Language (English) in our own Homes.

You are right Jack without a sounding board it is difficult because we use similar alphabets but use different pronunciations of the similar letters. I use my significant other for pronunciation and practice in pronouncing the words. Plus my daughter helps lots as she is getting quite a vocabulary and is trilingual (if that's a word?) She speaks passable English , Tagalog and Visayan. Which is quite good for a toddler IMHO.

 

I'll add my tuppence. The good asawa does her level best to ensure English is spoken in the house. At times the staff need to rattle away about unimportant stuff (who is going to light the fire in the dirty kitchen, who's turn is it to make sure bossing has ice for his Rum etc etc) and over the years I have picked up enough to get by. They laugh when I trip over phrases and are pleased to see me trying. I guess I feel included. Makes for a happy home and so forth.

If there is an issue being discussed of importance in Visayan I can now get the gist, so I don't feel left out and all of 'em turn the language respectfully toward English to help me out. I've also tried teaching my lass my native tongue now and again, but she says it's a silly language due to the half consonants and stresses on pronunciation (hey she can talk, wtf is this "ng" "mga" stuff?) - so there's endless amount of amusement there. I wouldn't dream of talking to the rellies on skype in my native tongue if she was there nattering to them too. And they do the same. However, she has caught me talking in my native to folks and is quite anxious to know what is going on when I do. Easily solved with an apology and inclusion. The kids are proud to be half of me and half Filipino so I guess I should make more of an effort to teach them something of their heritage and language. Now where do I get the time to do that?

 

Sounds like similar experience here in my home. My partner does the same as yours and mostly we speak English for the kid but also include Filipino and Visayan. Helps things run smoothly being able to understand some of what they are saying and vice versa.