When Kid Can't Speak Mother Tongue Or Father Tongue

I get 2nd, 3rd, 4th thoughts about things. If I had posted them all, without editing out ver 1.0, I'd seem like hogging the thread. Just one version is hugging.

 

I just want my kid to speak any language be it Tamil or English

 

Teach them Esperanto.

 

Before I got married , I always judged my sister for not teaching her kids their mother tongue . I used to wonder how hard it could be to teach your kids your language and why these parents or kids want to be so Americanized. After I had my own , reality hit me in my face . Both hubby and I come from different cultural background and don't have a common language . We both speak in English at home so kids are used to English for the most part. I , however, always speak to my kids in my mother tongue and I am quite content that they can understand everything . They know letters and numbers in my language but overall they are more comfortable in responding in English and looks like that's how it will be in the future. I ,however, will continue to speak to them in my language and hopefully they pick up some fluency overtime. The only negative is sometimes I feel hard to explain certain things about our culture in English and even if I do, it doesn't evoke the same feeling or emotion. Having said that, I do have friends from other ethnicities and it's amazing how their kids speak their language so it makes me wonder if I am not putting in enough effort .

 

A quote attributed to the founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford: "Customer can have any color she/he wants, so long as it is black".

 

Thanq for the article. Good one. It is true, that dads get less time with them. I too feel a fathers tongue is equally important. After all, a child is half dad n half mom.

 

Not quite.... at least in lab-mammals' study of how much DNA a baby gets from Dad and how much from Mum. Apparently a baby is a wee bit more of the Dad than the Mom. I guess it is perfectly justified that nurture's influence from Mom dominates after the baby is born.

here is an excerpt from the report...
"You may have inherited your mother’s eyes, but, genetically speaking, you use more DNA passed down from your father. That’s the conclusion of a new study on mice that researchers say likely applies to all mammals.

We humans get one copy of each gene from mom and one from dad (ignoring those pesky sex chromosomes) – that hasn’t changed. The same is true for all mammals. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that mom and dad genes are equally active in creating who we are." Genetically Speaking, You're More Like Your Dad - D-brief

 

Lol.. I meant more in a relationship- emotional - sentimental way rather than scientifically. But thank you for the info.

 

@Rihnana, you area mind-reader .
My parents were visiting us for 2 months and they complained every single day that I didn't teach my kids Hindi. My son (4.5) understands Hindi but can't say full sentence in Hindi, he would always reply in English. My daughter (2) doesn't know Hindi at all because I never spoke with her. I kind of gave up after my daughter was born because it was easier to speak the language that everybody understands (my husband, in-laws and our friends).
So, now post this guilt-trip, I ahave started to speak with kids in Hindi again and my daughter just looks at me like I am from a different planet. I hope she will pick it up and soon will at least be able to understand.