adapt on who they are talking to and what language, for example he is talking to his friend in Filipino language... I'm sure he will use Filipino and if he is talking to American he will use English simple as that.

I think it is important for kids to be taught thier mother language all the time, may be another language such as English, French, Spanish or anything else as a second language. There are so many children not able to speak the language of the Country where they where born these days for another language. Yes I am English! But I am behind you on this one. All languages no matter where they originate should be equall Lynn-Marie

i would do what our parents did for us. they didn't set up a rule of english speaking only while we were growing up, but instead exposed us to english movies or television shows. this way, we were able to learn good english without forsaking our national language. ask mom.. you'll learn a lot!

once i get married and have children i will teach them the filipino and english language..filipino because it's our language in the philippines and english because it is a worldwide language so that they will be able to talk foreigners too....

at my age, I will definitely teach my child both language and they must be eloquent in speaking them. Tagalog is easier for Filipinos to speak but then again, English has been a part of our daily lives considering that it is accepted worldwide.

My son learned the English language first before learning tagalog words. I really do not know why we first taught him english words than taalog. I guess it was because of the influence that my brother in law who taught their children to speak English. But if I was to decide what to teach our child I would choose our native tongue than English. WE have realized that he might get it harder to learn tagalog later on so we started huim as early as possible to learn speaking tagalog. Now my son is somewhat bilingual I just hope he would not get confused with it when he starts to go to school.

I used to kid my husband about this..if ever we'll have kids, don't talk to them in tagalog, speak english so they would learn it as early as possible..and he would glady agree..yes I won't talk to them in tagalog..I'll speak Visayan..hehe! My point is that, kids will learn tagalog eventually because of thier sorroundings..of course it would be a diffrent situation where you lived in..like if you're living abroad..they would not learn tagalog around neighborhood right? For my kids, I'll teach them English and will use English as our main language at home, outside, people will talk to them in tagalog so that would make them both efficient in English and Tagalog.

Although I was born and raised in the Philippines, I was considered an "alien" here. My nationality is Spanish-Chinese. In US, you are automatically a US citizen when you was born there. Its not the same thing here. In all honesty, the government has already robbed us "alien" a lot of money. So you see, eemee, Philippines is not even a country I can called my own. I am not fluent in tagalog. I studied in Chinese school. I speak Chinese with my parents and English with my friends. Right now, I speak pure English with my two little ones. It isn't that we are ashamed of Tagalog. But for the simple reason that Philippines is not our country.

I think you're right about how some of us might reject tagalog language. I think you should teach both and use tagalog often than english but also make sure that they are proficient in english.

I tried to teach my kid speak in English when she was a little one and she did speak quite a lot and understand English well at that time, but after she went to kindergarden and found other boys and girls speak in other language, she refused to speak english anymore. and now she most of the time speaks in local dialect.

Yes indeed it is very sad to know that our language is now given low priority by not just the people, but even also the government. The priority given to English now is sadly not for any other reason than employment and comprehension. But we never see the full effects it does on culture. Right now we see people having difficulty speaking a thorough Tagalog, or compose a completely Tagalog paragraph with the right grammar. Me? I will teach my kids only at home, when I know that he will learn Tagalog well in school. But I will warn him to use only Tagalog when speaking conversationally with fellow Filipinos. I think it is necessary that we teach them as many language when they are young because that is the time that they are fully adaptable. But I will still give Tagalog its due importance by forcing him or her to speak it with other people.

of course i would teach them english,but i love tagalog so i'm confused right now hehe!

If I could strike a balance of the two languages, it would be better. I don't think kids today speak less of the language. When I was in high school, it was tagalog all the time, unless we're speaking to a teacher or something. Students of our school are kind of known to be poor in English. Haha. So this time in college, I got overwhelmed because people all around speak English ALL THE TIME! It was kind of intimidating. But they had a hard time in our Filipino subjects. I don't think people treat tagalog as low and cheap... do they? I don't know. Maybe some people do yeah. What's more irritating is that some people try hard to be "sosi" (part of the high-end crowd) so they try to speak English but they fail to speak it straight. So they go into a taglish (half tagalog-half english)mode. Which they think is so cool. They think they're so "in". If I could, I will balance the two languages. Hopefully, they grow up being fluent in both. :)

I resolved not to let my children forget their racial and cultural heritage even though I would give them the liberty to learn other languages and use them outside the home. When they come home, all of us speak in Cantonese and Mandarin both to ourselves and to relatives. I understand the usefulness of other languages, especially English in business and social circles but we mingle with friends who speak nothing else but Chinese so my children get the best of both worlds - a mastery of other languages but not forgetting their mother tonque which also opens the door to other things like cultural pursuits and understanding what heritage means.

My kids will always know Tagalog because its our own language. Likewise i want them to be fluent in english because its the international language. Both languagae are important for kids to know and understand. At home they can speak the language they prefer. I love speaking tagalog to my friends, i also love english especially if work requires it. English i believe was given more priority because a lot of people may know how to speak the english language but not fluent. In dealing with other countries and foreigners, english is the key to communicate properly, in a way thats the reason why it is our second language. For some who thinks that tagalog is Low and Cheap, its sad to know that they are not proud of their own country. I did encounter at one time a girl who said that tagalog is the worst language in the world. I found her very offending but i didn't mind it be its her opinion. It is really disappointing having a Filipino like her.

i would really try to teach my son English first. its not a bad thing to teach them english first since its a universal language.

In my country (canada) the primary language is English. I live in Ontario but I want my son to learn French. He will be taught this in school because in Canada at school the children learn both French and English. Most kids only take enough French to get a passing grade and then by the time they are out of school they forget it. I would love for my son to become Bilingual and know both languages. I have penpals and it has always amazed me how they can speak 4, 5, even 6 different languages fluently. I can only speak english and enough french to get me by. I would love for my son to know many different languages but I am not going to press it upon him. As a side note, about 100-200 years ago when the English folk here in Canada were taking it over from the Native peoples they took the native children away to Christian schools and made them learn and speak English (horrible I know). These children would get whipped and beat if they spoke their native languages. Now over the years most native peoples here have lost the ability to speak or even remember words from their native languages. There are all kinds of programs out there for people to learn these native langauges again because we are know trying to preserve them as part of our countries history. There is even a school (I think in Manitoba, but not sure about that) where the government has allowed this school to teach their kids in their native language of Mohawk. I think this is a wonderful idea that the kids get their teachings in their native languages. I hope that we in Canada never lose the complete use of so much of this history and cutlure. It truly is a shame that back 100 years ago my ancestors did such horrible things to the native peoples of Canada.

My daughter used to speak in english because we always play barney when she was still small.She became Barney's fan then.She can express her self in english well rather than tagalog she is now four and can even speak tagalog.If you could notice that there is a slogan about speaking in english.I can't remember but its a universal language.

i would teach my kid my mother tongue then when he comes in school he will automatically get use to english language also. i woul;d also teach english also