Nagsasalita ba kayo ng Filipino?
You read it right and you must think it’s a kind of business I venture in this foreign land. But no, I’m a government employee here teaching Filipino to children with Filipino parents, mostly Filipino individuals married to Swedish nationals. Although I used to teach in Davao, I never expected to be teaching in Filipino outside my homeland. The truth is I never expected to land a teaching job here at all because of this language barrier. I’ve learned Swedish the best I could in both speaking and writing but still I can never be like the native speaker of the language. And there would always be prejudices when it comes to foreigners teaching in Swedish schools.
Much to my surprise, the government or rather the National Agency for Education here has stated in the curriculum the importance of mother (tongue) languages of the foreign citizens; hence, teaching in mother tongue in schools. The main purpose of which is to develop children become bilingual or multilingual. While one’s mother language has a vital role to establish and strengthen his identity, not many parents of mixed nationalities have realized this fact. The children would always want to learn the language spoken by his/her foreign mother or father but it’s sometimes late to grant the need. In other scenario, I met some children and students who were born in the Philippines and after two or three years of stay here have totally lost the Filipino language. Sad to say, some parents are not so keen on keeping the language.
The nature of my job is different from that of an ordinary teacher working in a school. As a mother language teacher, I teach from school to school according to locations of every group of students we create. In the morning, I do study help for students who have just arrived here and who have not learned Swedish yet. In the afternoon is the teaching in mother language. I have at least three loads in a day, different schools everyday. This is how tough my job is. It’s what makes me so busy at the start of the schoolyear, making schedules, meet up with school head masters and booking a classroom. I have managed to absorb the nature of this job for three years now. And as a lone teacher in Filipino in the Gothenburg Region, bow to this, haha! Everything was not planned but had just fallen into place.
Wow..eh di ang dali lang pala ng work mo Len. Imagine gamit mo parin ang language natin. Bisaya pud len patudlo sila? Wahehehe..
Joy, mahirap din magturo ng Filipino for beginners compared sa atin sa pinas mas madali. Oo, may mga bisaya din pero kasali na sila sa filipino class. 🙂
I guess knowing more than one language can be an advantage in this world. It’s just too bad I never did learn Portuguese which basically is my mother tongue …
Oh, I remember you mentioned in one of your posts about your Portuguese blood. I thought you could speak the language. Too late to learn? hehee!
hi ate marlene..
meron filipino subject here sa may Daly City, California…sa dami kasi ng Filipino sa lugar na yun…naglagay cla ng subject na filipino…
its good thing naman for the filipino children to know the history and also the language of Filipino culture. Most of all dapat matuto clang gumalang like us na lumaki sa pilipinas.
maraming born sa ibang bansa na walang galang.
Good toppic here ate marlene.
nilagay pala kita sa blogroll ko..sa http://www.billyboxergirl.com
ikaw, jessie and shanker..nilagay
have a good day ate..
Michelle, mas mabuti pa nga diyan dahil may subject talaga sa school. Dito kasi parang extra subject lang after school hours. I bought a instructional book from California nga pala, yung book 1 pa lang nabili ko at ginagamit ko minsan dito. Hirap kasi maghanap ng filipino books dito dahil sa iba ang language. Yun nga ang isang purpose din, para ma-acquaint ang mga bata sa culture ng parents nila.
Fren,
Napaka huwaran naman pala ng trabaho mo dyan. Kala ko full-time blogger ka. lol! Hoy, linya mo sa kin yan ha.
At any rate, Maganda rin yung early indoctrination ang mga bata lalo pa sa culture nating mga Pinoy kahit nasa ibang bansa sila.
Hahahaa! Jess, gusto ko pa ngang maging full-time blogger na ako. Nakakatamad gumising ng maaga at lumabas kapag malamig na alam mo ba. Kaya-i maintain ko pa rin ang blogging kahit kapos sa oras dahil who knows…
May ibang mga bata na interesado talaga sa Filipino culture, pero may iba na passive lang.
mhy,
true. yung extra income sa blogging eh may konting tulong din naman talaga fren. sana lang maging mas masipag ka sa opp-hunting. lol!
wow! bow nmn talaga kami dahil ikaw ang lone teacher in Filipino dyan sa place nyo… Mag pa burger ka rin ha! 😀
Anyway, may napanood ako dati sa tv, mga foreigners naman sila na nag aaral din ng Filipino, at ang gagaling nilang mag Tagalog, di ko lang maalala kung anong nationality nila. 🙂
Meron akong 2 pinsan na half British (19 & 18 yrs old now), dito sila lumaki, pero ngayon nasa UK na sila for almost 10 years. Yung older nakaka-intindi pa ng Filipino pero hindi na sya nakakapag salita nito. Yung youngest, wala na, deadma na sa Tagalog. Samantalang noong bata pa sya may punto pa syang magtagalog kasi sa Marinduque lumaki.
Sana sa lugar nila meron ding Filipino subject para mapag-aralan pa rin nila ‘no? In fairness naman sa Auntie ko eh kinakausap naman nya minsan ng Filipino mga anak nya para alam pa rin yung language, pero yung youngest kasi parang hindi na interesado! 🙁
Amor, pag nakauwi kami diya, burger tayo. Saan ba? Heheehe! May nauna naman sa akin pero ako lang yata ang nagtiyaga sa work na ito.
Minsan nagtataka nga ako at may mga batang kinakausap ko ng Filipino ay nakakaintindi pero yun nga lang at sinasagot ako sa Swedish. Lalo na ang mga batang dumating dito ng 8-9 years, nakakaintindi pa sila pero di na nakakapagsalita.
Sa UK, parang wala yatang offer ang gov nila for foreign citizens. May nakasabay kami sa Davao last year na taga-UK, nagtatataka nga sila at nagteach ako ng Filipino dito.
wow that is just awesome Marlene! Buti pa sila dyan, pre-requisite to teach your mother tongue. Siguro dapat lipat na kami dyan! o di ba? Then you can see my wreaths in person. As for the Jewelry, which one did you like best. I will save it for you and ship it. I have shipped boxes in the Philippines through USPS(post office) using flat rate box which is about $13.00 and shippable to any country. I don’t think you have to pay for any custom fee because if I remember right I didn’t. SO if you really like it, I will make it happen!
Maricris, halika na, lipat na dito. 🙂
I like the Hawaiian…ano ba yun? at yung pinakaunang nakita ko. I will post it on your blog later. If that’s the case, I will order. Yun nga rin sabi dito, wala na daw custom.
oh, that’s so amazing and I am really proud of you. it means, you are like hopping from one school to another teaching tagalog? how cool is that My? Well, I am sure your swedish is great too, of course no one could speak like the natives, but I am sure you are 98% close 🙂
talking about Tagalog, I notice there are a lot of words similar to the Malay language. For example, Ako (it’s aku in Malay which means I), takut( scared) and a few more. I realised this recently while watching a translated tagalog scary movie on TV. I should have known so since the languages sounds similar in a alot of ways too.
Thank you, Farah. Oh, not cool at all. It’s the time I realize I need a driver’s license badly.
Yes, tagalog (filipino) is somewhat related to Indonesian, Malay, fujian and other Austronesian languages. I didn’t know before that we have words in common until I read Malaysian blogs. Try ‘anak’ and ‘nangka’. 🙂
Saludo ako sa iyo mAm 😉
Ayy, huwag naman mam. I’m feeling old with that word, hahaa!
Thanks for dropping by, Nilo. Your presence on my blog is very much appreciated. O, di ba… 🙂
Am expecting few filipino language tips here from you.
Shanker, you will be disappointed. But I got this ambition to build a filipino site for my students.
wow! bilib talaga ako…keep it up my friend!
Surprise! Surprise! Thank you very much, Ma’am Myrtle.
Wow, ibig sabihin nyan eh… malaki ang sahod mo hahaha… pano bayan… libre ka naman.
Mas malaki naman din kesa sa kinikita ko sa blogging, hehee! Hamburger, gusto mo? 🙂
Bilib naman ako sa iyo sana dumami pa ang katulad mo. Marami na rin dito sa amin ang di marunong ng Pilipino kahit parents are both pinoy. Alam ko inoffer din ang mother tongue teachings pero mostly ay urdu, arabic and so on kasi mas marami sila.
Sana dumami ang tulad mo na talagang nag aral para makapagtrabaho ng profession na gusto. Lalo na dito na libre ang educationtalagang tiis muna.Mahirap dahil sa language barrier pero at the end satisfying dahil gusto mo ang ginagawa mo.
I hope you don’t me linking you I haven’t found any serious blogger here in the north ikaw pa lang (magkapitbahay lang tayo dto lang ako sa Copenhagen). Although very raw pa ang site ko on the the learning process pa kuno. Anyway I learned about your site from Maricris.
Hi Ana, thanks a lot for dropping by.
Ang lagay, wala pala Filipino diyan sa Copenhagen. Siguro yun lang may maraming participants bibigyan nila ng chance.
Ang di lang maganda dito sa lugar natin ay kahit na may degree na tayo sa atin sa Pil. ay kailangan pa rin mag-aral. Tinatamad na nga ako sa completion study ko sa ngayon.
Hehee, we have a common blogger-buddy pala.
i want to apply as a teacher in english and filipino language…i am a teacher here in the Philippines…
Hello po diba po dito po kayo sa sweden and nagtturo po kayo ng filipino i was wondering lang po if pwede po kayo magturo online kase po yung kaibigan ko may subject siya na self thought which is yung pag aaralan po yng own langugage nia! Let me know po kung anong kelangan or something salamat po:)
Hello,
Nag-send ako ng reply sa email mo. 🙂
Regards, Marlene