I was forwarded a cute email from a friend's daughter. She has difficulty spelling tagalog, tee-hee! She came to the US when she was two years old, just starting to baby talk. She's now 7 and in school. Here's an exerpt from her email.
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Subject: miss ko then ikow!
kamusta na! si k parang indipa ina ubos ang pagkaeng ya. miss ko na ikaw. anong
gingawa mo?
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It felt like reading a text message from some barok texter in Manila. I found it cute though, because if you talk to her, she can still talk back in Tagalog. Her parents trained her well. They speak Tagalog at home, and they're only allowed to speak english when they're in school. Even her younger brother and sister (she's the eldest) can converse fluently in Tagalog. Great job - J and L! They truly haven't forgotten their roots.
I admire kids who grew up here but haven't forgotten how to speak, or at least understand tagalog. In the Philippines, people admire english-speaking children. I remember going to the mall with my then-bf-now-husband when we heard a little kid speak to his parents in english. Hubz said he'd make sure he'd have a kid like that - one who can speak fluent english. That's not impossible, especially since we plan to raise our kids here in the US. I'm sure they will even be better english-speakers than us. But, like my friend, I hope I can instill in them the appreciation of their roots. After all, being bilingual is definitely a plus.
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