Question

If you were a parent, what is the first language you will teach you child.

Which language do u think is more important for them to learn first?

For me first it would be English and then the cultural language.

The national language - Hindhi

The regional language - Depending on the state

The culture - Depending on what culture you are from

The global language - English

This is what happen with me.

I was born in USA. The first language I leard was English, and then I moved back to India and becase I am Sindhi I learn Sindhi, then because my family resided in Madras I learnd Tamil, and because I went to school there I leard Hindhi.

Then when I moved back to the US, I had to learn Spanish.

Your thoughts please!

i was born in fiji is . so i learned my mother tongue first i.e hindi and then when i started schooling i learnt english . i know about 10 or 15 fijians words .

now i am in canada n we speak hindi at home n english outside. i would teach my kids hindi first n then english n since we live in canada , i would make sure they learn french.

I am born and raised in Toronto, Canada, so I only speak English😳...

I was born in the US but my parents also equally stress our cultural language and English. My mom speaks Hindi fluently so she makes it a point to speak only in Hindi with me and won't let me speak anything else but Hindi and Gujarati with her (of course I slip up once in a while😳). My dad speaks Hindi and Gujarati, and though sometimes I find myself talking to him in English, most of the time I'll speak in Hindi or Gujarati just for myself because I know I'm exposed to English every where else but my home is the main connection I have with India. Thanks to my parents, I completely understand and speak Hindi & Gujarati (only mess up a few words here and there), and can even write in Hindi!

So, with my kids.... just like many of the others above, I would also equally emphasize English and Hindi & Gujarati (since I'm fluent in both). If I were to raise my kids in US like my parents did, I know that English can be found outside the home but inside the home is where a child primarily learns about his/her culture and ethnicity. I guess basically, speaking on linguistic terms, I would raise my kids like my parents raised me.

I'd teach my kids English. My/Our mother tongue. I learnt hindi/Punjabi from my grandparents & also i stayed in India for 2 years. But I'd let my kids decide if they wanna learn hindi/punjabi or not. My parents dun speak hindi/punjabi....infact nobody speaks hindi/punjabi in our family so i dun think my kids wud b into hindi/punjabi much.