Mother tongue

Prior to having kids, I used to feel very strongly about this subject. Whenever I saw kids conversing in English to a degree where few of them didn’t even understand their mother tongue since the mother favored it that way, I contemplated that I am going to make a difference. But little did I know that I would jump into the same boat when it came to talking to my kids. Like many others my motivations were alike. When my children go to kindergarten I didn’t want them to feel alienated when everybody spoke in English owing to the fact that the teachers and helpers have their limits when it comes to language.
More over the number of English medium schools that is sprouting up compared to the native language schools will very soon lead to a stage where Native language schools will get extinct. I cannot comment on whether that is a good or bad sign to our nation but as far as I am concerned, it’s only my reaction to the present situation, so my kids don’t feel estranged. Living in a cosmopolitan city, I take this as an advantage considering the fact that there are people belongto different communities, and the only bond language can be English. Moreover we cannot deny that it is this language that is going to help our kids give an edge over the other non-english –speaking –kids when it comes to higher education or highflying jobs. But I pity the kids in the south as they have to learn two languages, hindi and the native language as compared to kids in the north . I must say that it helps in one way since knowledge of the native language will keep away some unsociable people from taking advantage of us. For instance the shopkeepers, auto drivers etc. All said,I am a malayali, born in bangalore ,Karnataka, which gave me an advantage of knowing 6 languages which is Kannada , Malayalam, English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, the advantage being that the older generation are at ease being in my company.