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Post by gunmyeong on Dec 21, 2005 15:29:08 GMT -5
Hey everyone,im new here..me= Cath So trying to start a new topic here. I was just wondering if your parents ever tought you their native languages while you where growing up? For eksample, I grew up in Norway,my dad is Norwegian/American and my mum is thai..so of course I spoke Norwegian and later on learned how to speak english in school and so on,but I hardly speak any thai:( My mum never tought me that much..I understand it,but I find it very difficault to speak.)I wish that my mum would have tought me from I was little,so I wouldnt have to struggle to learn it now Im so jealous of many of my EA friends who can speak thai fluently and have no problems switching between speaking thai/norwegian,like my friend Jen( inyaface..lol) her mum only spoke thai with her ever since she was born and would only answer if she spoke thai..now she speaks the language fluently and even reads and writes in thai without even ever living in Thailand! I wish that my mum would have done the same Now that im getting older it's really difficault to get the pronounciation right..no matter how hard I try I only end up sounding like a foreginer trying to speak thai I really agree with you. No matter what is the language of one of the parents, even if it can be considered to be pretty unsignificant as an uncommon spoken language, I believe it is still a pity when the parents have different native languages and don't feel the necessity to transmit their language to their children. I mean, what's wrong with having bilingual/bicultural children? It proved to be all advantages... I'd expect a mixed person whose parents are from different places/countries/continents/whatever to have a good knowledge of both cultures and hopefully of both languages... But even if you didn't learn it when you were a kid, now if you're interested, go on studying it - it will be useful in the future for sure, whatever you decide to do. You will get closer to your roots, and that'll be a good aspect to boost your CV with.
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Post by miaim on Dec 25, 2005 22:29:10 GMT -5
my father always spoke english to me and my mum always in japanese.....i went to english & japanese schools but since it was my father who took care of my education, i'm better at english - my mum is always dissing my japanese & i can only wirte about 100 chinese characters as some of the others said, it was a pain juggling the two when i was a kid but am grateful now for those forced languages lessons..... & it's never too late to pick up a language! i'm trying to drag my japanese back up at the mo..... peace
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Post by miaim on Dec 25, 2005 22:29:39 GMT -5
oh yeah and cathmoi does look eerily like angelina jolie..... peace
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Post by Micha on Dec 26, 2005 15:54:23 GMT -5
My Grandma could only speak Hokkien (type of Chinese) and I stayed with her when I was very young so I can speak and understand it fluently which i'm SO grateful for now. I can understand bits and pieces of Cantonese and Malay but DAMN, I'm so jealous of anyone who can speak/understand/write in Mandarin... I think i'm going to pick it up again.
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Post by gunmyeong on Dec 28, 2005 14:12:39 GMT -5
my father always spoke english to me and my mum always in japanese.....i went to english & japanese schools but since it was my father who took care of my education, i'm better at english - my mum is always dissing my japanese & i can only wirte about 100 chinese characters as some of the others said, it was a pain juggling the two when i was a kid but am grateful now for those forced languages lessons..... & it's never too late to pick up a language! i'm trying to drag my japanese back up at the mo..... peace if you speak it it won't be much trouble... good luck... ganbatte kudasai... ;D
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Post by gunmyeong on Dec 28, 2005 14:16:18 GMT -5
My Grandma could only speak Hokkien (type of Chinese) and I stayed with her when I was very young so I can speak and understand it fluently which i'm SO grateful for now. I can understand bits and pieces of Cantonese and Malay but DAMN, I'm so jealous of anyone who can speak/understand/write in Mandarin... I think i'm going to pick it up again. The grammar of all chinese languages/dialects is still quite close even if not exactly similar... and there are hints about the pronunciation if you already speak Hokkien and understand bits of Cantonese... so learning/improving Putonghua will not cause much trouble I think; it would be much harder for a complete beginner...
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LS
New Member
mmm...squid
Posts: 19
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Post by LS on Dec 29, 2005 20:15:17 GMT -5
Growing up my parents spoke english with me but would often throw in some Tagalog to emphasize whatever point they were trying to make, like Tagalog would be more threatening. So probably the majority of my Tagalog vocabulary consists of various commands like "Halika Dito!" (come here) or threats "Gusto mo sipa?" (do you want me to hit you). Lol~kinda makes me chuckle thinking about it because I think I did listen more once they started "commanding" in Tagalog. Once I have kids, I'm going to try and get my mom to teach them Tagalog...
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Post by bulaklak on Dec 29, 2005 20:36:49 GMT -5
Lol LS childhood memories... I remembered when my dad threatened to get my grandma to bring a bamboo stick to hit us with. lol My grandma is the only one who speaks to us in Tagalog but she doesn't visit a lot because we live too far away. My mom was supposed to learn Tagalog from my dad so we could all speak it... but that plan failed I guess. What is funny though is that I've noticed that my dad only has a Filipino accent when he is really mad and yelling at us. It also took me forever when I was little to figure out why my aunties called me "anak"... I'm a little slow on the uptake. Oh I have to tell my favorite language story of all time. My grandma was trying to teach my little sister (she was 5 or 6 at the time) Tagalog. She said ikaw - you and pointed at her. And she repeated it a few times. My sister responded and said "But I'm not a cow"
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LS
New Member
mmm...squid
Posts: 19
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Post by LS on Dec 29, 2005 20:54:44 GMT -5
Bulaklak~cute story! Yeah, my mom doesn't usually have a strong accent, but when she is mad and when she can't get it out in English, she just spazzes in Tagalog. You know the parents mean business when they bust out in their native language!
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Post by Julz 33 on Dec 29, 2005 23:02:22 GMT -5
I can understand tagalog but speak a butchered form of it. Therefore, no my mom did not teach me. But I can sing a song in tagalog from childhood. I can probably speak better french. Also, as my dad does not speak any form of Chinese, neither do I. I try to speak my native tongue of English - but ! butcher that as well!
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Post by etudes on Jan 2, 2006 23:24:39 GMT -5
for most of my life, i was like, 'why the heck wud i need to know korean for???'... my parents gave up on me lol right now, i don't really REALLY care, but thinking about it now, i'd rather know it, than not know it. it'd be cool to talk to koreans i guess. meh... gave up on japanese too. and boku wa nihonjin o jyouzu des***a... was taht right? O and douzo yoroshiku.
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Popple
Junior Member
Wha...?
Posts: 57
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Post by Popple on Jan 3, 2006 1:09:56 GMT -5
I only speak english. My situation is similar to Shugi's...my father wouldn't allow my mum to teach me Tagalog. I guess he thought I wouldn't need it in Australia and that I would fit in better with all the other Aussie kids...I don't know Throughout my teens I never really cared about learning my mum's language/culture but I find that the older I get the more curious I am and the more I really want to learn Tagalog.
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miss feli
Full Member
here kitty, kitty!
Posts: 315
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Post by miss feli on Jan 4, 2006 9:49:13 GMT -5
I learned English... =) my mom never taught me Korean since I made fun of it. So all I know how to speak well is French & Japanese... しまった。
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Post by muzo on Jan 4, 2006 19:01:32 GMT -5
Bulaklak~cute story! Yeah, my mom doesn't usually have a strong accent, but when she is mad and when she can't get it out in English, she just spazzes in Tagalog. You know the parents mean business when they bust out in their native language! thats funny. it the complete opposite with my mom. she usually speaks tibetan but when she gets really really angry, its german and she would call me with my german name. that means im not her son anymore.
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Thir Jiang Li
Junior Member
1/2 Norwegian, 1/4 Singapore-Chinese and 1/4 Singapore-Filipino
Posts: 190
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Post by Thir Jiang Li on Jan 5, 2006 12:39:33 GMT -5
Nooo My mother grew up in Singapore and spoke Cantonese as a kid, but when she moved to England as a teenager she sort of lost the language She did teach me English though, so I understood a lot of English a long time before we started learning it at school.
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