My children doesn't speak our mother language, what shall I do?

It is very important for our children to speak in our mother tongue. That is why in the K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines, Kinder-Grade 3 are using Mother tongue in teaching. We need to love and appreciate our own language.

Same thing happened to my Aunt too. Her two children can't speak their mother's language which is Yoruba. They live abroad and they don't even understand it. The little my Aunt say to them, they reply back in English (in fact American accent) 😅😅

I think they only need patience and keep trying your best. When they grow up, they would learn how to speak it. They are still kids now and they will understand later.

I never spoke my father's language and most likely he and his siblings no longer speak it too. My grandmother wanted us to integrate.

My children speak 4 languages. Why? Because I believe the more languages they speak and understand the better it is. At home, we speak our language (the country they are born in). We watch films in English, read in 3 different languages. At school or outside and with friends they speak another language. If I am with them we speak our language.

If you and your wife do the same and only listen if they answer in the same language you will force them to answer you in the right way. It's good for the brain if you can switch languages easily. I would train it and tell them at home this is the language they should speak.

Indeed, mother language is our own identity, without this were like nothing but a pet of someone english speaker. We should learn our own mother language

My siblings and I can speak our mother's tongue fluently. Thanks to mom and dad's effort when we were kids. Dad ensured that the lingua franca at home is our native language. But out there we can communicate in English. Mum thought us the alphabet of the language, and we can read as well. I can see the pride within dad and mum when other parents commend them for teaching us our language. And whenever we travel to my hometown, we blend in easily with everyone. You have to come up with a convenient and effective strategy for your home.

Hello, I agree with you. If you have that opportunity with your children do it, because that's how it is, they have to know their roots and culture. Knowing two or more languages is important nowadays. I congratulate you. Good luck to you.

We see it as norms here, but it shouldn't be so....you can possibly have them return home sometimes it will help your children understand and speak more and better. But I've seen an Igbo boy speak yoruba more fluently than his own birth language, it's just funny.

It's very common to see this everywhere. At least you are making effort to make them learn it. I know of parents that beat their children for speaking their native language. It shouldn't be. We ought not to forget our source

It is so unfortunate that lots of parents don't see the importance of teaching their kids native language but I am happy you showed concern toward your kid's inability to speak them.

The environment might be a factor if they are kids that really with people around. I didn't speak yoruba throughout childhood despite not growing in a conducive environment. My mom didn't want it because she felt it would destroy our English but when we became teenagers she allowed us and it was able to blend in after series of mistakes.

As a teacher I can give my two cents on this. It is a thing many bilingual parents struggle with! With young kids they often understand the mother language quite well as they have heard it, but if they persist in speaking English back when you don't want them to, the easiest solution is to work with a positive/negative feedback system. For example: pretend not to hear them when they speak English and keep saying in your native tongue: I don't understand what you mean? When they get really stuck you could help them out with an: Oh do you mean ... (say it in your native tongue). The trick is when they start figuring this out and reply in your native tongue you must reward them for doing so: be very enthusiastic, give them compliments etc. The reality is that if there is nothing in it for them, kids are often reluctant to make an effort. Good luck!

Actually, it's becoming worrisome that African children nowadays have a foreign language, mostly English, as their First language. This is because parents fail to speak their indigenous language to their kids while at birth. We tend to think there's a prestige in a child being able to speak English at the detriment of her own Mother Tongue. What makes it worse is that majority of our native languages are not fully developed. Lack of a standard orthography, lack of a dictionary, and lack of teachers of indigenous languages are another big problem.

However, it is not too late. But it'll take a great deal of effort and time to address this issue.

it's the same here in our country. the new generation has made English the primary language and only a little of our dialect is exposed to the kids thus, they end up understanding it but not using it in communication...

Hello am David or known as twilight here or read.cash this has become a major issue in our society today. Most parents do not even make effort trying to educate their children. I think the best would be to enroll them on language classes.

Agree. Filipino will always be my first love. It would be hard to communicate with your fellow citizens if you don't know your native language.

Could you be a little late on this? If you started in infancy, they could learn both languages very easily. I have friends around me who do this.

The best is for us to allow our children to speak their mother's tongue. It is so much important for them to speak to our family members when they come in touch.

In our country, we don't want to speak our mother language because it's kind've akward and nosebleeding 🤣 we speak our dialect and English is being used in school.. Mother language is important though. but nowadays, English is more important especially when it comes to finding a better job or working abroad..

Just explain to them how important it is that they must learn your native language. Maybe later on when they grew up they will understand and want to learn it with their own. Don't push them too hard for now I guess.

You are right, it should be a thing of priority teaching the children how to speak and even not speaking alone, but also understanding the mother language.

You made them not to children are much open to learning, if you have been communicating with them in their mother's language they would have understood it. There is still a solution to this get them a teacher, communicate with them in yourself in that language

This problem began at home where the parents do not speak their local vernacular or mother tongue as you may call it. It has resulted into some languages going into extinction. Parents may be in the centre of the blame for this. Language is one aspect of culture of an indigenous people that must be taken with utmost seriousness and handed down from one generation to another. From time to time, the children must be drawn to get ro see what the culture of their parents is all about. It's not too late ro begin now. Teach them from simple to complex, children have an ear for language, they can still learn.

True, I'm still speaking in my native language (not the national language) with my family members sometimes. It's really important for kids to learn them at a young age. Besides cultural values, I think it's good that we are able to communicate in a way that outsiders don't understand so we can speak about private things in public areas.

well you just need to make your kids understand how beautiful your culture is, when you get festivals, include them in decorations., explain why those festivals are celebrated and your everyday traditions. The more they hear, the more they want to learn it. Eventually when they grow up, they themselves will want to learn your language. Do not stress about it and you seem to be such a sweet parent :))