How well do you know your local language?

Lately, I have given this a lot of thought when I attempted to study French. Of course for starters we would have to know the proper and formal ways of the language but I am pretty sure that it would sound very ancient to the modern day French speakers. Just as much as formal Visayan (one of the dialects in the Philippines) would sound very awkward when used in common day to day conversations. I wouldn't know how to teach it to a foreigner as well as I am sure there have been many rules violated already and most words we use now are slang. It's funny that our own language/dialect is actually not taught in school. Instead we are taught our national language as well as English. Other schools teach Mandarin. In fact, some children were brought up to speak English so that they could not speak and understand straight Visayan. Some even flunk their Filipino subjects - a study of our own language.

Hi Porcospino, Born in Holland, my native language ought to be Dutch, but at just 5 years old, we moved to Ireland and I had to learn to speak English. The native language here is Irish (Gaeilge) but it is a dying language. Few speak it fluently and even less are willing to learn it in school. It seems to have to be forced upon most students. I learned Irish in school and although the standard at the time was quite good when it came to reading, writing and oral, I simply couldn't hold a conversation in Irish any more these days. English has become my first language and I have a very good grasp of the spelling, grammar and punctuation rules. I'm somewhat obsessive when it comes to the aforementioned. I do understand the rules and know how to put them into practice. A large portion of the Irish themselves don't have a very good grasp on the language and I never understood it as it is taught in school, perhaps not as thoroughly as it should be.

Hi porcospino.. I am a professor in my own language and so i had and have to learn a lot but still cant say that i am 100% perfect in using my local language. As an example where a teacher of mine make me right.... The English translation of that sentence will be like this. This time the village is demolished badly due to flood. He told demolish is always bad, it is never good so no need to use the word 'badly'. lol. Have a nice time.

Well,i think that it's ok for me to even write and read.Also,i will chose to do something part-time job as a Chinese teacher to teach foreigners.I love my mother toungue and my local language is pretty near to that.But anyway,it's not easy to teach a foreigner cause you have to explain something that you really didn't thought about.So i really had to learn it online.

I would humbly say that even I know my local language well, I find it hard to know the correct ways of using it in a sentence. Our local language is just used in speaking but not in the form of writing particularly in a broad-sheet. The most commonly used local language is "Tagalog" here in the Philippines. If you're from the Philippines and you don't know the language of the place that you had visited, You must speak Tagalog instead. I've been using the Tagalog language for all my life, but I took for granted the ways on how it is properly written.

I am a chinese.it's right sometimes you can speak your locall language very well but you don't very clear that speak. I think this is culture. I lived in china many years , I know chinese culture ,I know something would speak that but something would speak that ,but i don't know why! and my english is so poor ..i want to make friends with everyone in mylot . i hope my english will better and better.

I know very well my local language but I can't explain every one of the rules of the grammer, especially because in Hebrew there is a punctuation system, unlike the english language for example. but when we write mostly we don't punctuate but we learn in it in the lower classes.

Hi Porcospino Today, the grammar and spellings seem to have lost their meaning when it comes to normal public speaking or even writing for fun. I do not write much these days and in my local language it is almost the last thing that I do. But yes, when at school there wasnt much of escape. But today, finding less takers to study literature and language, the government is considering passing bills which will allow students to be safe even when they dont use the right spelling or grammmar. Once passed, it becomes a thing of the past.

Acctually ,I have never have this kind of consideration ,and I have never have the experience of teaching a foreigner Chinese. I think this kind of phenomenon you mentioned is very common ,it seems we are so faliliar with our own mother tongue that we some times ingnore them ,that also because the people we are chatting with are usually the native speaker,although some times we make some grammar mistakes ,they also can understand us .for example,if your Danish-students in Burma say something in danish with some grammar mistakes ,I think you can understand nost of them by guessing!right?and that may be the reason we forget or ignore the grammar! And ,sometimes,we can not judge a sentence in a grammatical ,but it is acceptable ny most of our native speaker,it is just like Idiom . Hope you enjoy your teaching in Burma and enjoy your trip also!!!

I did not use my own tongue to write something but English is most and easy even though is not in proper grammar. But sometimes in txt we use our other language i use to speak.

Not all of us are born to be teachers. It is hard to pass knowledge to others. It is a gift or something you learn by professionals.

Well, I'm an English teacher from Indonesia and to be honest, English is much easier than my own language. Lol. However, I'm glad to say that yes, I can correct a sentence and I can also explain it. Maybe not so well, but at least I know how they should be written grammatically. I always tell my students that before they learn any slang words, they must know the correct form first. This is what I explain to my foreign friends too. If they have a questions about a sentence or a word, I always tell them the correct form first and then I explain it to them. :D