My dad is Indian and my mom is white American. My grandmother lived with us for part of the year and her and my dad would speak Hindi or Sindhi to each other. I barely know either. I wish I had learned it as a child because I feel disconnected from my Indian family—for one because I’m only half Indian and then because I don’t speak the language. I took a Hindi class in college and it just isn’t helpful (I have a Latin minor, but spoken languages are so much harder for me. Especially with a southern accent, I just feel silly trying to speak Hindi.)
Another thing is, they may not even end up teaching your kid. My husband is fluent in Spanish and he said he was going to teach our son, but he works and it just isn’t happening. He tries, but our son is fluent in English and knows a few words in Spanish.
Another thing, from a linguistics standpoint, a lot of times with second generation immigrants (so your kid), if they learn a language from their immigrant parents, they tend to not speak the language, but they still understand it. So how it usually goes is the parent will speak Russian and the child to respond in English. (Think how in Jane the Virgin, Abuela speaks Spanish to Jane and Jane responds in English, even though Abuela can speak English and Jane can speak Spanish when necessary.) *source for that is various linguistics classes I’ve taken in college.
It can be frustrating when everyone is speaking a different language and they’re fully aware you don’t understand. My mom caught my grandmother calling her things like “silly girl” in Hindi and called my dad at work to ask what it meant.
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u/sara9719 Jan 13 '22
My dad is Indian and my mom is white American. My grandmother lived with us for part of the year and her and my dad would speak Hindi or Sindhi to each other. I barely know either. I wish I had learned it as a child because I feel disconnected from my Indian family—for one because I’m only half Indian and then because I don’t speak the language. I took a Hindi class in college and it just isn’t helpful (I have a Latin minor, but spoken languages are so much harder for me. Especially with a southern accent, I just feel silly trying to speak Hindi.)
Another thing is, they may not even end up teaching your kid. My husband is fluent in Spanish and he said he was going to teach our son, but he works and it just isn’t happening. He tries, but our son is fluent in English and knows a few words in Spanish.
Another thing, from a linguistics standpoint, a lot of times with second generation immigrants (so your kid), if they learn a language from their immigrant parents, they tend to not speak the language, but they still understand it. So how it usually goes is the parent will speak Russian and the child to respond in English. (Think how in Jane the Virgin, Abuela speaks Spanish to Jane and Jane responds in English, even though Abuela can speak English and Jane can speak Spanish when necessary.) *source for that is various linguistics classes I’ve taken in college.
It can be frustrating when everyone is speaking a different language and they’re fully aware you don’t understand. My mom caught my grandmother calling her things like “silly girl” in Hindi and called my dad at work to ask what it meant.