How I Learned to Be Me

Growing up in India is certainly something unique, that you only realize once you leave the shores and live abroad. And one of the big advantages in being multi-lingual. I know five Indian languages, and yes they are all pretty different from each other. And this comes naturally as you need to communicate with people of different regions within India itself.

Bill has also written an excellent blog on raising kids bi-culturally.

Here are some of my insights on how you could teach a kid to be bilingual –

Start early –

It is important that you start early with kids. Their brains are like sponge, at a tender age and they can pick up things pretty quickly. As you grow older somehow it becomes more difficult to learn.

Live in a country different from native land –

This is perhaps the best and simplest case of how kids could start learning a new language. For example, if English is the language you speak at home, you could probably live in France, India, Spain where you will be forced to learn the local dialect. This augurs well, you for you and your kids.

Learn a language and speak the same with kids

Now if leaving the country is something too drastic for you, the next best option is to bring the language home. Yes, parent who can fluently speak a foreign language can easily teach the same to kids by conversing the same with kids. At home is where kids learn the most. Talk to them say in English, and in certain days/time in any other foreign language you know well.

Living community neighborhood –

Don’t underestimate that neighbor’s kid who can influence your child’s lingo. United States is blessed with people from different regions of the world. Want your kid to speak in mandarin? Search for a Chinese neighborhood, you may not go wrong.

Neighborhoods

Tutoring –

Finally, tutoring is a good option too. Your child can go to a class to learn different languages. But the only down fall with tutoring is that unless a language is persistently used in everyday life, it becomes more difficult to retain what you have learnt.

Finally, it is a good idea, that kids learn different languages, or grow up multi or bi-lingual. It helps not helps kids to evolve, when they learn a new culture or language, but also helps them imbibe a broader perspective in life.

I was born in Challapalli, a small village near our district headquarters. At a small age I was sent to my aunts house in the city. My aunt and uncle along with their son lived in Vijayawada.   My aunt is a very exceptional person. Unlike my family, my aunt was strict. She believes that irrespective of age, we need to do our own tasks. She is very kind but at the same time she wanted to develop our individuality.

Bi-cultural

My mother was very liberal, she used to polish my shoes, comb my hair, select my dress and also clean my utensils. My aunt was the complete opposite, she asked us to do all the mentioned tasks on my own. She maintains some strict rules, so she wouldn’t spoil me and develop my individuality. This is a cultural difference I faced at early age.

In my 3^rd grade I was joined in a boarding school. Our first language in the school was English. Our school gathered students from all over India.  By the time I was in 6^th grade, students spoke Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Guajarati, Bengali and many other languages. Our local language is Telugu. It was my first cultural shock when I couldn’t understand what my classmates were speaking.  It was my first time trying to communicate with my classmates in English. The following year our school made a strict policy to only speak English on the school grounds. Any person speaking any other languages was penalized. There were many cultures and traditions intermingled in our class. We celebrated festivals from all over India to get the students closer irrespective of their cultural differences.

India is mostly bicultural

In secret we started learning different languages, by speaking in them. Most of us first learnt to scold each other in different languages. I have friends who spoke Marathi, Guajarati, Oriya, and Hindi. I leant to understand a little Hindi as most of my classmates from north India spoke it. You can tell our school is a multicultural place. We were told to respect and honor the traditions of other cultures. One of my friends, who only spoke Hindi, learnt our local language and speaks it fluently. Even though we faced many difficulties, in the end being bi-cultural made us get some great friends.

‘BITS Pilani’ is a very high-end engineering college in our country. They opened another college in Dubai. For my engineering I was sent to Dubai to join that collage. The Middle Eastern culture is completely different from any other culture. They have different customs and traditions than the rest of the world. Women had to cover their face when they went outside. The men barely worked. The government pays every citizen some land and the people live on the rent and funds from government. Unlike other Middle Eastern countries, Dubai is much friendlier.  They had very good public transportation unlike in our country. The food was different; their main source is bread and paratha.  I faced many cultural shocks but enjoyed the variety. As far as I can tell all the cultural differences I faced made the man I am now.

Not new to this concept but definitely an interesting topic to talk about. My maternal uncle was married to my aunt who comes from a different background than we are. Technically she belonged to a different culture and spoke a different language. And I personally saw them growing in two different cultures.

In my opinion, raising kids bilingually and bi-culturally is so fun yet challenging. Somehow I will have to do this anyways. Most likely my boyfriend and I will be getting married in the near future and have kids of our own. You might be thinking what’s so new about it. Well my boyfriend is black and I’m an Indian. Marriage itself can be challenging when you want to keep up this sort relationship and stick around.

Okay. Well, when I’ve kids of my own, I really do have ideas and thoughts how to raise them.

1. By exposing them to both cultures. Introducing your kids to both cultures shows how much you enjoy showing your kids about the roots of your family and how rich is your culture. So while growing your kids will pick few good points from both cultures and follow the same makes both us or you happy.

2. Make them learn both languages. Letting them learn both languages at same time can be fun and kids can learn any language pretty fast at their age. Sometimes, they could relate the similarity of words used in both languages. Talk to them in both languages, so that it makes them understand that its an important thing to be followed in your family.

3. Make them spend time at their grandparents place. In my case, I’d definitely make them visit my parents in India and so as my in laws in Kenya. Kids can learn more from the experiences that their grandparents had in their lifetime and their teachings will definitely get into their minds. So make sure you send or take them to your respective countries once in a while.

4. Make them speak to their grandparents and cousins over the phones in their language. By doing so, the kids will the fluency in the languages.

5. Make them read few books on your cultures. This is very best way to make them learn about your culture and they will talk about what they learned by reading the book about cultures and how it influenced them.

Having a hard time raising your kids bilingually and bi-culturally then try following these steps. It’ll work slowly and effectively. You’ll be surprised at the results.