Hi all, You must be thinking what kind of problem is this but let me give you some details... My DD is 4 years old and going to be 5 on coming April. You all know nowadays Learning english is so important. Our mother tounge is hindi so my daughter knows hindi well. I want her to learn atleast some basic english but she is not intrested at all. I tried it by speaking in english with her but she gets irritate. When i show her fav. cartoon in english then she demand to change it to hindi. Its not that i hate hindi language but she speaks too much hindi. And all this from cartoon channels only. Like prithvi for earth, saheli for friend, parichya for exam etc. Am i thinking too much for this issue? Can i just let it be or encourage her for learning english too? I too don't want to give any pressure in this age and let her enjoy. I m really not sure when to start....
Speaking too much of Hindi isn't at all a problem. Make her mingle with kids who speak English. Her teachers in school must be speaking in Eng in school. Kids prefer to speak language spoken in school. Dont get irritated or make her irritate. She will catch up.
I am really impressed with her command on Hindi language to be honest. How about telling her the importance of learning English and also you speaking to your hubby in English .... it will take time but at least she will be familiar with English words so that when communicating with others she won't find it hard. also she must be listening or reading English Rhymes ? so don't panic but you have to make an effort to bring the interest in her for the English language. When we moved back to India, our son used to do the same the moment we used to watch hindi channel he used to ask us to change the channels... he wasn't watching them but still did not want to hear ....I am translating things in Hindi obviously when when he is in listening mood specially in the morning or when he playing.... he is finding few words funny but now he understands the language when we are speaking in Hindi though he is not able to repeat all the things...
My kids are no different. With the help of regional cartoon channels, they speak fluent regional language - our mother tongue, than English or the second language. In fact, I could not speak that fluently in my mother tongue without the help of a few English words. Like you said, the simple and normal English words like friends, banana etc are all spoken in the regional language only by my kids. Again, they must have learnt them from the cartoons, as no one of us speak such a pure language at home at all. I too had confusions as you about how and when to start English at home. My sister's kids who are around the same age prefer to speak in English despite of their fluency in the regional language. But my kids are just the other way round. I personally do not discriminate them for their taste. It is their identity after all. So, i let them be. They learn English and other language at School. Their friends, and teachers speak in English too. They watch English cartoons, and I speak in English with them lately. So, they know English. They can speak in English to some extend, and manage with fellow English speakers without our support. But when allowed, they happily switched to the regional language, and feel extremely comfy here. I would just let them be... as long as they learn English and other language