Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
only if people consider Urdu as their mother tongue
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
Definately!!! but i speak arabic so they need it for the quran plus arabic is one of the UN languages and the 4th most spoken language in the world so will also have use in their future careers.
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.
if urdu had more use to your children do you think you would be more likely to teach it? Also aren't you scared your children will be missing out/ segregated from their pakistani community cause they dont know urdu? Also will you be teaching your children other languages other than urdu like arabic, french,spanish? and if so why dont you find the need to teach them urdu? Sorry if im being nosey im just curious lol
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
well i'm born and raised in the US...speak urdu and punjabi fluently as my parents taught us both before english (which you will learn naturally). I feel it is very important to speak another language so that one can communicate with family, extended relatives, continue to keep your culture and it just makes you a better all around person. now my toddler is also spoken to in urdu most of the time and Mashallah she speaks better than most adults do. she has also picked up english from playing with other kids in the park, school, tv programs, etc. but mashallah her urdu is great and it gives me great pride in knowing that she (a third generation in the US) will be able to communicate with family and friends in her forefather's native tongue. i also think it will help her future in terms of working, communicating and just building skills in general.
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.
so do you only see learning a language important for if you live in the country and no see other reasons to learn a language?
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
well i'm born and raised in the US...speak urdu and punjabi fluently as my parents taught us both before english (which you will learn naturally). I feel it is very important to speak another language so that one can communicate with family, extended relatives, continue to keep your culture and it just makes you a better all around person. now my toddler is also spoken to in urdu most of the time and Mashallah she speaks better than most adults do. she has also picked up english from playing with other kids in the park, school, tv programs, etc. but mashallah her urdu is great and it gives me great pride in knowing that she (a third generation in the US) will be able to communicate with family and friends in her forefather's native tongue. i also think it will help her future in terms of working, communicating and just building skills in general.
aww thats sweet its also important because living in a western country children will have no other choice than to pick up english however their native tongue of their parents/grandparent they wont have any other place to be taught it than home where as english is taught at school
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
I am fluent in both Punjabi and Urdu (as well as English). When I started nursery I mostly knew Punjabi and Urdu (family mostly spoke it at home + my immense love for Bollywood movies at such a young age) and minimal English, which apparently wasn't good because English is more 'important' and could hinder your education. In Hindsight I am glad my parents (although born and bred in uk) spoke Urdu and Punjabi at home because it means that I can communicate with my other family and in Pakistan. Also at present I excel in English and is no different to non-ethnic Brits./people and it has not hindered my education one bit (take that nursery teachers!). It makes you multi-lingual, which is a skill most people prefer generally and at the workplace. You can also talk about someone right in front of them without them knowing :P Also, how would I be able to enjoy my Bollywood movies and Pakistani dramas if I had no knowledge of the two languages? I have cousins that have limited knowledge of Urdu and when they try and communicate to my grandparents and family in Pakistan, they fail miserably. It also does keep you closer to your roots. iA when I have kids, I will make sure that they know Urdu and Punjabi as well as English.
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
having grown up outside of pakistan with urdu communication between elders mainly i would really like my children to know urdu. and i want them to speak it better than me, why not? i don’t want generations of family who spoke urdu/punjabi to go to waste. i hope they can read the scrolling news at the bottom of the screen faster than me too, damn thing 
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
some great responses here.. thanks everyone!
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
My parents often say if u don't marry a Pakistani girl ur children won't know Urdu. Yet what if I don't find one attracted to me but I find another desi girl or an Arabic girl i can still teach my children Urdu and my wife can teach her languages is she knows others. Why only preserve my culture not my wife's culture? Why not teach my wife her culture and learn hers?
As for assimilation the westerners around me consider me part of their culture sometimes more than some Pakistanis who consider me coconut.
also there are westerners who might not think I fit in. I am dual cultural identity and I like both my western and easternidentity.
How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
Im going to make it a point to teach my kids inshallah our mother tounge! My mum was born in africa they spoke mainly swahili, and my naana was Pakistani from NWFP and spoke Hindko, so mum grew up speaking swahili/hindko/punjabi
Dads side from karachi but hindko is their main lingo and urdu, i can speak urdu and read and write it! In our everyday language we use swahili words and hindko/punjabi and were always able to hold down a convo with my grandparents in Khi who didnt speak english..
My husband, his family speak broken punjabi (sigh) and his nieces and nephews know zilch! Im very protective over my hindko i dont wana start picking up their version of punjabi its like a mash up of everything so i stick to english with my inlaws.
I do feel its good to be able to understand your mother tounge. I grew up in a very pakistani community i can even understand mirpuri/pothwari lol and its great when you want to say something so your non desi friends dnt understand lol
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
My husband grew up not speaking Urdu in his household - Only English. As he grew older late teens, early 20's he really felt and questioned his parents why they never taught them. Mind you mum and dad both speak fluent urdu too..
He now mA speaks fluent urdu and all that he knows his from what I've taught him - just speaking to him in urdu.. When we were engaged on the phone etc..
At first it was slow conversations, but as his vocab increased it was great to see the change! I as so surprised to see how he wanted to learn it and what he felt about it.. In hindsight now his rents wish the other siblings speak too!
For me knowing how to speak urdu is part of my identity. And gosh I would be missing out on all those Hum Tv Dramas if i didn't know :P
So IA, the plan is to teach my kids too.. Key is once they start going to preshcool and picking up english you may speak to them in urdu and they respond in english - the key is if you want them to be fluent to make sure they're replying in urdu (or your native tongue) too!
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
I think it is very important to keep your identity. And language is part of your identity..and i am a firm believer of preserving our identity. We siblings grew up outside Pakistan. Yet we speak..Urdu fluently and have kept this identity alive. By this..we know where have we come from. My nephew who is 3 yrs old..born here..understands urdu..and that is because his nana nani and all of us..speak urdu with him. I think..it is beautiful that..one should not forget..where we come from.
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..
I have a similar point of view. I grew up speaking both urdu and english but I'd consider english my mother tongue because its the language i use 99% of the time and its the one I think in too. I grew up around arabs so I had more of a focus on islamic culture than a culture specific to a nationality.
For my own kids, I'd also focus on the islamic culture. Its not a big deal to me because even today the biggest pakistani influence in my daily life is maybe the food. I rarely wear the clothes and speak urdu/punjabi infrequently so there's not much for them to pick up. I suppose they could pick up stuff from my parents which is fine, but I won't be pushing them towards it.
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
interesting
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
i hope my children understand and speak urdu.
i wasnt born in pakistan but alhamdullilah i speak perfect fluent urdu, read it, write it and even teach it at a local school. my parents spoke to siblings and i in urdu from a very young age.
i guess i will make it a point to teach my children urdu. dont want them to be just english speaking only.
urdu is what keeps us to our roots. i have a better personality because i can converse in urdu, i communicate well with my grandparents and extended family, new friends i meet who are from pakistan and best of all, preserve my pakistani-hindustani identity.
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
Not really answering OP's post but whichever language you think in, that's your mother tongue is it not? So some overseas pakistanis that learned urdu/punjabi before english maybe think in urdu punjabi which means their mother tongue is not at all english?
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
Not really answering OP's post but whichever language you think in, that's your mother tongue is it not? So some overseas pakistanis that learned urdu/punjabi before english maybe think in urdu punjabi which means their mother tongue is not at all english?
What if you think in both languages? Lol
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
Not really answering OP's post but whichever language you think in, that's your mother tongue is it not? So some overseas pakistanis that learned urdu/punjabi before english maybe think in urdu punjabi which means their mother tongue is not at all english?
How do you think in a language? What do you call thinking in a language? When I think it's either mathematical equations, random chicks or cars floating in my head. Don't know if that made any sense.
Please do reply. I wanna figure out the language I think in.
Re: How important is your mother tongue for you & future generations?
^If you see a hot girl and say things in your head are those words in Urdu, Punjabi or English?