Does anyone know how to raise a natively bilingual child?

Yes. Thanks. Grade 8. Sorry, I missed the 8 eight out.

I nearly wandered into teaching music. I wasn't talented enough to be a perepatetic but could have become a music teacher. But I flipped a coin and went off in an alternative direction.

What do you play?

If the father's language is English and the family live in England or should I say Britain, I don't think that is such bad thing.

[video=youtube;8uvQDJJ-Yzo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8uvQDJJ-Yzo[/video]

Would you call this a "brand" of English? Surely not a bad brand though. Its easy to find much worse back here in the UK at times.

Nice summary Oss. My conclusion too except that my gut feeling was that what you see in the video is a trend setter and demonstration of what lays ahead in the Philippines, more widely.

Both my wife's sisters are very good at English though not as fluent as the girls in the video. Ironically, all three sisters know one of the girls in the video quite well and you are right, the difference is entirely down to moneyed background and education.

On the variety of languages across the Philippines, my impression is that they would naturally wither on the vine eventually over time, partly because of the imposition of Tagalog.

I suppose I am looking into my looking glass and forseeing things change a bit more than they might?

The other thing that struck me from the video, okay it is just woman's talk but...was the level of intellect.

Slight diversion but I agree. One of them is a Remulla, so I wouldn't be surprised if she did go into politics at some stage.

No, why? English is the second language of the Philippines, Tagalog is the official language here and whilst everyone is required to learn it at school, it is only spoken on Luzon. English is widely understood in the big cities but much less so as you venture into rural Philippines.

The form of English used here is based on American but as Filipinos are prepositionally challenged and they form their sentences in Filipino and then translate, it is often grammatically incorrect. Only those very fluent in English actually think in English too.

Because English is our mother-tongue, we arrogantly assume everyone else in the world can or should understand and use English too. It is us who are wrong, not they if they can't.

My experience of living in the Visayas is that its pretty damned hard to communicate with most middle aged and older Bisayan speakers with only the English language... I dont even bother trying anymore.
Being able to speak a little Filipino,makes things much easier for me personally as most here seem to understand it pretty well..
Very useful whilst exploring different parts and getting lost!
The whole point of having a national language (Filipino) is to break the dialect barrier for Filipino`s throughout the land.. IMO,it works.

Good point. And so, for those who are very young in mind, teleport into the future. How many of those in the Visayas will not be able to speak any English. Much less than now. For the youngsters, English will become more important and their local language less so. Unless, of course the Chinese have a say in the matter.

My sister in law, who speaks Visayan, Tagalog and English is ensuring that her son speaks English like there is no tomorrow as when he seeks out a job or career it will be advantageous in the new modern world in the Philippines.

That's the Americans for you.

I haven't suggested that they who can't speak English are wrong. What I suggest is that it is to their advantage to speak English.

We have an advantage that the language we speak is indeed spoken by many as their first or 2nd language. It could be classed as arrogance that we rely on it but it is so much easier just to use English where someone has quite a good command of English compared to our command of their language. It does take a while for anyone to learn a new language, especially as we get older. If both people can speak some English then why not just go for it, especially where time is of the essence.

English is a great 2nd language as it enables folk from many countries to communicate with one another as they would stand no chance of doing so otherwise. I recall a great attempt at dialogue between a Filipino waitress and a Japanese tourist in a restaurant in Boracay. The Japanese tourist ( an old boy) couldnt speak any English or Tagalog. The waitress could speak no Japanese. The conversation was effectively a complete non starter and quite funny listening to it.

We have 2 eastern european guys that work for us. They cant understand each other if they speak in their own language. But they understand each other very well if they speak in English, their second language. I have seen this work successfully so many times.

Reasons why Filipinos will tend to speak English rather than Tagalog:

Reason #1. The USA established the educational system in 1901 and English became the medium of instruction. It's 2013 and this has not changed.

Reason #2. English is the language of governance. It has not changed since 1901.

Reason #3. English is the language of business.

Reason #4. English is the language of mass media.

Reason #5. English is the great unifier among Filipinos.

Reason six - many Filipinos dislike having Tagalog imposed on them.

The Philippines' greatest living novelist, Francisco Sionil Jose, writes in English, and always has done, because he is Ilokano.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Sionil_José

Incidentally, if you have not read the Rosales Novels, and you want to understand the Philiippines, do so now.

All I'll say is a couple of things, but won't argue ....

(1) personal anecdotal evidence counts for nothing when talking about a 95million people nation. My anecdotal evidence could disprove yours and so on. Highly unreliable.

(2) actually, Filipino (a variant of Tagalog) is the great lingual unifier in the Philippines, those who dislike it notwithstanding.

(3) majority of classes pre-university level are not taught in English save English class.

(4) The standard of English in Philippines universities (other than the Elite {by Philippines standards}) ones is not exactly the best.

(5) If you have only been to the cities in the Philippines, you will indeed get by on English. I see it being symptomatic of a certain western malaise that they go to McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and think that's life in the Philippines ... When most of the country's people would spend their daily wage on a big mac.

(6) when it comes to the general dumbing down of the world, and particularly the west, I'm not sure many of the people will be able to speak English even in the UK. (see Jeremy Kyle et al, or go to Birmingham). :vhappy:

There's nowt wrong with us English.....

For every one Stephen Fry, there's like 5 Jeremy Kyles.

1. and 3 and 4.

I agree. The English lessons in the R.P are not the best.. That said,my kids have been studying here for nearly 7 years and their English generally is very good.
My son has just finished taking his IGCSE exams,one of the subjects being English.
I will give you his exam results in about 3 weeks once we receive them.. Then,we can get a better idea how R.P private schooling affects the English language.
I have a nephew living and working in Manila.. William.
about 5 years ago he had trouble understanding my British accent (like many Filipino`s).. Since then he has been working in a call center giving support to the Australian public.
These days,I often find it amusing how his English accent has changed.. Obviously he has a job for as long as the Aussie contract remains.
More importantly..Now he doesn't think that I speak slang at all and I can speak with him like I am back in East London!!

No and for the reason Bigtombowski mentions.

The laws may be written in English but all the debates in both the Congress and Senate are in Tagalog.

Only partially true.

Sorry, you're wrong: TV, radio and film are predominantly in Tagalog with local TV/radio stations also broadcasting in local dialects. Newspapers printed in Philippine languages outsell those printed in English.

I know two Filipino elementary school teachers from Biliran. They tell me that English has to be used as the language of instruction from Grade III onwards. What happens in practice may differ from any legislative requirement of course.

In some private schools, English is not only the language of instruction (even prior to grade III) the children also use it as their main communication medium (at least on school premises) My ex-fiancée's son found that quite difficult when he changed from the public system to a Montessori School at age six.

My wife's sister is a "primary school" teacher. I am sure that English is the medium of instruction in her school, from an early age. I need to double check. She has taught in Dumaguete and Cavite.