How important is it for a child to learn their mother tongue?
Do you remember the first language you spoke in your childhood? You may not remember it, but it must have been your mother tongue. By the way, if you think Hindi means mother tongue, then you are wrong. Mother tongue is the language which is spoken in your family or which your child learns first. Accordingly, your mother tongue can be Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi or Bengali, or Tamil.
My mother tongue was also Hindi, although I gradually learned English and Gujarati also. Although my first language was always Hindi. Even though I can speak and write English well, I now understand Hindi better in many cases. That’s why when I had a daughter, I started teaching her English from birth.
As she grew up, she started understanding and speaking in English only. However, the problem with this was that he had difficulty in speaking Hindi. Many times she felt unable to form some sentences. For him, his first language or mother tongue is English. Because of this, she was neither able to talk to her grandparents nor to other children in Hindi.
I wanted him to learn English but not at the cost that he would face so much difficulty in speaking Hindi. So I slowly started teaching him Hindi. After 2 years, she can now write, read and speak Hindi. She may not be that good but she is learning. She is now also learning languages like Gujarati-Marathi.
A month ago, I had read an article related to mother tongue, in which emphasis was laid on teaching one’s own language to children. After reading further on this subject, in many places mother tongue has been said to be important for the development of the child. He can express and understand his thoughts better in his own language. I am sharing many more such benefits with you also:
- The child understands better in his own language.
- He also quickly learns other languages related to his language. Like the Hindi language, Marwari and Gujarati learn quickly.
- She will be able to communicate better in her own language.
- Because everyone around her speaks this language, she can become social.
- Many people also believe that a child learns his own language in his mother’s womb and many great writers have done good work in their own language.
- You are well aware of the grammar and other aspects of your language, hence you can learn any language well.
After reading those articles related to the language, I also thought that I should have taught Hindi to my daughter first. Like me, she also learned her own language first and then other languages with the help of her own language. Therefore it is better to teach in regional languages. Many great writers have done good work in English, even though English was not their first language.
A suggestion for those parents who think that because their children study in English schools, they should be taught English first. Don’t lose sleep trying to teach them English. And do not teach them this language forcibly from the very first day. With time they will gradually pick up.
Now those parents, who have started teaching English to their child from day one… do not think that you have made a mistake. There is no research that says doing this is wrong. Or such children will not be able to learn the rest of the language.
Just make sure that your child gets a proper education!