I Don’t Want My Children to Grow Up as “Coconuts”!

[Flagg]

Ay sus, she's right to go try hacking.

[Renelmac]

naalala ko tuloy dun sa HArry and Kumar ..Sa chinese naman tawag nila Twinkie, Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. But dito they used it not because he couldn't speak chinese but because he was implying that "white people/ideas were better ideas/people" I believe na hindi lang linguahe ang basehan, kundi total person talaga

[city]

if pinoys who grew up in the states have no plans of going back to the phils and making it here then it's fine..but who knows di ba....it might be a good thing to know the language.

but looking down on pinoys who can't speak the language is another story.

[wren]

naalala ko tuloy dun sa HArry and Kumar ..Sa chinese naman tawag nila Twinkie, Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. But dito they used it not because he couldn't speak chinese but because he was implying that "white people/ideas were better ideas/people" I believe na hindi lang linguahe ang basehan, kundi total person talaga

so instead of coconuts, dapat pala tawag nila "hohos".

[GasJunkie]

banana banana banana

[artpogi]

It's a free country. If 2nd gen Pinoy kids in the US don't want to learn Pinoy words, then that's their perogative and I wouldn't think of them any lower than anybody else. They're just doing what countless immigrants before them have done. Every single person in the US (with the exception of Native-Americans) were immigrants or had ancestors who were immigrants. You don't see them looking down on their own who don't speak the tongue of their respective homelands. Why should Pinoys be held to a different standard? If some Pinoy starts telling me I'm nothing because I don't speak the language, I'd tell him to f**k off and then cuss him in Tagalog. He's got some nerve trying to impose his ways on me.

Blending in is not speaking the language in the same accent as the locals. Blending in is being yourself. The values of most Americans and just about everybody else aren't that different. Just be yourself. Learn english in school, not the streets. Not everyone trash talks like a gangbanger wannabe.

Next time I see a Pinoy who thinks of other Pinoys like a coconut, I'm just going to grab the guy and tell him to shut up. Let the 2nd gens be what they want to be. Most will eventually find interest in their Pinoy heritage and will find it in their own special ways. The last thing they need is some self-righteous Pinoy telling them they're nothing just because they lack some language skill and without even taking that person's humanity into account....

Amen to that

[empy]

live and let live Paco. no one appointed you the judge, jury and guardian of filipino culture. if you think it's important your family honor the pinoy ways and language, then go do that. but don't tell others how they should live their life.

i'm not sure if he'd call me a coconut, but i grew up in the US not speaking a word of tagalog. but in my opinion my parents were some of the biggest patriots - they were very active in the Boston community doing what they could to raise awareness about the Marcos regime (they actually met Cory and Ninoy a few times), and forsaking good careers in America to get US educations and be part of a 'reverse brain drain' in migrating back to the philippines.

it's funny because kids grow up wanting to fit in, and most immigrant pinoy kids refuse to speak tagalog anymore because they want to be as American as the kids who grew up here. for me, i migrated to the philippines and tried desperately to learn tagalog so i too could fit in.

what's my point? i'm not sure maybe only that kids should be given the freedom to choose their own way, and most of them (me included) will grow up with a healthy respect and interest in their heritage.

[Jun aka Pekto]

if pinoys who grew up in the states have no plans of going back to the phils and making it here then it's fine..but who knows di ba....it might be a good thing to know the language.

but looking down on pinoys who can't speak the language is another story.

Well, there's always room for improvement on both sides. People just have to realize that there are those who aren't cut out to learn another language. The old timers here have to realize that new arrivals may be experiencing culture shock and need something familiar to associate with.

After everything's been said and done, I still think most Pinoys get along just fine as a whole, esp here in Arizona.

[Jun aka Pekto]

i migrated to the philippines and tried desperately to learn tagalog so i too could fit in.

what's my point? i'm not sure maybe only that kids should be given the freedom to choose their own way, and most of them (me included) will grow up with a healthy respect and interest in their heritage.

I was the same way. I wanted so badly to fit in when we first arrived in the Philippines. But, the first year was rough.

I am proud to say that after 4 fisticuffs plus one smart-a** jacka** whose teeth I wanted to break, and being kicked out of St Andrews School because of said fisticuffs..... I did learn to speak Tagalog and made lifelong friends there in the Philippines. After that tumultuous first year, the best years of my life finally started.

The Philippines is always with me, both the good and the bad. My life in the Philippines was very very colorful and worth remembering. There was hardly a day of boredom.

[dx8976]

"A different language is a different vision of life."

-Federico Fellini