Question

If you were a parent, what is the first language you will teach you child.

Which language do u think is more important for them to learn first?

For me first it would be English and then the cultural language.

The national language - Hindhi

The regional language - Depending on the state

The culture - Depending on what culture you are from

The global language - English

This is what happen with me.

I was born in USA.  The first language I leard was English, and then I moved back to India and becase I am Sindhi I learn Sindhi, then because my family resided in Madras I learnd Tamil, and because I went to school there I leard Hindhi.

Then when I moved back to the US, I had to learn Spanish.

Your thoughts please!

 

Well i grew up in England, my first words were also spoken here, i do speak fluent gujurati however mess it up all the time because sometimes i dont understand what word i am speaking, when i was young my dad made a rule in the house every person has to speak guju when they are at home however outside they can speak english, so i learnt both languages equally, however nowadays and especially  after i turned 15 three years ago  i have started to speak english at home to sometimes and i mess up my mother tongue.

The thing about my kids, well I think Mother Tongue is one of the most important thing a child learns, i agree we live in England and english is very important, and i will make sure i balance it out, but what i dont want him/er to forget  their culture their tradition, values, and religion,  even i dont know how to read or write gujurati but at least i can speak it and respect my olders. So my first priority will be to teach them gujurati, but i will also make sure that they have good english as a second language,  kids  that grow up in a foreign country such as England and America Automatically learn the accent anyways it comes very natural to them,  so for me its important to make myself in a  british way of lifestyle but i also have to respect and look after my culture and my religion and that is what i will teach my children how to balance both languages.
Edited by Megha_Desai - 18 years ago

Agree with you Meghna..i would teach English and mother tongure equally..i was born in Africa but my parents taught me guju and english and i had to learn Swahili..now that i am in the US it is quite cool to know multiple languages.

i was born in fiji is . so i learned my mother tongue first i.e hindi and then when i started schooling i learnt english . i know about 10 or 15 fijians words .

now i am in canada n we speak hindi at home n english outside. i would teach my kids hindi first n then english n since we live in canada , i would make sure they learn french.

I am born and raised in Toronto, Canada, so I only speak English😳...

I am actually Guyanese, Hindu... so my elders do speak hindi.. but i have never learned the language thoroughly... i can understand quite a bit of the language.!😃

i learneed both urdu n english @ da same tyme.like megha diz parentz mah parentz made sure i learn both languagez by makin sure v speak in urdu @ home n datz y 2daii i can speak both langz equally..............n datz wat u wud du wit mah kidz

I was born in the US but my parents also equally stress our cultural language and English. My mom speaks Hindi fluently so she makes it a point to speak only in Hindi with me and won't let me speak anything else but Hindi and Gujarati with her (of course I slip up once in a while😳). My dad speaks Hindi and Gujarati, and though sometimes I find myself talking to him in English, most of the time I'll speak in Hindi or Gujarati just for myself because I know I'm exposed to English every where else but my home is the main connection I have with India. Thanks to my parents, I completely understand and speak Hindi & Gujarati (only mess up a few words here and there), and can even write in Hindi!

So, with my kids.... just like many of the others above, I would also  equally emphasize English and Hindi & Gujarati (since I'm fluent in both). If I were to raise my kids in US like my parents did, I know that English can be found outside the home but inside the home is where a child primarily learns about his/her culture and ethnicity. I guess basically, speaking on linguistic terms, I would raise my kids like my parents raised me.

I'd teach my kids English. My/Our mother tongue. I learnt hindi/Punjabi from my grandparents & also i stayed in India for 2 years. But I'd let my kids decide if they wanna learn hindi/punjabi or not. My parents dun speak hindi/punjabi....infact nobody speaks hindi/punjabi in our family so i dun think my kids wud b into hindi/punjabi much.

I would talk to my kid in my mother tongue first. Since I am in US, my kid would learn English from her friends and going to pre-school and school. I would not insist her on talking to me in any particular language. If she prefers to talk to me in English I am fine. But I would want her to understand my mother tongue. When I take her to India I want my kid to at least understand what others are saying.😊