Standard Deviation

I need help, should have been a better title to the post, but the one I used, sounded better. *grin* Suffice is to say, I do need help/answers.

Kutie is doing well, learning, playing, and generally going places. I am trying very hard to ensure that he grows up multilingual like his parents, you know the kind – the one who talks to friends in Hinglish (hindi-english mix), talks to yet another group in British English, to someone else in yet another language. I think its valuable for the little guy to learn his mother tongue (yes my language, my traits, see if a language as a word for it, it couldn’t be that bad now, can it? ) Yes he does speak – whatever few words in his mother tongue, but he is picking up other words from the daycare. It used to be “idhu” for everything and now its “this” – means the same thing, but sorry this rose called my many names is just a little different!

Why do I sound so mad at this, because it’s Monday and I have tons of things to get to, and the fact that I don’t want a kid who is disgusted at talking to his parents in a language that probably none of his friends know and care about. I have seen many types – ones who would rather be caught dead than speak their mother tongue (the older kids usually), younger ones who used to speak their mother tongue at home and now don’t, and yet another who still do both. Though unfortunately the later, is often a non-Indian, Europeans, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese etc. (don’t know why that is the case, but that’s the not the topic discussion here)

My parents did it, I grew up in a town that was unfamiliar with my mother tongue, but still managed to speak the tongue, but not everyone did it. Did my parents do something right, or was it just a fluke event? And if you say what they did was right, then are parents to blame, when their child is not speaking their tongue. What about parents that both speak a different tongue? What then? Do you teach the child two languages plus the universal Hindi or English as the case might be? Is this more of an issue for parents who are away from their homeland? And if so, does it matter then at all … if your child is likely to be away, does he really need his mother tongue?

All said and done, all we want is for our kids to grow up with all the tools they will need to face the world tomorrow – language is one of the tools to communicate and so, does possessing various languages become more valuable than owning just one?

Finally I pose this question, is there anyone out there who has successfully taught their kids one or two or more languages … maybe its Hindi/Chinese/Spanish/French/Italian at home and English at school, or the other way round. What did you do? What worked, what did not? Pointers anyone?

If reading this I sound anti-English then you are mistaken. I love that language too. I majored in it for goodness sake! I repeat I just want my son, to learn two or more languages like many of us did, and love & respect each and every one of them. I mean, I love the effect when people say, ‘Oh you speak this many languages”, “You speak well” etc … is that asking for too much?