Do You Talk in Your Mother Tongue?

Language lets you express emotions and relay logic. Proves us how great legends and politicians achieved success by making exemplary speeches. With the advent of globalization, we are multicultural, multiracial and of course, multilingual. If you are not french and can still order in style a Boeuf bourguignon with a red burgundy at a Parisian bistro, then pride yourself with a polyglot medal. Who cares for grammar anyway;)

An American on a vacation in Netherlands spots a beautiful little farm. So he pulls up his car on the driveway and unfortunately crushes a couple of chickens in the process.The farmer comes out of his house, fuming and shouting.The American tells him "keep quiet".To which the Dutch farmer replies: "Kiep kwait? Kiep kwait? K bun wel duzend kiepen kwait!"
(In the Dutch rural dialect "kiep kwait", means "chicken gone". (The farmer says "Chicken gone? I've lost at least a dozen chickens!") - proz.com 

How many languages do you know or speak? If you ace more than three, that's awesome! Mix up a little talking and bragging, the world adores you as a genius. Wiki tells us there are around 7000 lingos  and the widely spoken languages are from the Indo-European family followed by the Mandarin chinese and Cantonese. Despite such vastness, at times we feel our native language brings us closer to the heart and mind than any other mastered ones. You want to know why, let's have a small talk!

Language Invasion in Homes:

As jobs and migrations keep expanding, our survival depends on our complying with the host culture and languages. We get fewer chances to interact in our mother tongue or keep up our fluency. As our schools and workplaces insist on a common lingua franca, it is inevitable for us to abandon our mother tongue, only to turn into Pidgins and Creoles ( Relax, these are not like aliens in E.T).

In short, Pidgins are non-native speakers using a neutral language for their businesses. Their next generation become creoles who nativize the foreign language into their primary. And to quote a few creole languages practiced across various countries that use English are the Manglish (Malay), Hinglish (Hindi), Tanglish (Tamil), Singlish from Singapore, Portunol( mix of  Portugal and Spanish) etc.

Why is Mother Tongue Important?
So our languages are modifying and updating to the trend. "As times change so does everything. What's the big deal? ". I can hear your voice. But there are still a bunch of people who prefer you talk in your mother tongue also. Why do they care?

A little story. There is an old movie in my native language Thillumullu where the hero pretends to be twins. He fools everyone by sticking a moustache for one twin while removes for the other. It's a hilarious plot full of him getting caught and searching an escape route. This can be related to how our use of foreign language can get us trapped by feigning to have mastery over it. This pursuit for a new identity only hampers our natural self and endangers our own language.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart - Nelson Mandela

 UNESCO has listed that almost 280 languages have become extinct now and at this rate the numbers can go up soon. In a few years, you will find your languages exist only in wiki. Even now we see kids from urban families, raised on non-native languages, struggle to talk or find themselves strangers amidst their kith and kin. Do you want your future to blame you?

Practicing Native Languages:

A proposal by Hurisa Guvercin shows how talking in mother tongue has an immense influence on our personality, character and mental growth. It brings us closer to know our rich culture and heritage. Parents, grandparents and relatives will share much stronger bonds only when our language barriers are out of our way.

Teaching mother tongue at home is the easiest option for a beginner. With ample opportunities to converse in our dialects, our kids are enriched with a first hand experience in learning the language. Try these techniques at home;

• Talk in your mother tongue at home (yeah that's the important one!)
• Discuss various topics ( Narrate childhood incidents, folk tales and funny stories)
• Pull in context materials that are familiar to everyone
• Play crosswords, scrabbles, hangman in your language
• Keep the Language alive around you

The Dawn of the Bilingual:

Neglecting our  mother tongue is not just denial but laying the seeds to an extinction. To stop such a linguicide,  start out with a strong foundation. Basic language development is easier in the initial years of childhood and their linguistic capabilities enable with learning more than one. By employing a bilingual environment filled with personal interactions and peer discussions, your kid can manage fluency and handle both as primary resources.

Three mice are being chased by a cat. The mice were cornered when one of the mice turned around and barked, "Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!" The surprised cat ran away scared. Later when the mice told their mother what happened, she smiled and said, "You see, it pays to be bilingual!"

An article in Times  suggests being a bilingual has cognitive benefits like sharper memory, resolve conflicts and resist Alzheimer's diseases. Multilingualism also benefits the person with better understanding of grammar and to appreciate the diversity in languages.

So Communicate in any language you know without restriction. Talk in your mother tongue to your dear ones. The future might resent now but will thank you later. Embrace the richness of every language and preserve the beauty of the natives!