How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

Lifestyle Relationships
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Okay, so I am very interested to know peoples views on being able to speak their mother tounge and teaching their kids. Specifically applying to overseas Pakistani’s I suppose.

My take..Well my parents instilled talking in Urdu since childhood. Born and raised in Australia, I was speaking fluent Urdu before I knew english and exposure to english came when I went to Pre-School.

My siblings and I were encouraged well more forced :stuck_out_tongue: to speak in Urdu amongst ourselves, and we did.. Never had issues learning English or performing in school/university.. In hindsight feel like it was one of of the best things my parents did for me, because I consider it as a skill.

I am able to communicate to my aunts uncles/grand parents/cousins in Pakistan, thoroughly enjoy watching Pakistani Dramas and… love to be able to communicate in social Pakistani gatherings..Anyhow, that’s my take, I would like to know what others think..

I’ve seen two school of thoughts

  1. Learning your language is important, culture, being able to communicate to your elders, identity etc

or

  1. What’s the use? What is learning your language going to give when you’re going to be living in overseas counties for rest of your life where English is the language?

Also, I would like to ask those who lived abroad all their lives and are unable to speak urdu, do you feel/wish you knew how to speak?

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

i think its very important for communication to elders and culture wise too. i m gonna make sure my kids will speak urdu.
i have never seen a Mexican who was born and bought up here in US that cant speak Spanish. it just impress me so much.

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Well, i m germanborn to a pakistani father n german mother but i can speak urdu as well as german (deutsch ). I was brought up in a joint family with grandmom n granddad. My mum can speak urdu aswell n she n my grandparents communicate in urdu. My mom reads ghalib n ahmad faiz etc i cant read urdu but can talk in urdu. Few years back i went first n last time to pak but i stayed for abt 2 years there since then i can understand punjabi too...
I think urdu is more beautiful n has more feeling in it than any other language... dont know how to describe but i jus love it

4

Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

^
In Ordnung

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

http://www.paklinks.com/gs/parenting/618175-oops-we-forgot-to-teach-urdu.html

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

I think teaching your future generations their language is important - doesn't matter if its Urdu or any other language.

Language makes them feel closer to their roots and learning another language is a skill...they offer languages other than English in high schools so there's obviously an advantage to it.

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@CEO1
Just " ordnung" shuld be "toll" "erstaunlich" "unglaublich" something near to this :D

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

I think it's important to know your mother tongue. Just like you, OP, my parents always told my siblings and I to talk in Urdu at home. We came to Canada at a very young age and I honestly love how my parents enforced that. I enjoy being able to communicate with all the elders, watching Pakistani dramay, like you mentioned :P My sister and I still talk in Urdu with each other even when we are out :) Like Reha also mentioned that you feel connected to your roots. English, I believe you can easily pick up in school because that's what I did.

For the future, I know that I would want a husband that knows Urdu as well and would like my children to know it too.

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Gen 1 not born in Pak to communicate with parents and grand parents

Less important for gen 2

No real relevance for gen 3

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

glad to see the responses..

Further to this, I was watching a pakistani drama where in the scene, a girl that was born and raised in UK and later returned to Pakistan was called a 'mis fit' nah idhar ki na udhar ki.

It's a common perception and a comment we all face at some point in time.

My question is if someone can communicate in their language, understand the culture, be confident and clear on what their identity is, then I don't see them being a 'misfit'

My experience in Australia, well it's pretty multicultural, get people from all countries, Lebanese, Italian, Greeks, chines, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Indian, sri lankan etc and I've noticed the sense of culture amongst my ethnic friends exists.. of course you have the families where they see no use in being a proud 'Indian' or a proud 'Pakistani' in fear of social comments/lack of opportunities but in the longer term I feel those very parents who instilled no cultural knowledge into their kids, they were in limbo?

One thing I've learnt is the more confident in knowing and understanding your culture/your identty the more your respected! Language & food have a huge part to play..

Okay in my case, I am very desi however not a social outcast when in the gora public. In the workforce am respected and get along with my peers.. However because I have a strong sense of identity of being 'Pakistani' since childhood i was able to draw that line between do's and dont's..

Got married to a Pakistani boy who knew minimal urdu but had the drive to learn.. Within a year i got him speaking fluent Urdu and hope to bring up my kids with the clear mind that my parents brought me up with..

Would love to hear other people's experiences

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

I believe that you should know your mother tongue properly, you can learn more languages but at least you know your mother tongue.

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

I know I'm in the minority but it isn't a priority for me..

My hubby doesn't speak either of my mother tongues (apart from a few basic pleasantries) and it doesn't bother me.. All my elders + extended family speak English and various other languages.. I'm not really into culture and my family have tended to move around a lot.. It doesn't hold any extra significance to me..

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

It's very important to me. I didn't care for it much when I was in Pakistan, but being away from home has made me appreciate it. I'd want my kids to speak Urdu. I have a cousin who speaks no Urdu and I'd hate for my kids to be like that. Then I have a cousin who understands Urdu but doesn't speak much, that sucks too.

Though I'm not sure on how I'd teach my kids Urdu (if I decide I want to stay here for good). Urdu and extended family are the only things that make me miss home.

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

I had no cousins when I was growing up in Australia. My mum and dad were the only siblings residing in Australia, the way my siblings & I learnt was by speaking at home.

As kids we knew English = outside / school Urdu = at home..

On top of that, from a very young age parents would focus on the accent to ensure we spoke it the right way :)

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

That's okay, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. A lot of my friends here feel the same way.

But I am just curious to know whether you would consider it a skill to know another language. Have you or anyone in the family taken up learning another language at school/college ie: french, Spanish etc?

Also do you proclaim yourself as America/Canadian/English (depending on where you live).. Like if someone asks you where are you from? What do you say?

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Wowww
Bin nicht die Einzige die bei GS ist und in Deutschland wohnt :D

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

^ This.

Our views are very similar. The only reason I'm fluent in my mother tongue & am familiar w/ culture is b/c I was born/raised there until I was a pre-teen. Even after coming to the U.S., just out of habit...'til this day I speak to my parents in my native tongue. But my parents, and extended family back home all speak English. Out of grandparents I only have my dada left and due to his age/health.....I doubt he'll be alive by the time my kids are old enough to even say basic words! My husband was born/raised in a very gora town in the U.S. He's basically a white guy inside a desi guys' body lol. I don't see myself having any sort of "advantage" just b/c I know more about desi culture than he does. So yea....I'm sure my kids will pick up my mother tongue b/c they'll hear me speak it. But getting them to speak it fluently really isn't that high on my list of priorities.

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

Urdu is not very important for me.
I was born and bred in "Umreeka".
I have no plans on leaving and settling in Pakistan or anything like that.

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

interesting..

so for those people who believe being cultured isn't important, do you feel your assimilated in the gora culture 100%?

Do you find gora's will consider you as an american, british, aussie, etc - that being no different to them? Have you adopted their living style completely? Or are there elements where you differ?

I find over here, I am respected and they're so fascinated to see how I carry both cultures day in day out and not be confused about it. Some even consider being lucky if you come from another background. Mingle in work functions but not being constantly questioned why I dont have that glass of wine or beer in my hand..

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Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?

It's important to me Zainy and I consider myself dual identity. I would want to instil the language and values into my children regardless of whether I marry another Pakistani.