Making your children learn your mother tongue

Sriniketan · Jun 6, 2007

Ladies! living abroad-- what are the ways you are trying to make your children speak or learn your mother tongue?
In our house my husband made a rule that during the weekends they should learn Tamil and Sanskrit. Our children followed that rule when they were little. As they are in their teen years they don't spend much time on learning our mother tongue. They give us the reason that they have homework or they don't have the time to learn. But they have enough time talking to their friends, for hours and they also have the time to shopping in the name of buying essential things to school, otherwise the teachers will get mad, etc.
Because of their dad's pushing,(do you think they will listen to me!) my children were able to read and understand Tamil but in writing they make the small mistakes as we usually do at the start of learning to write. But nowadays they don'r read it giving the excuse as 'the rules are there to be broken'. my eldest one says that she learned more tamil words from watching SunTv. But she is reading Thirukkural now from the internet.She speaks good wiht american accent a little bit. But my other daughter loves to read from the story books for the children We had to make her speak. (vaayil irthindu varthaiyay pudungannum). My son he is learning from the CD.He speaks in tamil only to my husband in words and repeats the sentences if we tell him to do.
These things happen only after my husband pushes them constantly.(thonathonakkurathu). Credit goes to my husband to make our children learn and understand our mother tongue to this extent.
what are your experiences in this field? Waiting to see your replies.
Sriniketan

Huma · Jun 11, 2007

hi

basically i am from andhra pradesh..... telugu. i was born in pondicherry....tamil.
when i moved to france..... french..... the only language that i can speak fluently was french. i get married, i stayed one year in india among my relatives and the telugu come back to me. i was able to speak it. my children are born in paris, when they were todler, we moved in england. at home i speak french, telugu to my children. their father speak to them in telugu. at school they speak in english and also we understand tamil.

for the writing it's another story.

bye

Tulasi · Jun 11, 2007

Hi
My mother tongue ie telugu. I and my husband both speak telugu and i have two kids one is six and other kid is 2 1/2 yrs old. my older kid speaks telugu at home with us the second one also learing lot of words also we have telugu channels at home this also helps them to not forget the telugu...I am assuming as long as me and my husband talk telugu with them...they will be fine..

Pritirach · Jun 11, 2007

I feel that if you really feel that Your children should learn your mother tounge U SHOULD NOT TALK TO THEM IN ANY OTHER LANGUAGE OTHER THAN MOTHER TONGUE.
I will tell my case. We are basically from Andhra but my grand parents have settled in Maharashtra.so actaully my parents are also born and brought up there only, so do we(my sis me and all cousins).But my parents never talked with us in any other language other than Telugu.No Hindi Marathi or English.So me and my sister are very much fluent in Telugu.In addition we learnt Marathi when amongst other kids and neighbours that too very fluently.So now if we talk to any maharashtrian in Marathi they cannot make out tht we are not Maharshtrians.

Now about my cousins, they also speak telugu but u can easily make out the difference.after few sentences they start speaking Hindi.That is because their parents right from childhood used to talk to them in Hindi. I dont say that ttalking in HIndi is bad but anyways we(me and sis) know Telugu ,Hindi,Marathi,English.So we are much better i feel.

Now coming to people living abroad.I too live in USA and have a 2 1/2 yr old kid.I never ever talk to him in English.I have seen indian parents here talking to thier kids in English.May be to stay with the crowd,but i dont feel it necessary.:idontgetit:.My son speaks whatever few words he does in telugu and yes he is learning English also through TV and playschool only.So he is learning both languages.U need not talk with children in English.Always talk in ur moter tongue.Anyways they will learn English when they move out.

Staying abroad only need not necessarily make u forget ur mother tongueeven if u r staying in India and in some other state still ur children will not be able to learn the mother tongue.
So bottom line if u really want them to learn ur mother tongue Only speak t them in that only even if u scolding.
Regards
Priti

Dewdrop · Jun 12, 2007

Hi friends,

Both hubby & I are pure Tamilians ; right from our daughter's birth we've been talking only Tamil to her & so also has she been talking our mother tongue only. English anyway she'll pick up in school ; so, we were conversing only in Tamil at home, when we went out etc. It was all perfectly fine, till she joined school that is !

A couple of months at kindergarden & all her answers were in English only :icon_frown: ;; though we converse, advise, question her in Tamil only, she answered back only in English ! How to change that ????

She is nearly six now ; but expresses herself well only in English; We even stubbornly refuse to listen / answer her questions if she uses English, and quietly wait for her to ask the question again in Tamil...... she struggles for the words, gets frustrated & somehow in broken Tamil she asks it . But we're not happy, as it is doing nothing for her to love her mothertongue ; rather it seems imposed upon her . We've no idea how to get her back to speak our language . :bang What to do ??
Any ideas please,
Thanks,
Dew.

Sriniketan · Jun 13, 2007

Hi Dewdrop,
I will give you the ph no. 1-410-515-3611
Fax;1-410-569-7277
e-mail; kuppu@kalvi.com
The Home of Tamil Software for Education and Entertainment
The CDs are very useful. You can sit with your daughter and help her read in the first place. Moreover, get some Tamil books when you come from Chennai which relates to her grade and make her read. (Yeah! it is easy to say )When we work hard on it we will find the end result, good. We will be free of guilt.
My co-sister told me that her son complained to her over the phone asking her why she didn't teach him the mother tongue or hindi? He was left out and he felt like the odd man in the crowd. the students in the campus form groups based on their language, country, etc. We don't want our children to suffer like that.
Hope the numbers and the e-mail address will be of help to you.
Sriniketan

Dewdrop · Jun 15, 2007

Thanks for the link & email Sri ; will go thro' it leisurely .

Does anyone know any site for teaching tamil / hindi etc. for kids online ; like downloading the scripts / alphabets / small words etc. ??

Love,
Dew.