My Children's Speech;Behavior; Barack Obama's English

[aeoization]

I like the way you speak English. English is not my mother tongue but I understand everything clearly and without problems, a lot easier than any British Received Pronunciation we learn at school or the way they speak English in American movies..

[leshark]

with my culture and customs especially from my heritage, we speak very differently to family, friends and guests... when i speak to my family i sound like a stereotypical indian, its very qiuet and polite, with no slang or swearing. when i speak to guests or family friends its sounds somewhat posh, and when i speak to my friends its very chilled, lots of slang. cos the secondary school i went to was a "ghetto" school. so naturally for the 5 years i spent there i picked up all of that.

[Kazuya3000]

I totally agree with everything you said,Mr.Moses. I believe that it's time we break these cycles by teaching our children to love everyone. The Holy Bible says love covers a multitude of sins. Btw if you don't mind me asking, what religion are you? If it's too personal you don't have to answer.

[StevePoppers]

Please don't stifle your children's individuality. Try your best to show them the path you desire for them, but let them walk their own.

[laoshu505000]

@StevePoppers Indeed

[shtefiko]

Great video!

[meyiyiyi55]

good sumation.makes me feel like saying halleluya.

[jacobcreed001]

Amazing Video and message.

Thanks for it! =D

[vinayakaya]

What you said about your children speaking like you isn't necessarily true. My mom intentionally changed her accent to sound less southern. I didn't try, but I ended up having even less of an accent than my mother. Also, multilingual children don't always get both of their parent's accents 100% the same. If their parents live in the us then they tend to have a less than perfect accent of the second language.

[unabomberman]

Uh...what exactly do you mean by "heathen" or "demonic"?

That sounded kind of weird to me.

Are you using those terms broadly in a methaphorical context, or are you being, you know, textual?

[mattghtpa]

Define demonic.

[ShayMizrahi1]

I really like your videos, very interesting.

:)

[jmichaelrout]

I wish my parents had this attitude. Mexicans have always been looked down on in the USA and so they didn't teach us Spanish! What a mistake. Guess now I have to learn it the hard (fun) way. ;)

[jovenATL]

Parents are not the only factor that influence how children learn to speak. In fact, peers are the MOST influential. Your kids, despite your efforts to raise them multi-lingual, are going to stray towards the social environment. When other kids are speaking English, they're gonna lean toward English. You're really gonna have to try hard to make them interested in Japanese and Arabic, things that no one else (besides you two) are using.

[laoshu505000]

I agree.

[leshark]

@laoshu505000 do you have children?

sorry such a personal question :P

[LMB222]

My kid, 10 year old "Canadian Polish", has been living with me in Germany for 6 months, and he has already started responding to simple questions in German.

While we were still living in Poland, he refused to speak English in public simply because kids hate to stick out. It seems they have difficulty dealing with being different.

[jovenATL]

I had a professor in undergrad for a Spanish class who was from Chile, married to a Spaniard woman. They were trying to raise their child bilingually in Atlanta. He said she was at the age where she stopped speaking Spanish so they basically 'forced' (not literally) her to speak Spanish at home (like not giving her food until she asked for it in Spanish). She may think it's rough now, but when she is a fully bilingual adult she was be very grateful for that experience.

[LMB222]

It's not rough, it's a necessity. We had to resort to a trick: we hired a babysitter who pretended to be German and not speak a word Polish. She spoke English with our kids, and that finally was the breakthrough.

It felt like cheating our kids, but we all feel that was justified.

[shearoberts]

For example, I speak much differently now then when I did as a child (not just in terms of word usage but accent and all) I speak almost nothing like either of my parents now. But initially I did. I think perhaps it is because I have met so many people from all over the world and that I teach I have changed it over time.

Long comment short, I enjoyed this a lot and agree, it'll be nice teaching my children someday. Hopefully, they'll continue on their own once I am finished.

[shearoberts]

I have to agree 100% with this. I can relate a lot to this. Even though we have different backgrounds. My fiance is Japanese and we've already decided that our children will grow up learning Japanese and English (and perhaps Spanish as we both have a strong interest in it, and it is an important language to know...plus it sounds great :D)

I do think people are a product of their environment, but you can change that. (con't)

[LucienZakhaev]

I too am an exception. I never learned to speak English from anyone in my family or neighborhood (I grew up in Brooklyn and Queens). I learned my English from my teachers and discovery channel. :)

[LucienZakhaev]

Because I have many backgrounds, I never let my ethnic backgrounds define me. I let my mind define me, not phenotype.

[nanhuazhenren]

You mean genotype.

[LucienZakhaev]

phenotype are physical characteristics determined by your genes

[nanhuazhenren]

i know

[qzchris]

About song lyrics...I have a real passion for music like death metal and black metal, and love the band Cannibal Corpse. Yet fortunately neither I nor the band take the lyrics seriously. I mean their lyrics are about as gruesome as it gets, and the whole genre can be extremely anti-religious at times, but I would never consider for a moment enacting or supporting such views. I can honestly say such song lyrics exert absolutely 0 influence over me. I just love the music itself.

[mobiustripped]

Great video. A couple of things I think you left out when talking about the way your kids speak: TV, and other people in their community (friends, teachers). For example, I speak with a different accent than my family but the same as my friends from school (close to so-called "Standard American English"). What do you think about these other factors, and will you address them?

[laoshu505000]

Yea, most definitely..those are part of the problem as well. That would be a whole new video talking about that other stuff.

[mobiustripped]

Cool, I'd love to hear what you think. Good stuff man.

[daysin1234]

Great video with valid points!

[DopeSpace9]

I agree with most of your points except I still love hip hop. Calling it demonic is quite an exaggeration.

[laoshu505000]

Oh, don't get me wrong bro, I love Hip-Hop..I never said that I didn't like Hip-Hop. Rap isn't Hip-Hop. Real Hip-Hop isn't demonic. But if you're talking about cats like 50 cents, Lil Wayne, Jay Z.......this isn't hip hop....(KRS ONE) (TALIB KWELI) (JERU)---If you're not talking about this type of music here.....I can't relate...

[DopeSpace9]

i think we have a similar concept of what hip hop is. I love kweli, krs, rakim and mos def. all great hip hop.

[laoshu505000]

Yea, I love hip-hop. I just don't like listening to anything that isn't positive and educational.

[veemon]

You should listen to OZ (Australian) Hip Hop, it represents hip hop the way it's supposed to be!

[qzchris]

Very much agree with this. I think people sometimes forget just how much we are influenced by our parents and the home environment. Of course, school and friends play a crucial role later on, but the parents have an extremely important influence and responsibility to prepare their children and lay that first foundation for education.

[Not1OfUrFans]

Good video

[SuperOpenminded]

5:05 " they try to make us lookn bad."

Man, I feel the same. I am a Muslim Arab from Jerusalem, Palestine. And I feel the western media tries to make Muslims and Arabs looks like EVIL TERRORISTS.

Very nice video.

Best greetings,

Your brother from Jerusalem

[laoshu505000]

Yea, I know. I'm a proud muslim myself. I guess to them I'm a ''Terrorist''

[tagatautube]

Great video response. By "behavior" I meant mannerisms and speech patterns. Not good/bad/moral/immoral behavior. I asked about Obama because he is of mixed race too. I was wondering if you disapproved of how Obama spoke English given that he is also African American. Thank you for taking the time out to make the video response. You are not only a good linguist, you are also a good person.

[Theta910]

Moses, this was a brilliant video! That is why I have great respect for you good sir.

[neoguy9090]

I agree that there is no such thing as race.

There's definitely nationality, like the lineages you mentioned, which we can be proud of :D

[ToffeeNosedGit]

How did you meet your wife?

[laoshu505000]

I met her at the library.

[ToffeeNosedGit]

You must learn how to tell stories better before you have children.

[laoshu505000]

hahah..you just like dissin me on here don't you? It's cool though...I still got love for you bro..

[Milehighkingpin]

Great video. We love you.

[laoshu505000]

Many people may say that you shouldn't let this type of music control you and I agree.. but it's reality that there are a lot of subliminal messages that one wouldn't probably even catch. Their conscious mind being demonized subliminally...as a result effecting one's behaviour.

[ichimaru378]

thats the posative balance. good job kyodai!! my video response is comming soon aniki. peace!

[ultranordic]

Out of curiosity, what is demonic music, and why this disdain for heathens?

[laoshu505000]

Any type of music not talking about anything positive. The type of music that talks about violence and hate, showing off how much money they got etc is what I label as demonic music. This type of music is unhealth for any human being.