Mother Tongue? I think English!

This is pretty much the case for a lot of people. I can speak my mother tongue well, but my reading and writing skills are not that great. And, I am not proud of it.

I got into that situation since I had to learn Hindi during school and not Tamil. Reason being, Hindi is more helpful and being the national language, my parents opted that. Well, I barely passed in Hindi and could never get it right at all. But am glad that I know it now, since none of my south Indian counterpart's know it. The only thing they know in Hindi is "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge". They struggle to keep up, when all the other others talk in Hindi.

Coming back to the point. I have seen this in many cases. If the parents are well educated, then they opt to talk in English to their kids so that they are fluent in it. But at what cost? They can't speak more than four words at a time in their native language. Actually, they can't even get the name of the language right. Especially Tamil.

I did not speak in English, at home. I am now, very comfortable talking in English and don't see people having trouble understanding me. If the parents themselves are not making an effort, then why will the kids? All their focus is on English, which they will eventually pick up since everybody else uses it. And, if their foundation is not right, how are they going to learn other languages? Everyone uses their mother tongue to relate, and learn.

Some people send their kids for classes to learn their mother tongue. I appreciate the effort, but again, why didn't they do that at home in the first place? The parents would have realized that, their parents couldn't communicate with their grand children. They can't teach those folks English at this point, so they make the kids learn.

Some people can't even get their alphabets and numbers straight. Kids outside India are the most affected. I think its high time that all of us make it a point to teach the kids their mother tongue. Or else, there will be one day when a kid asks his parents, what his mother tongue is. The answer would be "Check with grandmom, she 'might' know!".