1. Want to be a Positive Parent? : Click Here
    Dismiss Notice

When Kid Can't Speak Mother Tongue Or Father Tongue

Discussion in 'Schoolgoers & Teens' started by Rihana, Jul 11, 2017.

  1. SGBV

    SGBV IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,952
    Likes Received:
    11,414
    Trophy Points:
    438
    Gender:
    Female
    @Rihana, I thought about this matter just yesterday after an encounter with a French Family who were originally from Sri Lanka.
    This family is here on vacation.

    The mother who was in her late 40s, spoke in Tamil just like the Sri Lankan natives. But her pre-teen children do not even understood Tamil, leave alone conversing anything in it.
    They were shopping at a departmental store, and the mother had loads of trouble in translating everything to her kids in a not-so-fluent French.
    I say this, because I am fluent in French thus I sensed her difficulties and accent.
    She mixed French, English and Tamil too while explaining something about our cultural myth connecting to a food item they purchased.
    I am sure the kids were puzzled, and looked like real foreigners when it comes to these things.
    It is certainly a loss.

    Everyone has their root, and some connection towards their roots.
    The Japanese, Chinese, Scandinavians, Jews, Arabs and all who live outside of their country have some links to their roots that connects them with their groups living elsewhere.
    The most powerful and meaningful connection here is their language.
    This is how they identify themselves.
    Regardless of being American or French, these migrants have their unique ethnic or religious identity that speaks volumes about their originality.

    I speak 5 languages fluently, and I am not sure in which language i think. Earlier I used to think in French, and then in my mother tongue as I permanently moved here and settled. But now, everything is English here.
    The brain seems to adopt to the foreign culture with time. So, it can easily change and think in a foreign language depending on your place of living.
    We do not regret over the fact that we do not speak in our mother tongue anymore. So, obviously no regrets about the language difficulties of our kids.
    However, if we dig deep enough, we can still find the residue of our heritage and cultures in the depth of our existence. The past never leaves us, even though it is gone!!!

    I am sure many of these parents, whose kids do not speak/understand their mother/father tongue regret for this whenever they connect to their roots.
    It is like you are completely uprooted from your roots!!!
    Surely a compromise!!!
     
  2. startinganew

    startinganew Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    386
    Likes Received:
    670
    Trophy Points:
    173
    Gender:
    Female
    Many thanks to @Rihana for pointing me to this old thread from a question I asked recently (Creative Ideas To Teach Kids Mother-tongue Outside India?)!
    So many interesting opinions here...

    Glad to hear of your story - that you grew up in the US and yet can speak both languages fluently. And believe it or not almost everyone I know (including myself) and even in the previous generation - speak Tamil with a LOT of English peppered in - at least if they were from any of the bigger cities in Tamil Nadu.
     
    Rihana likes this.
  3. startinganew

    startinganew Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    386
    Likes Received:
    670
    Trophy Points:
    173
    Gender:
    Female
    Rihana likes this.
  4. SGBV

    SGBV IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    5,952
    Likes Received:
    11,414
    Trophy Points:
    438
    Gender:
    Female
    Hi...

    Thanks for your comment.

    Of course mother tongue is taught by parents. But we grew up in a neighborhood which spoke a different language. At that young age we were forced to learn the language of the majority, and it was not difficult.
    We migrated to a French speaking country as kids, and learnt French since then. We did our schooling in French too, but learnt English as our 3rd language. In that place we had this option to learn Tamil as second language in School.

    After growing up, English became the official language at work. Even after moving back to our home country, we still use English mostly.

    I learnt Arabic since I worked in Sudan for sometimes. I also grabbed Hindi and Malaysian from the movies. Also, I try my best to understand swahili and Kinyarwanda languages since I live in Rwanda now a days.

    I wish I could learn Spanish as I love this language a lot. So I downloaded an app for it and trying to learn my own...
     
    startinganew likes this.
  5. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    3,147
    Likes Received:
    5,088
    Trophy Points:
    408
    Gender:
    Female
    The Japanese (Hawaii has a huge population of people of Japanese ancestry), Chinese (all of the western states of America), Scandinavians (Minnesota, Dakotas) and Jews (Eastern States, especially NY and Pennsylvania)... are all immigrants whose children lose their savvy in their parents' language in one generation. Even the Chinese, notorious for living in all-chinese enclaves (called "Chinatowns") somehow let their children in America lose their parents' tongue. Total non-interaction with the other cultures in their new country would be required in order to maintain their linguistic isolation. This has been achieved in some parts of England, where a child can be raised with homeschooling (no inspections on the quality of what they teach exists in UK) and be taught only urdu and punjabi.
     
    Rihana likes this.
  6. startinganew

    startinganew Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    386
    Likes Received:
    670
    Trophy Points:
    173
    Gender:
    Female
    Hi @SGBV Sorry for my late ack and response.

    You must be really smart and talented to have mastered so many languages with each exposure as your life situation changed!

    So you started life with language 1 and 2.

    And then came language 3 and 4. (I am assuming Tamil in L1 or L2)

    So you got a chance to not lose it!

    Whoa, language 5 here...And Arabic is so different from the others - and you still managed to learn it. I had to learn it for a few years but still can only read - no vocabulary.

    Oh my! :-D :-D

    And more...:clapclap:

    And you are still on your language learning journey!! :clap2:

    You are a polyglot and a language lover! :biggrin: Thank you for sharing your story.
     
  7. startinganew

    startinganew Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    386
    Likes Received:
    670
    Trophy Points:
    173
    Gender:
    Female
    Interesting analysis, @Amulet. I didn't know about this.

    This is extreme though. My desire is definitely not "linguistic isolation"; it has been to teach the kid parent's tongue and definitely not isolate from the new land and it's language that I am benefitting very much from.
     
  8. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    3,147
    Likes Received:
    5,088
    Trophy Points:
    408
    Gender:
    Female
    Movies in India, and the television programs, expose isolated children to other languages.
    I had once read a story about a village (in Karnataka) where the inhabitants speak among themselves in Sanskrit.
     

Share This Page