How to make kids talk in mother tongue when they grow abroad

[girijab]

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Any ideas on how to make kids talk in mother tongue when they grow abroad

 

[Brahmanyan]

Very simple. Let parents use their mother tongue at home while interacting with each other. This is a must. The kids learn fast. I have known kids in many families living in UK., USA., Canada and Australia fluently speak, read and write in Tamil.
Little effort from parents will help in a long way.

Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[kunjuppu]

Very simple. Let parents use their mother tongue at home while interacting with each other. This is a must. The kids learn fast. I have known kids in many families living in UK., USA., Canada and Australia fluently speak, read and write in Tamil.
Little effort from parents will help in a long way.

Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

Very right Brahmanyan (as always )

my personal opinion is that tambrams have forsaken tamil since 1960s or such, especially the urban ones. i switched from tamil to english medium, downgraded to standard 2 from 4th class, as was the practice in those days. my parents felt that an english education would give me the grounding to a good future, at that time. and the idea prevails even now.

all my peers, tambrams, spoke mostly english or tanglish at home. in our home it was talaylalish..a mish mash not many outside the house understood.

mrs K was even worse. she took hindi in school, and never had the benefit of learning tamil. so for all practical purposes, she is tamil illiterate, managing to get by on a few words, on her visit to chennai. she speaks only english with the sri lankan grocers here.

with such a parents, it is no wonders, my kids dont speak tamil. they claim to understand tamil, but it is more out of guessing, and not out of comprehension, i think.

add to the complexity, our origins are from north malabar, and my grandma always insisted that our mother tongue was malayalam, and taught me the script. my mother learned tamil from ananda vikatan and kumudam, and not at all formally, as it was not available in the malabar heartland. both parents only learned in malayalam till high school.

the situation is not different, i find, with other tambrams, with roots in deep tamil heartland, that is thanjavur. the kids too only speak english.

i do not know about sri lankan families, but my guess, is that they are more attached to, and ensure the propagation of tamil to the next generation. thanks to their large numbers, tamil is a recognized language credit course, and i suspect, that all sri lankan tamils send their kids to these special classes. that the courses are slanted towards eezham and LTTE is another factor altogether

without exception, i think the bengalis are the only group from india, who doggedly speak their language at home. though even here there are exceptions.

so, my gut feeling, is that like german, italian, polish, russian, slovak, ...all the immigrant languages, will disappear off the face of north america, within a couple of generations. you may have names like chandru, sundar, seshadri, krishnan, padma, lakshmi and revathi..all tamil sounding. and just that. the kids may look a mixture of many nationalities, and speak only english.

it is not so sad as it sounds. after all, i myself, do not know even my paternal grandparents. and none before them, how they looked, where they lived or what they did for a living. atleast my descendents here will have records of their immigrant ancestor.

 

[sangom]

Any ideas on how to make kids talk in mother tongue when they grow abroad

If the parents have different mother tongues, then the child should be expected to know only one of the two. For example, my son has married a girl whose mother tongue is Hindi and despite all her efforts (she is not a brilliant person either) she is unable to get the hang of Tamil. Naturally, since the parents converse in Hindi, my grandchildren also talk Hindi, not Tamil.

This is a compromise we all have to make in the case of inter-regional marriages.

 

[arunarani76]

kids learn languages easily. we as parents should tell them about our mother tongue & teach them to speak & read-write at a very young age.

we too should know & practice to talk,read n write in our mother tongue. we should also make them feel proud of their mother tongue & that it is good to know it.

 

[Brahmanyan]

Dear Sri Kunjuppu,

You have described the situation of Tamil language among the migrant Tamil speaking population, specifically among Tambrams, correctly. It is no better in Tamil Nadu either. The children of people (all communities) who claim the pride of Tamils in their language in public platforms are sent to English medium schools and take French or German as their second language. They speak English mixed Tanglish at home. The pronunciation of Tamil by those who converse in Tamil is pathetic. Look at the Tamil TV channels, you will understand better. Even worse is the case of Tamil cinema world. The migrant actors from other languages are much in demand in Tamil Pictures. The same goes with playback singers.

We can certainly help in maintaining our identity as a Tamil (தமிழன்). We can speak our mother tongue at home, teach the children to write and read the language. It is not a big effort at all. I am not against learning or communicating in any other language. Language is a medium of communication and learning. More we learn is more beneficial. We live in Bangalore (Karnataka) my grand daughters study in an International School, where the medium of studies is English, second language is French or Hindi. In addition they teach Kannada as an optional subject for children who prefer the same. I have asked my grand daughters to join Kannada class, since I feel to learn the Local language (official language of the State) is a must . At home we speak in our mother tongue . Also I teach Tamil to the kids, both children have come to the level of reading Tamil Magazines now. My wife and I are fond of watching Malayalam movies, having stayed in a Gulf Country we have gained enough knowledge to understand the language.

Regards,ray2:
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[C RAVI]

If the parents have different mother tongues, then the child should be expected to know only one of the two. For example, my son has married a girl whose mother tongue is Hindi and despite all her efforts (she is not a brilliant person either) she is unable to get the hang of Tamil. Naturally, since the parents converse in Hindi, my grandchildren also talk Hindi, not Tamil.

This is a compromise we all have to make in the case of inter-regional marriages.

Very True!!

In this fast moving Globalized world, compromises automatically gets into the mind in fraction of seconds.

As long as children/grand children are not deaf and dumb there is nothing seriously wrong. As the child of a Tamilian/Inter-regional parents in foreign countries grows, may learn German thoroughly, marry a German and get settled in Germany for ever!!

 

[renuka]

If the parents have different mother tongues, then the child should be expected to know only one of the two. For example, my son has married a girl whose mother tongue is Hindi and despite all her efforts (she is not a brilliant person either) she is unable to get the hang of Tamil. Naturally, since the parents converse in Hindi, my grandchildren also talk Hindi, not Tamil.

This is a compromise we all have to make in the case of inter-regional marriages.

Dear Sangom ji,

This is not always true...it depends on the family.

I could only understand Tamil till the age of 12 and not speak it well.

My mum speaks fluent Tamil even since she was young cos she had many Tamilian friends and my parents spoke Tamil to each other but spoke to us kids in English cos out here we do not study in English medium(here we study in Malay medium) so parents wanted to make sure we knew English well and spoke to us in English.

Hindi I knew nuts cos my mum never spoke to us in Hindi as a kid but I used to hear her speak to her relatives so some basic stuff I knew.

When I grew into a teenager I picked up Tamil fast cos of the lovely 80's movies(I used to watch them becos of Silk Smitha).

My father also taught me to read and write some Tamil which I do so in a slow speed.

By the time I reached 20 years of age I could fight in Tamil with all wonderful words too..by 23 years old I was fluent in Tamil.

But I have cousins who are of mixed parentage and only speak Hindi at home even though their dads are Tamilians.

But my stint in India improved my Tamil and also Hindi and some choice Punjabi words.

 

[amala]

I think children who are exposed to many different languages from young can grasp and learn it way quicker than older. I was very fortunate to have both my grandmothers speak to me in Telugu from toddler till teenager and I guess that how I still retain some semblance of Telugu today (if I have to live in Andhra I'm pretty sure I can speak fluently in 6 months-ish), I also had a Tamil maid as a baby till my tweens and that's how I really picked up Tamil tbh. Then there was Tamil classes my parents taught me especially my mum (they both read and write Tamil very well), "samajam" (I always remember Kunjuppu sir!) films, Tamil relatives, friends etc etc.

Now i try and i try and i try to learn a new language and sadly it never comes as fast as it did. I know many people with mixed marriage whose dad speaks his language to the children and the mum speaks hers and those children can speak both and very fluently too! Most children can learn anything! And once you learn it as a child you never ever forget it. And it is very very useful later and with more exposure later you can always take it from where you left.

 

[kunjuppu]

very true amala.

my niece, at 4 used to speak 5 languages - tamil, english, hindi, bhojpuri and gujarati - they lived in bihar till she was 3 and then moved to gujarat.

the amazing thing, was that she would answer in the language she is spoke to, and instantly without a gap of even a second - a source of great joy and pride to her dad

 

[P.J.]

My grandsons here in US talk in Tamil as we talk to them in Tamil; they also attend Bal Vikas Classes every week, Learn many Sanskrit Slokams; when parents and grand parents talk to them regularly in their mother tongue, they will learn it very easily.

 

[Raji Ram]

Dear Sangom Sir,

Two of my uncle's sons can not talk Tamil, in spite of being born and brought up in India!

Since they lived mostly in North India, they converse in Hindi even at home!