We have decided to bring up DD to be bilingual at home. So I speak to her in Tamil, and DH speaks to her in Malayalam, our respective mother tongues. Since I know Malayalam well, I also try to repeat whatever I tell her in Malayalam. As a result, she has picked up a bit of both, although she speaks mostly in Tamil, with snippets of Malayalam thrown in. I sometimes wonder if she will end up being confused about the 2 languages - but I know quite a few bilingually-raised children who speak both languages fluently by age 4. So I reasoned to myself that she will be fine. Now that DD has started day-care, she is being exposed to English. And is picking up quite a few words and phrases from there. Little did I know how muddled DD's mind was, till this happened:
Me : Enna cartoon pakkare? (Which cartoon are you watching)
DD : "Many many Noddies" (This being the title of the Noddy cartoon she was watching)
The next day, we were watching flowers in our small garden below. And in an attempt to boost DD's mathematical skills, I ask her "Chinnu, evvlavu poo irukku, count pannu" (Can you count the number of flowers? "Poo" meaning flower in Tamil & Mal). Pat came the reply: "Many many poo-s". I was dumbstruck and then almost broke my sides laughing.
Well, if more than one Noddy is termed "Noddies", DD had assumed logically that more than one "poo" is "poo-s". I comforted myself thinking that her languages may be a bit muddled, but her logic and reasoning were working quite fine.
Me : Enna cartoon pakkare? (Which cartoon are you watching)
DD : "Many many Noddies" (This being the title of the Noddy cartoon she was watching)
The next day, we were watching flowers in our small garden below. And in an attempt to boost DD's mathematical skills, I ask her "Chinnu, evvlavu poo irukku, count pannu" (Can you count the number of flowers? "Poo" meaning flower in Tamil & Mal). Pat came the reply: "Many many poo-s". I was dumbstruck and then almost broke my sides laughing.
Well, if more than one Noddy is termed "Noddies", DD had assumed logically that more than one "poo" is "poo-s". I comforted myself thinking that her languages may be a bit muddled, but her logic and reasoning were working quite fine.
3 comments:
Vow, she has started talking so much!! "Poo-s" was funny!:) hey, u too grew up as a bilingual, so guess your DD will have no issues!
well,yes. But I was not bilingual at this age, Ash. I spoke only Tamil till I was 4 - and then picked up Malayalam
DM (Dear Minerva), DD is next-gen - she's smarter than our lot. So we shouldn't impose our limits on her capabilities - what say? :)
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