The Gift of the Mother Tongue

As you may have read last time, my family and I moved to Canada. It's been three months now since we've moved and everything's still a blur. Still looking for jobs and still learning the places here in Winnipeg. Luckily, the kids have already adjusted. It's summer here and we're enjoying the sun, anxious of the coming fall-winter weather that they say can be pretty dreadful.

Lately, my kids and I have been running errands and I have realized that there really are soooo many Filipinos here in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, there are just a few of them (mostly old people) who know the Filipino language. Some of them were born and raised here, while some migrated at a very young age, that they don't know how to speak the language. Some of them understand, while the others barely know any word in Filipino at all.

While going about our grocery run at the Superstore, most of the elderly and middle-aged Filipinos were very much amazed at how my 5-year-old was speaking in both English and Filipino languages. They asked me, on different occasions, how I was able to maintain our mother tongue, while she learns English. Renee, thinking it was her that the people were talking to, answered, "Sa bahay po, tsaka pag Filipino ang kausap ko sa labas, Filipino din po ang salita ko. Pag nag-i-English sila, English din po sagot ko. (At home, and when I speak with other Filipinos, I speak Filipino. If they'd speak to me in English, I'd answer them in English as well.)"

Such answer from the kid have piqued the people's interest and they were blown away by how my child spoke to them. That she even used "po" and "opo" during the conversation. They were happy that the language would not die on them. They told me that they are hoping that my child would grow up without losing the language. Fortunately, my daughter's school also encourages the children to speak their mother tongue--may it be Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, etc.

An old lady at Walmart once asked me, "Pa'no yun, hindi sila marunong mag-Ingles? (So does this mean they don't know how to speak in English?"

I responded, "Marunong po sila pareho. Ayoko kasing lokohin sila sa Pilipinas pag dumating ang panahon na bibisita kami. (They know both languages. I don't want them to be abused by locals, when there would be a time that we'd be able to come back and visit the Philippines.)"

The lady was amused by my answer. She knew what I was talking about. We all know how it's like to be a foreigner in the Philippines. How people would immediately over-charge you, if they notice that you came from a foreign land. How they would automatically raise their prices if they know that you are not Pinoy, or if you don't speak their language.

On our way home, I was thinking about what the people said to me. I have learned back then that some migrants here never spoke to their children in Filipino, thinking that this would hinder their children's chance of learning the English language. Thinking that they might acquire a Filipino accent. Thinking that they will sound "bakya" by the time they migrate.

Leaving our homeland doesn't necessarily mean we'll
leave our language and culture behind too.

I then remembered a British family we met at Vancouver airport during our layover. How they were astounded by my child, speaking both languages. That Renee reminded them of the Filipino kids they met in Middle East, where they used to live as expats. They told me how most people there deprive their kids of the language. That the kids there weren't able to speak nor understand it.

In my case, I wanted my kids to learn as many language as they can. Aside from Filipino and English, I would very much want them to learn French as well, as it is Canada's second language. Who knows? Maybe they can learn other languages too, right?

I know learning both languages, and be fluent in both, is never far from impossible. Some Filipinos back home are fluent in both languages, so do some Filipinos here. I mean even in Tinseltown, some actors and actresses are bilingual/multi-lingual. Sasha Alexander (Rizzoli and Isles) speaks Italian and Serbian. TVD's Nina Dobrev knows Bulgarian and French, aside from English. That 70's Show alum Mila Kunis knows Russian. Natalie Portman (Thor; Black Swan) speaks Hebrew, French, Japanese, German and Spanish. Even our very own Reggie Lee (Grimm), who moved to the States at age five, knows both English and our mother tongue--Filipino. So why shouldn't I make my kids learn it too, right?

Look, I am not a patriot nor am I judging the Filipinos here. I am writing this, wondering what's going to happen to the Filipinos here in Canada in the future--or anywhere else in the world. Will they still be able to learn the language? With the ballooning number of Filipinos migrating, I sure hope the language won't die with the parents who brought them kids outside the motherland.