Language and Kids

Name: Lisa Pieper
Rating: 5

Posted by Devishobha Chandramouli | Papamusings | 0

I had been to a camp recently with Mr. Romulus Whitaker, the King Cobra man of India! It was just amazing to be with him, listen to him and learn from him (although we got little time with the man). Our team comprised of a mixture of age groups. Almost all possible demographics. From Grade 10 students to a 50+ old lady from Auroville!

Image Courtesy: Biotech.iitm.ac.in

So here’s the scene: Shrikant Samal(my colleague) and I were put up along with three other people in a cottage by name Ridley. Two adolescents and 3 adults in a room.

What got me about them young fellows was that all of them spoke English with a roll on their tongues. So I got down to some small talk with this young kid, a US returned Grade 11 student.

I got to know that he is a:
1. TamBram by birth; but will speak only American accented Engligh
2. His parents can speak Tamil
3. No- he didnt learn the language
4. Because he did not think it was important and
( This one drops the shell, really!)
5. Because Tamil is used only to speak to his driver and maid!!!!

Me: What???????!!!!

Another kid:

1. Born to a father from Kerala and mother from Andhra Pradesh( wow, he could learn 2 languages!)
2. No- he chose not to learn either language
3. Because they speak English at home
4. There is no need for any ‘lesser’ language…

Me (thinking): Are we really this screwed up?

Another kid from Doon’s School:

1. Born to Gujrati parents
2. Speaks very good English with the firang tongue-roll and all
3. YES, he can speak his mother tongue very well
4. Because, that is his cultural connect to his parents and family!!!

Me: Thank God, so we are not so screwed up after all!!!

A humble request to all parents- Teach your child to be proud of who he is. We are a great, ingenious, resourceful country. No other country can boast of a new language/dialect every few hundred miles across the country. Same goes for cuisines. India is great and poor on many fronts, but, that is another matter for another day!
I am not here to debate which country/culture/language is greater or lesser.

Point to ponder: If your child does not like or is ashamed of who (s)he is/where (s)he comes from- chances are his/her self-esteem is abysmal.

About The Author

Devishobha Chandramouli

Devishobha is the founder of Kidskintha- a global parenting and education collective, and the host of the global virtual conferences hosted on the platform. You can also find her voice on the Huffington Post, Mother.ly, Entrepreneur, Lifehack, TinyBuddha, Thought Catalog and many other publications.

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Testimonials

Lisa Pieper

I cannot thank you enough for supplying these talks. I am a special education teacher, PreK-6th grade, in Montana, USA. I am so grateful to have instruction and insight from so many experts available to me. Thank you also for providing the links for follow-up questions and diving deeper into their areas of expertise. This summit will make a difference in the way I approach
assessment, instruction, and intervention in my classroom, as well as how I collaborate with my general education colleagues and parents. All that and I am only halfway through day 1!

Kidskintha Summit Participant

Urja Nagaria

I am impressed with your hard work and your immense curiosity, passion, and determination to execute this summit at this hour when the world is battling. All the lectures were well organized and planned, and cherry on top well lined up! The best feedback I want to tell you is I was so woven with the lectures that I managed to complete them on the designated days! I was so glued to all the lectures that I carried my screen and hands-free to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom to complete them and generate notes to share with my colleagues and apply them at work.

Kidskintha Summit Participant

Sangita Krishnamurthy

I am thrilled to see a conference hosted by an Indian parenting website that has brought together renowned names in the various fields of parenting. Not only are the presenters known, but the topics have also been curated to give parents practical ways to better themselves. Areas like resilience, social-emotional well-being, skilling for adolescents,
etc. are relevant and needed areas of discussion. I got to see a preview of a session on mindfulness by Christopher Willard and was impressed with the ease with which Devishobha guides the discussion to the needs of the Indian parent community. I am
looking forward to listening to more of the speakers during the conference.

Special Educator, Kidskintha Summit participant.

Sherryll Kraizer

Devishobha has been a great collaborator with my organization on behalf of preventing child abuse. She has been brilliant at getting simple, effective, and actionable advice and tools to parents. She brings together the best people in an easy-to-access online format. It is so unusual to work with someone who has a sense of quality and accessibility for parents!

Ph.D.; Director- Coalition For Children; Speaker, Kidskintha Parenting Consciousness Summit.

Yashwardhini Chauhan

I would like to thank you very much for holding the special kid's international summit. I had applied to more than 20 alternative schools all over India two years ago for my son's admission, but nothing worked out. I knew the existing school was not good enough for him. I felt frustrated and could not understand what plans God had for me. However I am very grateful to you for making me aware of so many aspects, now my son has got admission to a school specially meant to teach children like him, in New Jersey and my son is very happy.

Kidskintha SPINS Summit

Lisa Lynam Piar

I am an avid researcher regarding parenting techniques, especially for complex or spirited children, and have already found this summit so helpful. I especially loved Bonnie Harris’s piece. Thank you for bringing all of these great resources to the world in a way we can easily access.

Early Educator, & participant, Parenting Consciousness Summit

Neeru Tyagi

It was a very insightful experience. As a preschool teacher, I can relate to the importance of the early years, which can have a lifelong impact on our children. Thank you for bringing us to this summit.

Kidskintha World Early Years Summit.

Rupa Sharat Kumar

An information-packed presentation. There were some great parenting tips for neuro-typical as well as neuro-diverse kids.

Kidskintha SPINS summit participant.

Trupthi Dabhade

The session was wonderful and the highlight was the 5C strategy.

Kidskintha SPINS Summit participant.

Gayatri Suryanarayan

Very very interesting session! It was really wonderful the way the whole thing was explained with regard to the Indian context with practical solutions! Great job!

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