Mother Tongue

I've always wondered why Koreans in their variety shows would say, "I'm bad in Korean" whenever they fail a game which involves a play in hangul. I'm like, "they're Korean! It's their mother tongue! How can they be bad at it?"

Just this morning, a friend asked for a Tagalog translation for a couple of English words. I was stumped and had to enlist the help of Google to find the proper terms. And when I did, I still had to struggle with the tenses. In the end, it was still not the appropriate translation.

So yes, I guess the nationality does not equate to being proficient of the language especially if it's not the mother tongue. Though I know Tagalog and can speak it, it's not same as my knowledge of the English language which I regularly use.

Of course, there's a part of me that's ashamed for not learning the language of my nation's forefathers but then, what would you expect if the education system is using English as it's medium of communication?