Why do some Filipino parents not teach their kids Tagalog if they're in America?
I'm Filipino born here in America and I have a lot of friends that are too. We all have one thing in common in that we can't really understand Tagalog except when it comes to short phrases, curse words, and foods. Is there a reason for this? Because my mom just gets annoyed when I ask her about it. 
Apparently it's common because most of the American Filipinos I meet don't speak the language. It makes me sad sometimes because I wish I could talk to my relatives in the Philippines in Tagalog but I can't.
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Tagged with: curse words • filipinos • mom • philippines • phrases • relatives
Filed under: Philippines Tagalog
Parental laziness, short and simple.
You look around in America and you see Hispanics, Africans, Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, etc. immigrants speaking with their US-born kids in their native tongue all the time. Why not pinoys? So it’s laziness and a general sense that they believe the value of their own language is marginal in America.
And we wonder why there are so many young Fil-Americans out there embracing/identifying with OTHER group’s cultures and heritages as they grow up other than their own–and feeling completely lost in it.
there are other filipinos of different linguistical groupings. they could be cebuano, ilonggo, ilocano, kapampangan, pangasinense, waray-waray, ivatan, ifugao, maguindanao, maranao, tboli, b’laan, etc..
maybe your parents don’t like you to understand what they’re saying when they’re quarreling or talking about secrets or something for adults only…
I speak Tagalog in America
Ask them why, but what I think is because.
They want their kids to learn only english so when they go to Philippines. They would be very well known and treated better because they’re English speaking. That’s only my opinion though.
Hope this helps! Oh and Learn tagalo while there’s still time.
Tagalog is a great language to learn, funny too.
Try asking your mom/dad, to teach you. Like the names of the furnitures. like living room ’sala’, Wall "pader".
Floor ’saheg" Table "mesa" …just try asking and asking them the meanings. because that’s how Iearnt english too. By asking and asking, and watchinga lot of Disneychannel, and cartoonnetwork.
Don’t worry, It’s never too late to learn our language.
I grew up in the states and spoke tagalog and bisaya fluently. I was never taught by my parents, they just spoke it to me like I knew it already. I just picked it up when they spoke with each other and with other filipino adults. I guess they don’t teach you tagalog is because its difficult for them. They send you to school and all you learn in school is english, no tagalog cause its america. The way you communicate with your friends is english.
Honor thy Mother and thy Father.
They had to make a decision when they went to America as immigrants. They had to take an oath that pretty much boils down to becoming Americans, That America was now their home country that they swore allegience to. That there future and yours was in American society and for you to fit in English was necessary as a first language.
You don’t try to teach babies two languages at once so to avoid confusion they gave up Tagalog.
Now you are guilting them for it.
Why not set up an online or physical meeting with your friends and include yours and their parents. Ask them to teach you now. Now you could deal with it.
Say thanks to your parents for the life they have made for you. All of you have a Merry Christmas.
Mee too.
But they buy me tagalog translating books which really helps me with my tagalog. &nd that is true, me and most of my friends usually know only short phrases or cursing words, or foods. Haha =D
i’m so sorry about that.
you know what? that’s exactly the reason why i don’t speak to my kids in english and i don’t allow them to speak english in our house or to our filipino relatives. do you know why? because i’m proud of being a filipino, i’m not ashamed of my color, my accent or my heritage. i know where i belong, i’m a foreigner here in america and i accept that, i’m even proud of it. i’m proud and happy that our family can speak tagalog in front of foreigners and they don’t know what we are talking about. it’s fun! well, i know, it’s rude but sometimes, there are things that we don’t want other people know and speaking another language comes in handy during situations like that.
maybe the reason why they don’t teach you tagalog is because they think you might get confused with two languages but i don’t think that’s a valid reason. or maybe, they think they’re americans now and they don’t need the philippine language anymore. well, whatever their reason, i feel sad, too. because we are filipinos, and the tagalog language is a part of us. without the knowledge and fluency in that language, who will we be, can you still be proud to say that you are a filipino if you can’t speak their language?
it is so sad.. how come mexicans can still speak spanish and yet are very fluent in english? are they better than filipinos? are they more intelligent, more talented? i feel ashamed and really, really sad for all filipinos and even half-filipinos who can’t speak the tagalog language.
someone commented that other nationalities (mexicans, koreans etc) speak their own language, why can filipinos do the same?
this is not true, at least not in most 2nd+ generation kids that i know. most of them cant speak their own language either. and dont worry as its not too late to learn.
sometimes the parents are asked to talk to their kids in english so that the teachers at school or daycare could communicate with them.
and it is also true that some parents dont deem it important to teach their kids tagalog. they are still able to communicate to filipinos in the phils. because isn’t english spoken there too anyways?
I am sure I will get many thumbs down on this, but maybe they feel it is not important. only 28% of Filipino people consider Tagalog there 1st language. And what is tagalog today really is not, as the 1935 and 1947 constitutions created a new language based on the old one. it was not widely used until 1977 constitution gave it equal weight as English. one of the biggest problems in the Philippines is lack of communications.people from different areas can not understand each other. the spanish wanted the filipino to be dumb and poor so they did not create schools. add in the earpt took English out of schools for a while causing a educational gap that cost Filipinos thousands of international jobs.
here my final proof tagalog is dead… go to a atm machine here and you will be offered a choice between english or taglish
it is sad.
this is the awful truth. almost everybody in the philippines thinks that speaking in english makes you "sosyal","saucy", classy or even superior.
this is why parents who have migrated and have kids rarely teach their kids proper tagalog. they only teach them a few basic words/phrases. so that when they come back in the philippines to visit relatives, people would be awed by their kids.
even my mom is like that. i was born and raised in the philippines. my mom always talked to me in english and always encouraged me to watch only english tv shows and movies. even my lil bro and sis are "taglish".[when they talk, its almost always a mix of filipino and english. example: i dont want to go there noh! it's so mainit! stop it na nga.]
now we’re in new zealand and i noticed that most of my fillo friends who grew up in nz had a hard time speaking and understanding tagalog. i always speak to my lil bro and sis in tagalog so that they wont forget our language. my mum tells me not to but what the heck. i dont want them to forget our language. :p
oh yeah. there are a few exceptions. at least. like my friend in nz. she tries hard to speak in filipino. even though she has a heavy kiwi accent, she always speaks in filipino. she always struggles to remember words [so i help her. lol] she even encourages our fillo friends who cant speak in filipino to try it. so good on her! :p
oh btw..
alriciano: it’s "medyo pinoy ako" not "soy medio filipino". you mixed up spanish and filipino
Reason 1
-Parents are too busy to teach their kids. Most Filipino parents work for so many hours to provide necessities for their kids, so there’ s no time for proper teaching.
Reason 2
-Parents view Tagalog and other Filipino dialects as inferior to English, so they would prefer their kids to only study and speak English.
Reason 3
-Parents are stressed when teaching Tagalog with all the questions asked by their kids.