She just likes to learn a lot. She chose this book because she read the surname of the author: Graham!
I have been a believer that it is best to teach your child with your own mother tongue. That’s why at a certain point, I am glad that DepEd made this a priority until Grade Three.
But my husband is a firm believer that we should first teach our child in one language–that being English. So here he is buying books and materials and iPad applications all in English. And he is the one who talks to my child in straight English.
On the other hand, I prefer talking with her in Filipino. I sing the National Anthem to her and she can complete it albeit the gibberish words. She can recite the good ol’ a-e-i-o-u, babebibobu etc.
Though my husband and I are debating on this, unconsciously, we have successfully taught her on both languages. Here are a few of my observations:
1. She can follow commands on both languages. I use paki– or please so she will have the sense of respect this early, even the littlest things have to be repeated to her so she won’t miss out on saying please if she wants something.
2. The Filipino Opo has to be injected often also. She says ingat po when someone is leaving the house. But how will I inject this in English?
3. When she’s in the mood for it, she translates first the Filipino command to English before she follows me. Or she would describe what she does in both English and Filipino (like: higa, lie down, then she lies down).
4. She would read words in their alphabet pronunciation, NOT the phonetic pronunciation! When she was just starting to read, at 1.7 years perhaps, she confused the a [ei] for an [a] sound so she read bat [bat] as [beit]. Made me laugh and realized maybe we should have taught her the International Phonetic Alphabet instead.
5. She has an absolutely cute English twang, that she pronounces Filipino words in her cute accent! Sometimes we can’t understand her words that are Filipino.
Now that’s just two languages so far. I started introducing a third–German. She knows when to use Gesundheit and sings a German lullaby called La Le Lu. But I stopped there for now.
How do you introduce language to your children? Should I only teach one for now, or carry on while she can absorb as much? Share your thoughts on the comments section.
~ Touringkitty