Does anyone know how to raise a natively bilingual child?

I think it has been a legal requirement to use English as the Language of instruction since before the Second World War (apart from the time of Japanese occupation)

As I understand it, Grade 1&2 kids get some sort of instruction in English to prepare them for Grade III when English becomes the language of instruction.

One of the teachers I know (Grade I only) does not have particularly good English. I am not sure if she has to teach English though. Almost everything she says can be interpreted in so many ways that I have great difficulty communicating with her sometimes.

It might just be that there are variances across the nation as a whole. A national summary might not be enough to give a truely reflective picture. Whilst I say that my wife's sister teaches at her school in English, this might be confined to the cities and not the provinces.

Here in Davao, English is NOT the language of instruction until the child is aged 8 or 9. Even then, the teachers' own standard of English is pretty abysmal since there is very little English taught to teachers in training.

I encouraged my wife to enquire about taking a degree course in English at the Ateneo de Davao which is probably the best university in the area. It's a three year course entitled "English Literature" and, for the first two years, all the instruction is in Filipino and certainly does not cover any aspects of either English or Literature. There are only two modules - out of 12 - in the third year that could loosely be described as having any relevance at all one of which is creative writing and a whole two weeks is devoted to that! No truth in advertising here!

Strange as my wife's degree course was taught in English. It must be a provincial thing.

I checked with my wife. Indeed her nephew, who is 5, is taught using English as the medium. And indeed her sister teaches 9/10 year old's using English as the medium. I have to say that her sister's English is pretty good.

Tom my sugestion would be that your missus speaks tag/visayan and you english depending how much time you spend together your comprehension will grow to.

Our daughter 6 speaks tagalog ( although she spent her first 3 years in cebu as my wifes father would only allow tag in the house) she also speaks portuguesse pretty well having learnt at school, and we continue to use it here in the UK as our secret language lol

Her English was developed alongside portuguess and now in england is progressing well , the missus still talks tag to her some of the time so w3ll grounded in 3 languages.

The missus,s English is also continuing to improve she understands portuguess but confidence to speak ,to strangers ,for work is ongoing.

I had french for 4 years at school and now having lived and worked in europe can communicate converse in german , portuguess spanish and french if i am in one of these countries.