Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Understanding and Speaking

On separate occasions this week, I have had numerous unconnected conversations with friends about raising bilingual children. These are conversations I had with Filipino friends who are living overseas and have young children.

My eldest, B, has been coming out of her shell in terms of speaking Filipino - albeit, with a soft accent. In the beginning when she was younger she could understand my native language but she would deliberately respond back in English whenever I ask questions in Filipino. I persisted in getting her to talk back in Filipino and after a number of years, I don't need to prod her on this. She voluntarily speaks in Filipino. She is good at switching back and forth between English and Filipino. I am a proud mum. Ok, credits to dear husband too, who's played a part in all these.

I should talk about this topic again when I have my useful tips prepared. For now, I am signing off from the online world!

Photo from http://www.juanofwords.com/2012/08/whats-the-secret-to-raising-a-bilingual-kid-hiring-a-bilingual-nanny/

Raising bilingual kids

I am pretty proud about our eldest being able to speak my mother tongue (Filipino). As young as one year old we taught her to speak Tagalo...