Kampuchea Crossings

Bump to baby on the beaten expat track

preschool

Tagalog book: Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut)

by 4 Comments

Bahay Kubo(2)

This folk song is a catchy tune (in tagalog), and my son picked up the lyrics in a very short time. He was 2 years old then and spoke no Tagalog. It’s a good introduction to the language and culture of the Philippines.

Anak Books has a great description of the book, so I copy it below in its entirety from their website. Please visit them because it also features a lot of great books in both Tagalog and bilingual Tagalog/English.

The classic Tagalog folktale ‘Bahay Kubo’ is lovingly told and beautifully illustrated through classic Filipino vignettes. This book includes lyrics and score. “Bahay Kubo” is perhaps the best-known and best-loved folk song in the Philipines. Its composer is unknown. Its Tagalog lyrics have been passed down through the generations by way of the oral tradition. The words and music which appear in this book represent but one of the many versions of this folk song. The song’s diatonic melody and walts-like rhythm suggest European influences. The lyrics include plants which are not indegenous to the Philippines, such as peanuts (mani), eggplant (talong), and mustard (mustasa). These foreign elements could mean that the folk song originated or evolved during colonial times. Bahay Kubo tells of a family living in a small nipa hut, surrounded by a garden filled with vegetables. It is a song that celebrates the bounty of our land.

 

This post is for the Read Around the World Summer Reading Series from Multicultural Kid Blogs!  Now through August, bloggers from all over the world will share their recommendations of great multicultural books for the entire family!  For more details and the full schedule, visit the series main page.  You can also follow along on our Summer Reading Pinterest Board!

maintaining a multilingual environment if we move back to the US

by Leave a Comment

_MG_1640

One of the things I appreciate about expatriate life is its cultural exposure, especially in a city like Phnom Penh. The kids are exposed to so many languages on any given day. Contrast this with my early years back home. I only realized after many years in the system that a multilingual upbringing wasn’t normal in the US (I went to school in Spanish Harlem). I’m the only one in my family who knew just two languages. That was bad enough – I certainly didn’t want my kids limited to English. So we put our little boy in a French immersion program. His teacher is a creative, gentle Frenchwoman. He’s been in her class  just four weeks and already he’s counting, singing and carrying on conversations in French. Their absorptive capacity at this age is incredible isn’t it?

Why French? I try to expose my kids to tagalog, but it just isn’t strong enough (there’s little opportunity to hear conversation so  they won’t get a contextual enough grasp of it). They know Khmer, but with just 14 million people in the world who speak it, how useful will it be outside Cambodia..? Our preferences are Spanish and Mandarin. But the preschool happened to offer French so we went with that. French is fairly prevalent here in SE Asia and in Africa, many countries being former french colonies. And it’s a second language for a large part of Europe and throughout the world. Plus it’s one of the main working or procedural languages in many global institutions. It could come in handy someday. Even if hubby and I don’t speak it, it’ll be easy enough anywhere in world we end up to sustain their fluency in it, right?

We were pretty excited about it, until I started looking into maintaining it if we moved back to the US. (Who knows what the future will bring?) I looked into the NYC school system. Naturally a strong curriculum is important, so I next inquired specifically about language and music  programs.

What a disappointment! Of all places, I expected NYC to be teeming with dual-language curriculums and immersion programs in the world’s top languages. Top-tier academies offer it (and for ~$30,000/yr preschool fees they better!), but it’s sparse in the rest of the system. How odd that in this day and age where bi-/multilingualism is a tremendous asset for tomorrow’s global workforce, there are such few opportunities to take it that schools which offer it are so competitive to get into!

Well, NYC parents are taking matters into their own hands, organizing fundraisers to get or keep language programming in the education system. This inspired a piece in the NY Times on France’s initiative to fund French bilingual programs in NYC public schools (“A Big Advocate of French in New York’s Schools: France”, by Kirk Semple). This isn’t a new concept, as the French actively promote their language and culture across the world, making it accessible to many income levels. But this notion of the French government promoting their culture in America? Lively debate is an understatement. Articles include John McWorther’s “Let’s stop pretending that French is an important language” in The New Republic.

The prevailing (recent!) cultural attitude stateside towards the French aside, from my initial research it looks like NYC’s school system needs all the help it can get. It’s a win-win for France and for the US, so I hope the initiative works out. I also hope that if and when we have to move back that those programs will be up and running.