Re: Children and Urdu
im sure its true and ure not making it up…but it just soujnds very unusual and seem sto be the exception rather than the norm…
Re: Children and Urdu
Lol. TLK is talking about this one kid...but check this other thread we had here a few months ago, I know many kids like this. A couple of them do have a speech delay but I'm personally teaching 4 who are overcoming what TLK is taking about. Yes they will eventually settle down and be great at both... Right now the process is quite frustrating. I guess the key similarities in these families is that dads and moms aren't educated in English so they aren't able to help much with transitions. Tv at home is 100% desi. No non desi friends. ELL is helping.
Anyway, it's nice to have kids know the native language but I don't think I'm going to obsess about it. Maybe because they haven't encountered any problems as such. They communicate beautifully with their grandparents and relatives and feel at home when they are in desi gatherings here or back in the native land.. I myself spent my childhood outside of my home country and learned most of my Urdu after 16. It wasn't hard because I was used to hearing it.
Re: Children and Urdu
Niksik I know a family where mom and dad r uneducated mom doesn't speak a word of English and dads English is so so but their daughter who is born here speaks perfect English and Urdu. She speaks both languages without any accent. It's really hard to believe that there are kids who are born here, started their education here and still can't speak English. Like others are saying there must be somthing else going on with them. It's just impossible. I know families who moved here from Pakistan their kids didn't speak a word of English and literally in few months they were speaking English fluently. My own nephew didn't speak English cuz we all spoke Urdu with him at home and once he started school in few weeks he was communicating in English.
Re: Children and Urdu
kids can learn more than 5 languages at a time WITHOUT any problem. I'll try to find a research that I read couple of years ago concluding that because we (ADULTS) find it hard to learn language, we think thats its hard for kids too but fact is that kids can easily learn at least 5 languages in parallel.
So if resources are available, I dont see any reason NOT to make kids learn Urdu specially if family still has ties to back home.
Re: Children and Urdu
Niksik I know a family where mom and dad r uneducated mom doesn't speak a word of English and dads English is so so but their daughter who is born here speaks perfect English and Urdu. She speaks both languages without any accent. It's really hard to believe that there are kids who are born here, started their education here and still can't speak English. Like others are saying there must be somthing else going on with them. It's just impossible. I know families who moved here from Pakistan their kids didn't speak a word of English and literally in few months they were speaking English fluently. My own nephew didn't speak English cuz we all spoke Urdu with him at home and once he started school in few weeks he was communicating in English.
I've spoken to the parents of these kids. I think it's the environment they are living in...looks like a village scene from the most rural parts of back home. When the kids were sent to elementary school, that was pretty much their first real exposure to English as a spoken language. So yeah, it's not like they cannot communicate at all...they just have trouble transitioning, needed extra help outside of school resouces as well.
As far as other problems, I'm sure they do.
I'm just presenting a fact I am personally involved in and that's where I'm coming from.
Re: Children and Urdu
You don’t have to find the research…it’s a commonly known fact 
. Kids brains are like sponges.
Re: Children and Urdu
No we are actually making it all up so we can get more posts 
. Come join us 
.
Re: Children and Urdu
Unlike TLK and Niks, I do obsess about my daughter being fluent in Urdu. She can converse today in Urdu, English, some French, some Spanish and I'm thinking about putting her in some Mandarin classes as well. I agree with D6C.....children are much more capable than we give them credit for and most of us tend to mollycoddle them quite a bit.
I was brought up mostly in Canada with parents that spoke strictly Urdu. My English was learned when I joined grade 1 here. I don't even recall if that was a difficult transition for me or not. I continued to learn how to read and write Urdu at home and continued to excel in English and French at school. I dabbled in Spanish but lost the skill when I didn't have an opportunity to use it.
My husband was born in the UK and spent the first 5 or 6 years of his life in Karachi.....moved to UK again and was forced to pick up English in school. Because his father and his siblings spoke English his Urdu suffered to the point that it was comical when we got married (sometimes still is) but improved when we decided that we would only speak Urdu to each other for the benefit of our child. Being brought up in Europe he is able to get by in Spanish and some French but has now lost his German due to lack of use. His Gujrati is still quite good.
Why do I think Urdu is important? I think it is a beautiful language; one that requires grace and finesse. It can be melodic to listen to and, I believe, has a significant impact on our culture and etiquette at home.
While I respect those that want their children to learn Arabic in order to understand the Quran, I think that's like saying someone that can understand English will be able to translate Shakespeare. Nor will learning Arabic as a language assist with the traditions that we and our elders are accustomed to in our day to day lives. (I find it truly painful to watch grandparents struggle with English when they get blank looks from the grandchildren on simple Urdu sentences. Is that what they taught to their own kids? Is that the best we can do to make their golden years comfortable?)
Just my two cents.
Re: Children and Urdu
Since I am the only one who said that I really want my child to learn Arabic than Urdu, I feel like I have the need to explain that I will not be expecting them to "understand the context" of Quran, if such was the purpose I will send them to school to become alim or alima but I want them to grasp the meaning, understand what it's saying and then explore the meaning.. I teach at the Sunday school and I have mostly Arab children learning Quran and just a couple of Pakistani children.. what I have observed is that the Arab kids understand the meaning of surah quickly and memorize it right away; however, Pakistani kids dont understand but just want to memorize and I dont see any benefit in it.. I cant have them memorize something just because they can but not knowing what exactly is it saying!!
At our ladies halaqa when I hear Arab girls translating the meaning of a dua from Quran, I am always jealous and wish I could understand it too.. again just the meaning, the context of Quran will require more time and effort!!
and I have never implied that I dont want my kids to learn Urdu, its just not my priority just because I know they will pick it at home because we, the parents, speak Urdu fluently and we may even teach them how to write or read Urdu but again no pushing and not going to extremes!!
Re: Children and Urdu
How do I like Muzna's post?? What she said makes 100% sense.
I think the kids Niksik and TLK are talking abt are in the learning stage of English. I know a very very uneducated parents who have two daughters and are born raised here, they both talk perfect Urdu and English. These kids Niksik mentioned will learn and I think transition stage is more frustrating for the teacher then the kids themselves.
My best friend's son has speech delay and he has at least three therapists helping him. Now this girl speaks only in Urdu with her son. She asked all three therapists that is it because of Urdu her son is not learning languages, they said no, it has nothing to do with two languages spoken to him. They said kids should be encouraged to learn more than one language.
Re: Children and Urdu
I just wanted to share an excerpt from a study on linguistics:
When children continue to develop their abilities in two or more languages throughout their primary school years, they gain a deeper understanding of language and how to use it effectively. They have more practice in processing language, especially when they develop literacy in both, and they are able to compare and contrast the ways in which their two languages organize reality. More than 150 research studies conducted during the past 35 years strongly support what Goethe once said: “The person who knows only one language does not truly know that language”. The research suggests that bi- lingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages.
Re: Children and Urdu
I honestly believe that the excuse that "my child will be confused" or "my child will have a difficult time adjusting" are cop outs. Making children bilingual is a tremendous effort when it comes to a language like Urdu. It requires endless effort, strict administration and loads and loads of patience.
Those that are not lazy are, simply put, too soft on their kids.
Re: Children and Urdu
Knowledge is acquired exponentially in a young child; especially language skills. As for the student with English problems; this child most probably has a global language deficit. As for learning Urdu and English--I just think back to myself--born and raised here and am fluent in both languages. If I can do it, so can my future kids:)
Re: Children and Urdu
My kids will speak their mother tongue first Insha Allah...
I know many parents here they don't teach their kids Urdu at all and they think it's COOL coz their kids are good in their English.
Re: Children and Urdu
Every kid is different. Some kids are super fast in comprehending a language others are not hence are referred to as "confused".
My younger sister was able to learn danish within 2 months when she started school at the age of 5 while both my parents only speak punjabi/urdu with us at home mostly because my mom speaks very bad country language, well almost nothing of it.
From my experience whether the kids can master a language or not is depended upon how much they are exposed to it. Are the parents great talkers? Do they engage the kids in various conversations? Because basically a child cannot learn a language passively. He needs to be active to learn it. I have seen mothers who spend the whole day with their kids, but their kids speak minimal because mother is not a great talker, hence kid is not exposed to so much language.