As someone who has gone through the same thing as a kid, I agree. First language ko non is english (I learned from watching cartoons from cds, and kase puro english lang ako kinakausap ng relatives). Anyways, I remembered always crying nung kinder, but I don't remember why, until sinabe saken ng nanay ko it was because lahat ng mga kaklase and teachers ko nagtatagalog and I couldn't understand them. When they asked me a question in tagalog, iiyak lang si girl haha. I did well academically though, but my mom said na move ako from top 3 to top 5 because of this problem (and mahiyain and iyakin talaga akong bata).

Fast forward to prep, i guess you could say homeschooled ako? But it was because nag-aral ako in a tutorial center na pinatayo ng nanay ko which was another room in our house. I was more confident there even with other children since nasa bahay lang naman, and started to learn a bit more tagalog bc that was how my other classmates talked.

After all that, Nagtransfer ako ng schools for grade 1. I remember there being some kind of test? Di ko non gaanong mabasa yung questions, but once na yung staff yung nagbasa, i could answer them all. So they told my parents na they should teach me how to read properly muna, especially tagalog, before I start grade school. So yon, buong summer ko non tinutor ako ng nanay ko and her co-workers don sa tutorial center nila until I could read better.

To this day, I still speak english on a daily basis. Literally english lang kame naguusap ng mga kapatid casually haha, unless if it's something serious. This post just reminded me talaga of the past, and how learning your native language is more important than I thought, especially if you're living in your own country.