your language? - Page 3

Originally posted by: sareg

Hindi is not Madhuri or her husbands mother tongue😆

so now she has your admiration back😉

🤣 okay hindi was a slip of the tongue.......my point was that they only speak english.

One major advantage I see that my kids have is that they can talk with their grand parents with no problem. my father (although from Army and was very strict with us in talking in English at one time 😕 ) but enjoys talking in Hindi with my kids and loves it. 😃 When we visit our villages, they have no problem in communicating and no one gets an idea that they are NRI as they have good command over Hindi 😃

Originally posted by: raunaq

one of the discussions happened today and therefore this made me to pose the following question. how important is it for your kids to know your mother tongue? with globalization era going on, do you think its important for a kid to know their own language, other than english and this situation is for people not living in their locals but who have moved out. if this topic has been discussed before then mods please close this topic.

Yes definitely I would want my kid to know my mother tongue and culture. In fact in all cultures abroad, they have Saturday or Sunday schools for kids to learn their roots. Canada is a multi-cultured nation and that is what makes it so amiable to live. We have folk festivals where each nation has displays of their culture, music, dancing, food, lots. This is the way we learn from eachother too. I donot think globalization will ever change this as mother earth is vast with different countries and continents.

Apart from this, I would want my child to know their roots and heritage and where they came from. This is a treasure to cherish and pass on and has been done for centuries.

Thank you.😛

^^^ 😆 Mr. Smart Mouth 😛

This deviates a bit from the topic (why do I remember discussing the topic of accents somewehre...), but I just had to give my input on accents 😆 Accents are peculiar and very unique over ever individual. A combination of exposure to mother tongue versus the foreign language (eg: Hindi versus English) in a new setting and community, usage of one language over another, personal grasp of languages and nuances, etc. etc. play their parts in how much a person's accent is affected.
I Madhuri's case, she's lived in the US (Denver mind you... I'm not sure the Indian population there is all that signficant, at least in comparison to other metros such as Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, "New Jersey," etc.) for the past 7/8 years and has adopted to the American culture. Much of her exposure is to Americans and much of her conversation must be held in English. To a degree the mind subconciously picks up on the vocal nuances of a language and area. There is also the adaptation aspect where she's developed a language to fit in. Add to these points the above parameters and the end result is an accent in both languages. I too watched the episode and noticed that while there was a slight accent (it's really not as pronounced as some) in her Hindi, she had also retained a slight accent in English - she pronounced certain words in a typically Indian way.

As for her teaching her kids Hindi ... do we have any first hand knowledge that her kids don't know Hindi? There have never been any interviews with the kids present, etc. And who knows what the reasoning is... perhaps they'd just rather wait to teach a language when the kids are a bit older. Perhaps the kids speak in only English in public and speak Hindi or Marathi (right?) at home.

😳 Sowwy... bas bolti gayi.

Waise, of the American born Indian kids I know, a majority understand their mother tongue but will only converse with their parents in it, even if others around them understand. That regional segregation actually gets stronger in the US, especially when it comes to language. Indian parents will teach their kids Bangla, Marathi, Gujrati, Tamil, etc. but they won't teach them Hindi (even while they themselves know it). Communication in our country itself is so limited...the situation here is a zoomed-in version of it.

Originally posted by: raunaq

maya dont even start that topic about madhuri dixits accent 😆 😆 😆 just kidding, but i am glad you and others are pointing it out becoz i thought i was the only who noticed it 😕 havent we been discussing about her accent a lot? i am tired of pointing out her accent slipping in hindi, when she was there at an opening she pronounced certain words that made me laugh and i had watched that scene again and again to figure out from where did she pick it up, i think a woman of her age who moved out at pretty middle age cannot have an accent at all or at least thats not the time when someone can pick an accent, unless someone purposely pushes that accent in a local setting i agree that in non local setting your accent definitely changes with the people you speak, but she was in a local party and her accent was little strange but you cannot push that type of accent in a local setting, and i hope her kids know hindi too 😆 😆 😆 but whoever she is i still admire her 😆 😆 😆

@qt, concur with you

I know Raunaqwa😆 read your posts on the same. Madhuri was just normal as any Indian immigrant till 2 years back when I spoke to her and even now with fellow Indians in Denver. Denver has a huge population of Indians and most of her husband's collegues are Indians😉. What we saw on KWK was a put on accent but other than that she is still the down to earth lady and even though they speak English at home her family values Indian culture so language we use to converse doesn't really matter imo.

Originally posted by: sareg

Hindi is not Madhuri or her husbands mother tongue😆

That's true. 😆

Originally posted by: Iron78Iron

One major advantage I see that my kids have is that they can talk with their grand parents with no problem. my father (although from Army and was very strict with us in talking in English at one time 😕 ) but enjoys talking in Hindi with my kids and loves it. 😃 When we visit our villages, they have no problem in communicating and no one gets an idea that they are NRI as they have good command over Hindi 😃

😲 We have something more in common Deva... who knew!

The aunties here, when they were just getting to know my family, used to be constantly astonished that I spoke Hindi so well - you know "shudh" Hindi. Asaadharan bhi nahi hai, lekin ab Hindi me baat karna thoda mushkil lagta hai... must watch more bollywood movies! 😉

While the language is corrupted in Bollywood, it does give a semblance of education in Hindi.

Pardon my assumption in my earlier post in regards to the Indian population of Denver then.

And Mayadi - please be advised that I'm highly jealous of you for having had the chance to speak to Madhuri. She remains my favorite actoress and is also a role model for me.

Eid ka chaand ya din me chamakti hui simtara ... aap sab ko khush karne ke liye main kabhi bhi aa sakti hoon... bas pukaariye to, hum haazir ho jaayenge.

🤣 Ah yes... several lost in translation lyrics have had me quite literally 🤣 Meaning no offense to resident Bengalis, I'm a non-Bengali speaker yet have had to sit through Rabindro Sangeet... Kudos to you all who've survived it 😕 And I'm imagining the translation and fearing the consequences! 😉 😆

I really dont have a problem regards this topic that kids dont know their mother tongue when they have away, it is the preregotive of that household.

If you dont speak a language for years you tend to forget how to speak it, you understand it, but your tongue cant speak it.

My dad left his house for job about 50 years ago, they use to speak a native dialect which is spoken only in the region of 100x100 km, in those times phones were not there, the only person whom he could speak to was my mom who was not from that region, so when he returned about 10-15 years later he could understand the language, but not speak it, this was all in India, goes without saying I cannot speak the dialect.

I can understand how difficult it is too, In my initial days in this country when I knew no-one who could speak marathi and phones were too expensive then, so when I first called in months, I almost started speaking in Hindi, then it came back to normal after 5 mins of speech.

but my room mates were all telegus, so I learnt to speak telegu, I have not spoken it for a while now, I understand, but can only use the choicest of words

Language is like that

Kids who have been born away from the land, to expect them to speak their parents mother tongue is a bit too much, especially if the parents dont converse in that language regularly.