Holysmoke Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 Hindi. He will pick up punjabi, (from nana/nani,etc) but if you dont teach him hindi, he will never learn it. (From nana/nani,etc)
Holysmoke Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 Rajeev, even I did Gujarati in school and college. Leaned hindi as a second language uptil 7th, and then changed second language to gujju, till 12th.
ludhianvi Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 Hindi. He will pick up punjabi' date=' (from nana/nani,etc) but if you dont teach him hindi, he will never learn it. (From nana/nani,etc)[/quote'] Who cares about Hindi in this case as the mother is Punjabi. So the 'mother tongue is Punjabi', hence the kid should learn Punjabi The kid will easily pickup Hindi once knowing Punjabi. I've only had one year of Hindi in India and I can well understand it quite well. Punjabi FTW. I'd teach my kid only Punjabi and English. Mais c'est moi
Holysmoke Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 Who cares about Hindi in this case as the mother is Punjabi. So the 'mother tongue is Punjabi', hence the kid should learn Punjabi The kid will easily pickup Hindi once knowing Punjabi. I've only had one year of Hindi in India and I can well understand it quite well. Punjabi FTW. I'd teach my kid only Punjabi and English. Mais c'est moi What do u mean who cares about Hindi. The mom cares about hindi. Hindi is a much more recognized language, and he will be able to communicate with 10 times the number of people if he learns Hindi. What I'm saying is, even if he learns Hindi, he will end up picking up punjabi, and atleast understand it well enough from just hearing his grandparents and family talk. He will never end up learning hindi if he isnt taught. I disagree when you say "The kid will easily pickup Hindi once knowing Punjabi." Its the other way around. He's going to pick up Punjabi either way, even if you dont teach him, so picking up Punjabi is the easy part.... Atleast thats what I would do. If I had a kid, I'd teach him hindi, because I know he will eventually get very good at Gujarati just talking to my family.
ludhianvi Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 What do u mean who cares about Hindi. The mom cares about hindi. Hindi is a much more recognized language, and he will be able to communicate with 10 times the number of people if he learns Hindi. Perhaps, the mom doesnt realize who she is. If she's calling herself Punjabi, then its only right that he teaches the kid the 'mother tongue i.e Punjabi in this case', not some second language. I suppose its probably because you were raised in a Hindi environment so that may be the reason. What I'm saying is, even if he learns Hindi, he will end up picking up punjabi, and atleast understand it well enough from just hearing his grandparents and family talk. He will never end up learning hindi if he isnt taught. I disagree when you say "The kid will easily pickup Hindi once knowing Punjabi." Its the other way around. He's going to pick up Punjabi either way, even if you dont teach him, so picking up Punjabi is the easy part.... Picking up and being fluent in a language are different things. I've had only a year of Hindi and that too a year of grade 3 and I can understand and converse in Hindi if required. And even if the family moves back to India, considering they're punjabi, they'd move back to Punjab, so Hindi would hardly be required speaking wise. p.s I think i'm in arguing mood today :tounge_smile:
f.b.m Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 I dont think 'cramming' too many languages is much of a problem. As long as the child gets regular contact with a language, he/she will pick it up very soon. I, for example speak Telugu and Kannada (to my father and mother respectively) and as I was born and brought up in TN, Tamil with my sibling/friends. I never felt 'linguistically stressed' or whatever. The thing is to somehow come across the language daily/regularly. The only problem I can foresee in your case is that the father cant understand the mother's natiive language. But they only just need to understand each other's language for it to work. So a good effort from the parents to learn each other's language, in this case French and Punjabi will go a long way for the child. They dont have to master the languages, just know enough to know what theyre talking about in French/Punjabi. If and when that happens, it becomes a case of one foreign language (Hindi) and that shouldnt be much of a problem, if the kid watches a bit of Hindi TV. And besides, if they really are planning to move to India, then he can learn Hindi in India. It should be too much of a hassle as long as the boy is young (<20) when they move to India.
Holysmoke Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 Perhaps, the mom doesnt realize who she is. If she's calling herself Punjabi, then its only right that he teaches the kid the 'mother tongue i.e Punjabi in this case', not some second language. I suppose its probably because you were raised in a Hindi environment so that may be the reason. Picking up and being fluent in a language are different things. I've had only a year of Hindi and that too a year of grade 3 and I can understand and converse in Hindi if required. And even if the family moves back to India, considering they're punjabi, they'd move back to Punjab, so Hindi would hardly be required speaking wise. p.s I think i'm in arguing mood today :tounge_smile: What makes you think I was raised in a Hindi Environment? Ludh, you're taking it personally just because punjabi is your language. Realize that the kids first language is going to be English, and that is what he is going to communicate at home in, as well as think in. If he learns Punjabi, he will only be able to communicate to a small subset of Indians, whereas if he learns Hindi, he can speak to a much larger set of Indians as well as Pakistanis. Most people who know punjabi know hindi, but most people who know hindi dont know punjabi. And what do u mean by the mother does not know who she is? I'm sorry, but thats just wrong dude. Just because the mother is a punjabi, does not mean that she must blindly teach her kid punjabi, even when teaching him hindi is the better option. She lives in Canada, with a French Canadian as a husband, so I think she knows pretty well who she is. As it is, the kid WILL end up picking up Punjabi from relatives, involuntarily, so might as well teach him Hindi. PS- I was raised with ONLY gujju. I learned Hindi from watching movies, school, conversations with people, "on the streets", and I leaned marathi from my neighbours. I talk to my friends in English, and think in English.
Rajiv Posted September 12, 2008 Posted September 12, 2008 Who cares about Hindi in this case as the mother is Punjabi. So the 'mother tongue is Punjabi', hence the kid should learn Punjabi The kid will easily pickup Hindi once knowing Punjabi. I've only had one year of Hindi in India and I can well understand it quite well. Punjabi FTW. I'd teach my kid only Punjabi and English. Mais c'est moi Living in vancouver, I am thinking of taking punjabi lessons..coz there is no way u blokes get "my hindi" But I am sad to see, so many reject hindi - I can't converse in all regional lingos
ludhianvi Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 Living in vancouver, I am thinking of taking punjabi lessons..coz there is no way u blokes get "my hindi" But I am sad to see, so many reject hindi - I can't converse in all regional lingos I can understand your Hindi dude or even talk in Hindi. Its not a case of rejecting, in the OP, the mother is presented as a punjabi, so her mother tongue would be Punjabi, so the kid should learn the 'mother tongue', simple as that. Pun intended. Ludh, you're taking it personally just because punjabi is your language. Realize that the kids first language is going to be English, and that is what he is going to communicate at home in, as well as think in. If the mother in the OP was Gujrati, I'd recommend her to teach the kid Gujrati. PS- I was raised with ONLY gujju. I learned Hindi from watching movies, school, conversations with people, "on the streets", and I leaned marathi from my neighbours. I talk to my friends in English, and think in English. So you yourself are reiterating what I am saying all along that Hindi can/will be picked up easily. So you just stated that you easily picked up Hindi from just watching movies. Same case with me, I picked it up with only one year of grade 3 and movies.
Holysmoke Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 any language can be picked up easily. Infact, I'd say it'd be easier to pick up punjabi from his relatives, who he can ask, what did that mean, as compared to watching a bollywood movie to figure out Hindi. My point is, he is going to be taught Punjabi, whether he likes it or not, to a point where he can atleast understand it by grandparents/family. The same is not the case with Hindi, which has a much wider reach, so might as well teach him that.
beetle Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 >>>And even if the family moves back to India, considering they're punjabi, they'd move back to Punjab, so Hindi would hardly be required speaking wise. Why do you assume that would be the case. Do all Punjabis live only in Punjab. Seriously,the chauvinism shown by some punjabis on this forum is amazing. They make Bal thakerey look sane.
ludhianvi Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 >>>And even if the family moves back to India, considering they're punjabi, they'd move back to Punjab, so Hindi would hardly be required speaking wise. Why do you assume that would be the case. Do all Punjabis live only in Punjab. Ok, well let's rephrase that to 90% live in Punjab. Anyways, its irrelevant to the OP. Seriously,the chauvinism shown by some punjabis on this forum is amazing. They make Bal thakerey look sane. Thank you, I assume that's a complement.:giggle: Put the same question forward to a South Indian, would you teach your kids your mother tongue or Hindi first?
Ram Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 Punjabi chauvinists?!? If the Mom had been Tamil, I would have told the kid to learn English and Tamil. So, does that make me a Tamil Chauvinist?
beetle Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 I am sorry if I seemed rude but why do people only have to learn mother tongue? If I am planning to live in Punjab....it makes sense to learn punjabi or if in bengal...then it makes sense to learn bengali. My mother tongue is also not hindi ,but I find that it is the language that helps me interact with maximum people. If the child was living in a place where most people speak telugu...then I would advise the child be taught telugu.
beetle Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 Punjabi chauvinists?!? If the Mom had been Tamil, I would have told the kid to learn English and Tamil. So, does that make me a Tamil Chauvinist? Oh come on...you know what I mean.....the kind of punjabi"singh is king "kind of chauvinism we have been seeing lately on this board.Why can't wejust be Indians?
Rajiv Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 There are two kind of mixed posts in this thread Language is a communication tool here, and were mixing culture and tradition into it In India itself, people manage with what we call "tooti-footi" hindi and English else many who have no clue about hindi would have a horrible time, with punjus its OK coz its somewhat similar to hindi Then we have the "when in rome" factor, so typically no one at fault just how things are placed
f.b.m Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 >>>And even if the family moves back to India, considering they're punjabi, they'd move back to Punjab, so Hindi would hardly be required speaking wise. Why do you assume that would be the case. Do all Punjabis live only in Punjab. Seriously,the chauvinism shown by some punjabis on this forum is amazing. They make Bal thakerey look sane. Huh? What chauvinism? I dont see any. Obviously if they move to Punjab, its natural that they have to learn Punjabi and given the circumstances, Hindi would be their language that they'd have to neglect/compromise. If the child was living in a place where most people speak telugu...then I would advise the child be taught telugu. And again, what? If the child was living in AP, he/she would pick telugu up without any parental effort. So its better to teach Punjabi to the child (assuming its a Punjabi family). I was brought up in a similar way (see my other post in this thread)
Ram Posted September 13, 2008 Posted September 13, 2008 Oh come on...you know what I mean.....the kind of punjabi"singh is king "kind of chauvinism we have been seeing lately on this board.Why can't wejust be Indians? I dont know how you could possibly tie-up all the 'Singh is King' kinda stuff to their responses in this thread that the kid should learn Punjabi. Fact of the matter is, most of people who have said the kid should learn Punjabi have put forward reasonable explanation to support their arguments. So plainly, the 'Punjabi Chauvinists' response was way out of line.
punjabi_khota Posted September 14, 2008 Posted September 14, 2008 Basically people who do not speak/can't understand hindi belongs to one of the below two categories 1. Do not want to speak or learn hindi at all. Even if they happened to know few words they still pretend not to know anything. Hate bollywood movies big time. 2. Do not hate hindi and try to learn as much as they can (by watching bolly movies or interacting with hindi speaking people, etc) We all know people from which particular state, down south, forms the majority belonging to category 1 (though there are some exceptions). Coming back to OP, yes, kid should learn HINDI. PS: I haven't interacted much with bengalis, so can't really comment if majority of them belongs to cat 1 or not (probably not) I went to iit..lots of bengalis and tamils...never saw a tamil guy speak hindi...and the bongs always spoke hindi with non-bongs..hilarious efforts..but effort is what counts..
coffee_rules Posted September 15, 2008 Posted September 15, 2008 I learnt Kannada, English and Hindi - in that order. Hindi was the 3rd language. We have a similar dilemma ar home. wifey's mother tongue is Telugu. Mine's Kannada. We speak Kannada, Hindi and English at home. My kid picked up English as he learnt it in the day-care. We were at odds as what to teach him first. But he couldn't pickup any of Kannada, Hindi or Telugu. We didn't enforce him so much, we talked in our language - he responds in English. We were ok as long as he understood our language. But the kid doesn't want to talk in our language. Some dads and moms go to the extent of not responding to their kids unless they speak their language. Guess, we were not that totalitarian. But the kid takes the easy way out and won't learn to speak. Now, when we visit India everybody tries to speak in English to the kids too. So, he never gets to learn to speak the Indian languages.
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