I never really thought of raising my child bilingual or multilingual.. my ONLY wish was to make her talk in her MOTHER tongue (Urdu). I didn’t want her to miss that experience of communicating well with her own people! Especially her grandmas and grandpas🥰
I know it’s so weird that we even have to put some effort in doing so, thinking it like a task doesn’t make me feel good at all! Kids are supposed to by default think in their mother tongue! At least that’s how I grew up. But with current globalization and tech era, things have so changed!! Especially with kids who grow up in English dominated or English speaking countries.
Some of many advantages of learning/talking mother tongue!
- First and foremost MOMMY is happy😀 it’s amazingly proud and extremely adorable to hear her talk in our native language.
- I feel it creates empathy❤️
- Made her bilingual at least(as she anyways will learn English ðŸ¤)
- If she is further interested it’s easy to become multilingual ( just a language away🤓)
- Increased confidence and social skills🤩
- She can connect to her culture better and remember her roots (I hope so😂)
How we took an extra step to make this happen.
- She had less exposure to screen time, watching videos and other stuff in English.
- Talk to her in Urdu all the time, even if she speaks in English , reply to her in Urdu.
- Keeping our conversations around her in Urdu.
- Telling her stories in mother tongue(this played a crucial role)
- We have extended family staying close, that helped a lot!
- Talk about our culture in the stories that we (me and my hubby) usually create on the go😂
- We made her listen to nice Hindi/Urdu songs.
She is just 2.8 years young now and has a long way to go but the foundation we lay early in the childhood does miracles ✨💫
P.S.
I know whatever I said might not be proved or may contradict with any research! But instincts are always strong and I went with mine 😎
