First off, I am Filipina. I was born in the Philippines, but raised in the United States, hence I am what you may call an Americanized Filipino/Filipina. I immigrated to the U.S. at the mere age of about two and a half years.
Anyone would expect me to forget how to speak Tagalog, because I’ve lived in the U.S. for most of my life, but I have not forgotten the language. I can still speak it, and I understand when people speak to me in Tagalog.
I hate how kids who have immigrated at an older age pretend to forget how to speak Tagalog, when it’s oh-so-obvious they’re just ashamed of their past. Seriously, why hide something when everybody knows you’re fresh off the boat? I hate ignorant kids who try too hard to fit in.
Just because you’ve immigrated to America does not necessarily mean that you should forget about where you came from. Of course, the parents of the Americanized Filipino kids will make some bogus excuses like “Oh, my daughter/son doesn’t know Tagalog because we speak to them in English only.”
I’m a little annoyed about this simply because I don’t see why these kids try too hard to hide who they are/were.
I don’t really think it’s a lie when the kids don’t know Tagalog because their parents don’t speak it to them. I have friends who are Chinese and were born in China and then came to America (whereas I was born in the US and my Chinese level is pretty good) but they forgot how to speak Chinese completely. They don’t want to forget how to speak it–it’s actually sad because now, they are struggling to learn it in college.
But I do agree that people do try to fit in really hard. I can’t blame them though. When you are not in “the group,” you’ll try anything to get into it. It’s not fun not being included in events when you’re different. It’s just human nature to try to fit in.
I suppose you’re right. From what I’ve noticed about Americanized Filipino kids, they choose to pretend that they don’t know the language, when in fact, they do.
I find it puzzling that some kids would sink so low just to forget who they are.
I have a cousin who was born in the Philippines and he immigrated at the age of 4. He’s 6 now, and I’m pretty sure he still knows a bit of Tagalog, but he chooses to speak English. I speak to him in Tagalog, though, when I get the chance to see him, and he still understands. I’m guessing that in a matter of time, he’ll forget everything. His playmates used to make fun of him because he barely spoke a word of English, so now that he’s learning English, he’d much rather prefer to know one language than be bilingual.
That’s a shame because I always thought that being bilingual in any language was always an advantage.
But the problem here is that the kid is 6. I don’t think he’s trying to forget who he is. When you’re 6, you don’t care much about being bilingual, at least in my case. It really just depends on how the parents raise their kids for their kids to turn out bilingual or not. If the kids are raised where their parents always speak to them in Tagalog and expect them to respond in Tagalog, they would get into the habit of speaking Tagalog. If not, they get into the habit of speaking English, and it’ll be weird speaking another language even if they understand it.
For example, my sister and I both understand Mandarin, but we speak to each other in English because speaking in Chinese feels so…weird. Now, I do jokingly tell my parents that the reason why my Chinese isn’t authentic enough is because they accepted me speaking English when I was little (at one point, speaking English becomes easier because I knew more vocab, and my parents didn’t force me to maintain my Chinese). And really, I do believe that is it. I have friends who only speak Chinese with their parents because their parents only wanted to talk to them in Chinese and now, their Chinese abilities are far surpasses mine. It’s just the nurture issue in this case,
I see where you’re going. I was 2 when I first came here, but one reason why I never forgot the language is because I was always spoken to in Tagalog when I was quite young. On top of that, I used to watch “The Filipino Channel” which helped me keep Tagalog fresh in my memory.
I suppose my aunt or uncle don’t really enforce the language in their household like my parents nor do they make my cousin watch TFC.
When it comes to my sisters and I, we speak to each other in English because we’ve grown accustomed to conversing in English. Our parents, on the other hand, don’t really care what language we speak now that we’re a little older because they both know we can speak in both languages.
Hi there, I’ve decided to stop lurking around.. haha
I just found this post interesting because where I live, most people have a lot of pride in their nationality. So much, in fact, that back in high school it seemed like quite a few of the cliques were based on it. Even now in university, people aren’t ashamed of where they come from, which is really nice.
It’s quite a contrast to what you described.
Do they get bullied for being “fobs” or something? If so, then I suppose I can see where it’s coming from. But to be at the point where they’re denying they know the language at all.. that’s a little weird. Being bilingual is a good thing
In my cousin’s case or in my case even, no such bullying has ever occurred. I think where we live, there’s just an abundance of different cultures that they’re pretty accepting to a degree.
Difference between my cousin and I is that (1) our parents speak to us in Tagalog and his don’t simply because they want to be fully Americanized, and (2) I’m not ashamed. I don’t think I was ever ashamed about being Filipino in his age, either.
I have to agree with you on being bilingual! It is definitely a good thing.