To me mother tongues are those secret recipes which only our moms know and soon they will be forgotten by the generations to come. I wonder if Mother tongues today are restricted to the grandparents teaching it to the children occasionally? Why are we shy if our child does speak fluently in his mother tongue and proud when he understands the global language English. Ofcourse there is absolutely no denying that English is an extremely important language and kids must be fluent in it. For example, Telugu is one of the most ancient languages – it is amongst the first fifteen spoken languages in the world.
Enough has been said on benefits of being Bilingual & reading to kids in multiple languages but it will not be relevant unless parents think they are empowering their kids by speaking to them in their mother tongue at home. The other problem a lot of parents face today is, they are the only source of English for the child. Given that a lot of parents are working and the child is spending time either with the local help or the grand parents neither of whom are fluent in English thus parents need to make a conscious effort in speaking only in English and ensuring that the child is fluent in it.
A child does pick up multiple languages and especially in the early years language is never taught but spoken. If parents constantly try then there are enough opportunities to teach the child both the languages just like the way our parents did. A child will learn English through friends, schools, libraries, books, toys, CD’s , TV, instructions and many other day to day interactions however mother tongue which is extremely important can be taught only by the parents or family. So do not give this one a miss and do ensure that you pass on your inheritance and preserve the love for languages for your child.
This article was first published on Momsdiaries.in in my regular column there.
Parul Gupta
KSP Team
Rati Ramadas Girish
