Do you think your mother tongue (local language) is still precious?

Hi Sree! You have a point to make. Today's parents sometimes do not emphasize that their children should learn their regional language. I feel besides knowing English and one's National Language, in our case it is Hindi, knowing third language i.e. Regional languauge will be of great help. I can converse in my regional language, Hindi and English without any problem, however, my kids may not be so good at speaking regional language, which I feel they should know. One should speak the language as per the situation and should easily switch over to the regional language/English, as per the circumstances.

I had been adopted as a child and my adoptive family only spoke English at home. So I too only learnt to speak and think in English. I have not had the opportunity of learning my mother tongue i.e. Kannada. It is a problem when I am asked my mother tongue and someone starts speaking in that language. It becomes troublesome explaining to everyone why I dont know a word of my native language. I had felt out of place when I had visited Karnataka some years back and could not communicate with a lot of the local people because I did not know any of the local languages.

Dear friend, My mother tougue is "MALAYALAM" please check its spellings from back and fron both is same. More over it is the South Indian language and I do speak it often even though I use Enlighs of moslty other written purposes. I do also like and respect my mother tougue.It is know that in India there are more than 50 languages all these were derived from the anceint language sanskrit.

hello sree, me once again.My mother tongue is Konkani which has no script, just like Tulu.Some famous Konkani speaking people from my community, Chitrapur Saraswat, are Gurudutt, Leena Chandavarkar, my cousins Anant Nag and late Shankar Nag(Nagarkatti), Shyam Benegal, Nandan Nilekani, playback singer Suman Kalyanpur. Today with the advent of computers the English language has become very prominent with the result that youngsters and their parents have taken to speak English even at home so the mother tongue is slowly disappearing.Even our community faced the same problem but the present Swami who heads our Mutt,who is a very dynamic person has revived interest in our language and has inspired the youth of our community to speak as much as possible in it. Not only that he has revived interest in Sanskrit and many people, young and old, from our community have taken to learn it seriously. It is neccessary for prominent people from all different communities with different languages to inspire the younger generation to learn their own language without having to disregard English which is an absolute must for education.

Yes my mother tongue is precious. Thats the language i use the most. Nowadays they have even included this language in the school curriculum

Mother tongues have been replaced by global language THE ENGLISH.Most of the people believe that nowadays there's no use of their mother tongue and its a complete waste.I believe every person must be well aware to how to read,write speak and understand his/her mother tongue.Well come on who's gonna listen any way because all are going for the better English learning process other than at least learning their mother tongue. I won't say ENGLISH is bad a language,but the only problem is that these global languages pose a huge threat to the essence of the beautiful mother tongue of ours.

Shree 1 I have already responded to thIS discussion but I thought over this and am writing another one again. Local language should not become an obsession with people, and they should be open minded about learning the proper means of communication. As an educated person, I get irritated when people cannot speak in English and would speak only in hindi[even in the Government offices or banks]As long as I was in Tamil Nadu I was not affected by this but now I have a problem. We are all educated and we accept that English can be given importance as a means of communication.But there are some fanatics who refuse to do this.Much as I understand their situation, I find this a barrier. Regarding my other response, my point was that despite having an obsession with the mother tongue, people in our region do not speak or write Tamil as it should be [even in on television shows and generally--their pronunciation leaves much to be desired. ]. THen why make such a big hue and cry about 'mother tongue'?

yes. english is just my second tongue but we used in the office most of the time. at home, we speak the native or the primary language. i'm better with my local tongue of course.

Hi Sreekala though I am not against English I think every one must give equal importance for the mother tongue.. Now a days in Banglore people think that speaking kannada(mother tongue in Karanataka) is like a shame and though they know local language they hesitate to speak in public places and if some villagers ask them any help in the local language they act as if they dont know the language.. I really get angry on such people.. English is good for career but also local language has its own importance.

Hi sreekala Yes i do believe that sometimes our mother tongue is not quiet often used and we fear that it might be dying, we really do need to keep our language up, it says a lot about our culture and history, the only way we can now preserve is by taking interest in talking in that particular language, i am glad you are teaching your children, children really need to be exposes to new languages, that is the time they learn them fastest, i am pretty sure they will be doing awesome, as for me i haven't been much exposed to my mother tongue, we have been speaking more or less in Hindi, i think we should have used our mother tongue more often but unfortunately these day my mother tongue is restricted to our village, i don't mean we are not allowed to speak in our mother tongue but sadly when people from villages come to the city they need to communicate and hence speak more of Hindi and when they finally come to live in the city and a city is where i grew up hence speaking Hindi and English most of the time, I can undestand Telugu as well but can not speak much, i am glad i know more than 1 language i have to say .... hehe... anyways it is really a nice post and thanks.... have a good day Sreekala, by the way your name suggests that you are from South India! are you ? most of my childhood i have spent at Andhra pradesh and i have to say it is such a peaceful state . . . anyways have a good day and certainly a good post

My mother tongue is chinese, more than one billion people's mother tongue is chinese. But I think it is still precious, now more and more chinese let their children study hard in english, and send their children oversea. I find many children think they only need be good in english, other lessons are not important. That is a bad news. Happy mylot!

in Singapore, we have the Speak Good English and Speak Good Mandarin campaigns here, no English hard to survive. well anyway, these days in my country many are switching to English instead of using Mandarin to communicate (given the fact that they are ethnic Chinese)... talking about precious, probably it is because the govt has been emphasizing again and again to use more Mandarin. our govt tries to make the citizens bilingual

Personally I hate mixing languages,Even every language is mixed to some extent. I have a big interest in learning as many languages as i can ,But talking in a mixed dialect is abhorabale. More than any langauge I love my mother toungue "Malayalam" I always try to use that in all the occassion to an extent. English is indeed a good language,,and helps in career,, That does not mean we will have to leave mothe toungue to speak english, Learn languges ,But never destroy

hi,sreekala,first I think your topic is very significative for all people whose mother tongue is not english.English has become the world language,it is important for us to master it.But one's mother tongue is still pricious,for it stands for the culture of a nation,people should not forget their mother tongue,forgetting means defection.To carry forward one's mother tongue is one's responsibility.

hi sreekala My mother tongue is English and I think its pretty'w well used universally now.it makes it a lot easier for people like me who Are not good at learning other languages. I do think that'all people should know their native tongue too .parents should make it'A p point to learn english And to t each their own lAnguage to their'kidsl

The question is all about Mother tongue is still Precious?? So this discussion is not about which language is best(especially not against English) Well.. For this discussion, I would answer No.. 50% and yes 50%. I can see in city side most people, especially the college guys like to talk in English in public places as some peoples think that they are stylish peoples or they may considering this as a 'fashion'. Not only college students. but also business peoples. I am saying this because, I managed a company showroom for 1 and half years and 50% of customers (whose mother tongue is tamil, ofcourse mine too)talks with me in English. I dont know why.. Why it is necessary to talk in English when me and they, both have same mother tongue and when no 'rules' are there to talk in English. Its okay when other state peoples visit my office. But why even local peoples talk in english(for maintaining status?) when they clearly know when it is not necessary. When i meet those types of peoples, I would never talk in English. I will always reply by my own mother tongue. but i will be getting angry if they still continue the same English talk. Because Meanwhile, while attending cellphone, they speak in local language. Only 1 time, I had said one men to talk in Tamil. Another i met a customer who talked very much broken English. I laughed loud inside my mind and thought why these things are necessary.. Finally I asked him which language you can speak well? I knew Tamil and English. if you knew you english, you can prefer that language. If you knew tamil, that is very fine. But one thing is must. I must understand what you are speaking. Finally he smiled and accepted to talk with me in Mother language itself. Some peoples are really Strange..

My first language is Italian and that is all I could speak until the age of ten when I came to Australia with my family and learnt English. I’ve lived here for almost forty years now and Italian no longer feels like my native tongue. I think in English, dream in English and of course love to write in English. I still speak Italian to my parents and I seldom write it anymore.

Hmm..Not really. I wouldn't say it's dying, in fact, English happens to be really popular for some reason. It's like..everyone around the world wants to learn it. I'm not really sure why - I guess maybe international people want to get into the American/British job market, or something?

Hi Sreekala, Well in my case I would say that i really have lots of respect for my mother tongue, as it is our identity and you always feel good to talk in that language as you have a feeling of belonging.......but my problem is I was born and brought up in some other state where my mother tongue is not spoken that much, so i happened to pick up some local language and English.......so I can now speak in my mother tongue but it is all broken...... But then I make sure that when I get people who know to speak in my mother tongue, I would go ahead and speak in my mother tongue !!!! And yes I agree English today is a language which is spoken globally and the entire commerce is usually done in English.......I have this gut feeling that someday there would be just one language and that would be English, as today people feel that one who can speak English is a superior person and one who cant is not......so it is also a part of style statement now !!!!! Have a nice day !!!!

To be able to be globally competitive, we sure need to speak with the common language, which is English. For me, the preciousness of the native dialect is not yet gone. Though a lot of us here requires students and workers to speak in English to be able to communicate with other people *specifically those outside the country*. We still use our native language in our homes and will never forget it so i guess the importance is not yet gone for us Filipinos. The mother tongue is knowingly neglected for one's success and triumph to regain the motherland's pride. *I was not really sure what i said here.*