r2i forum

This must be common for many people outside India. 2-4 year olds go to pre-school / school etc. Language used in school is English or some foreign language. Communication at home is in the mother tounge i.e. some Indian language.

How do people deal with this? Do kids just pick up both languages or are there any issues that need some proactive management by parents?

Any experience shared would be quite useful.

Kids are capable of learning a lot. I had exposure to 4 languages in India (Hyderabad) prior to age 5, and did not find it a bother - sensed where and with who, which language was appropriate. If it is not a situation like Hyderabad was for a kid in a family that is not native Telugu or Hindi speaking, it wont happen by itself. Kids need to see languages in use, perhaps in different contexts, in order to pick them up.

Kids in US will learn English and perhaps a language like Spanish through the school system and interaction with the world outside.

To help them pick up an Indian language the following may help:

Indian TV.
Extended visits by grandparents.
Appreciation.
Visits by Desi friends/families and conversations in Indian language.
Some rules e.g. respond and converse in the language that the other person speaks.
Parents speaking "secrets" in Indian language - that can be a powerful incentive for them to learn to understand so they are not kept out :)
Jokes in Indian language.

Thanks Bobus.

We tried indian TV channel(Sun TV) at home. My daughter started picking up lot of crap from all these tamil serials:) We immediately stopped that and started sending to california tamil academy tamil classes. It worked very well.

BTW, I fully agree with bobus. Kids could learn lot. I dont want to limit them but I would gently guide(push) them.

Language is a means of communication. It is not an end in itself. More important than the language I would focus on communication. Instead of getting the kid to learn more languages I would focus on whether the kid is communicating better. If they so learn more languages the better it is.

Good communication skills are IMO the most important for career and personal growth.

OB1

Television is the very last source that I would use to let my kids learn Indian languages. The kind of crap that is routine dialogue in many a soap/serial on Sun TV/Vijay TV/Jaya TV etc. is appalling. Kids are better off not listening to such crap.

Kids have the amazing ability to pick up languages including their meaning, pronunciation etc. Therefore, setting an example by engaging in meaningful conversations inside the house should be a good starting point.

#4 has made several useful suggestions.

#5's suggestion of separate classes is also good.

I agree with #6's point about importance of communication. If parents are articulate and do not step down always to talk in "kidspeak" to kids, kids will rise. Also, after a point (age and proficiency), it may help to avoid use of words from two languages in the same sentence or proximate sentences - something my dad decried as bilingual hotpotch / gibberish when we were growing up. His rule was - if you are speaking in English, then speak proper English (dont mix it with Indian language) and if you are speaking, for example, Hindi - then dont borrow English words at the drop of a hat.

Regarding TV, there are both junk and useful programs. I have found even advertisements useful, though it does raise demands :) If TV is kept on all the time for kids to watch, and access not controlled, I can see problems.

OP,

US is the direct opposite of India when it comes to languages. There is 0 need for kids to know a language other than English (outside their immd family). The big drawback is that desi friends of kids who have the same MT would still speak in English.

What we found is that our kids ability to *speak* another lang fluently waxed and waned - it peaked when grandparents stayed and/or we visited India (from US) and went down to an almost forgotten state when the gap from such visits increased. Also, what we found is that almost all desi kids we know *understand* their MT/Hindi but possibly none can speak it fluently. Anyway IMO too many Indian parents worry about this aspect a lot. It is so natural to pick up multiple languages while living in India but it is not so in the US - it has to be force fed.