do you/would you raise your kids in English?

I am a chines and I am not married yet.I self have learned English for quite a long time andI find it very importan to master this languge.I will enable my kids to pick up it in daily life and this will save them a lot of trouble.

I would prefer to raise my children speaking in our native language. It is very important for them to know and study their native language. Imagine my child playing with our neighbors speaking another language.. my child would be an outcast. So i better teach him/her first our own languange. English can be thier second language anyway. Or any language they want to learn. Just an addition, studying english here in our country is not a big problem. All schools here have an english subject in thier curriculum. From nursery, kinder to universities. So in general most people living here can speak and understand english well.

My kids speaks english since they were small as their nanny only speaks english. I found it useful as english is not taken seriously in schools here and my kids were at an advantage when they are in the workforce as they are working for international firms and the medium of communication are all in english.

Yes, of course I will raise my kids in English as my father did to me. Eventhough my father was poor, he sent us to English medium schools. It was too expensive for him. The English education I had during school helped me to make a good base in English language. Thanks for posting the discussion. It got me an opportunity to thank my father.

Yes we really have too since hubby and i are of different nationality so for our future kids, if God's will, we will raise them up speaking English as the main language and secondary language as Tagalog and Hindi. I think this will be better for us, because if they speak my native tongue, hubby won't understand them, or vice versa. So for us, it will be normal to raise them using the international language.

i would definately train my children in English.. they should be able to take english as their first language and the rest can follow but english is very essential

Yes English is important to deal internationally, but the values of mother tongue is also important to lead personal life.

Yes I think so My father is a teacher and has taught me to speak English since I was kid. The Catholic school where I graduated has "English Only Policy" except in our Filipino class. This has become one of my success keys to work in multi-international companies and my previous bosses has told me that I speak English very fluent like a native speaker even on the phone.

hi there :) before answering your discussion i read first your blog, and yeah it's nice i agree- when it comes to this, as if it's the "Gods" of all the languages. anyways... i do have a kid now (3 year old smart boy :)) he speaks Filipino and one word to sentence English terms, (actually he got it in barney, dorah/diego, sesame and lots of foreign cartoon series) it will be an advantage if kids can speak both- but we prioritize Filipino language (we taught him to say the magic words of "po" and "opo", it's good to hear when a kid utters those words ) in his stage he can't afford to absorb Filipino and English, and i know he can learn it from school- develop and improve it. :) thanks!:) happy myLotting!;) Godabless!0=)

Hi there. Well, English was the first language that my parents taught me as a child and I could see learning English first off to be more of an advantage rather than a disadvantage. I actually learned Filipino in Kindergarten but just because I needed to in order to make friends and stuff. (I initially didn't have any friend aside from the kids of the parents my Mom hang out with back then.) Being used to speaking in English helped me perform well academically since most subjects are, after all, taught in English. Knowing how to express myself rather well in English also helped boost my self-confidence, for some reason. So yes, when I do have kids of my own to raise, I'd prefer to teach them English as their first language.

I raised my son using English as his first language. We spoke to him in English even when he was still in my womb. I am a Science and certified TESOL teacher and I'm frustrated that a lot of the Filipino youth nowadays speak English poorly. Besides, when a child goes to school and has interactions with the other kids, he'll be able to pick up the other languages. My son can speak 3 languages yet he is able to speak English well which is usually lost when it is not the first langauge used.

Yes raising kids with english language is important as it has usage internationally. But with that our mother tongue is also important as it binds us well with our own people.

Hi, I don't have any kids right now. But I'm still thinking about that. May parent's in law are Chinese, so they have been saying if when we have kids, they will want it to go to Chinese school and learn Chinese, so that they can communicate easily with their cousins and mostly of their relatives. For me, it is ok since they need to study it, coz most of their families are mostly Chinese. But I want also to have my kids learn English as their secondary language. I think nowadays, English Speaking is very useful in our daily lives and I think they must learn English when they are still young so they can develop it very well. But I don't know to plan it, coz in the meantime I don't kids right now. Maybe there will be change when I'm in that situation. Thanks for the discussion.

Mother tongue goes first. Addional, child can learn more than one language. As far as i know, learning another language is helpful in exploring brain. So i would raise my kid in both mother tongue and english.

I realize that there are perhaps eight or nine major languages spoken in the Philippines. I do think that it is nice to raise your children in the language that you have in your area. That way your children can speak to their relatives; however, it is also nice to know English. Computers and so much else is in in English not Tagalog. If I may say so, you know English very well. Did you learn English in college?

We only speak English, so we have naturally raised our children to speak English.

Hubby and I don't have a child yet (hopefully this year!) but we have started discussing things about child rearing. Like, where we want our kids to go to school, how we want them to be raised, etc. And yes, we have discussed this question too. Since English is a universl language, we acknowledge the fact that learning how to speak and write in English will open more opportunities. But we will never discount the fact that Filipino is our mother tongue. Thus, we have agreed that we will raise our child/children in both languages. If he/she speaks English fluently, the more that he/she must speak Filipino fluently.

The scenario here is that a presents who do not know how to read the ABCD in English too are after educating their child in English medium school. They are the opinion that their siblings would emerge smart and and procure a job easily. But they are the prey to th the false notion. I have admitted my son who is in standard 2 in a vernacular school where English is taught as second language and the teaching pattern is too poor, but the good thing for him is that I can check his reading spelling and pronunciation and now he understand English and speaks a little bit too. I am sure he would no=t find it difficult to cultivate English later too. Let us see.

I would raise the kid with the mother tongue of my country. But I would make sure that she learns English well as it is important for her future.

I think at present english becomes an international language so its better understanding and usage is very importent for our child. But we should give the weighteg to our mother tounge becouse we feel conceptually strong when we deal in our mother toung. So we should try to emphasis on english but mother tounge must be on priority.