"With my immediate family, the language used for interactions is Malayalam, English, and Hindi. While with the extended family, the interactions are mainly in Malayalam, with a few exceptions of certain people who can hold a conversation in English and Hindi also. For proficiency in English, my parents from a very young age have sent me to English medium schools, but what helped in strengthening my English proficiency was when my family moved to Lucknow when I was just seven years old due to my mother's job. Slowly while interacting with students in class and on the school bus I learned to speak Hindi. My parents did try to help me with my transition to a different school and state by putting me in Hindi Tutions but it was not successful as learning the language by just writing it and by being spoken is very different. According to my if a language is taught just but in written ways then the student will only learn to write it but through interaction, the student will pick up the language in speech format too. At the age of ten, my family had to move again to Mumbai due to my mother's age. Here is where English became as the forefront of my spoken language due to the fact that there were people from many different states in my locality so for everyone to understand us English was the only language that we could speak. When I changed schools again at the age of thirteen where English was a compulsory language to be used for speaking. This led to me speaking English to answer anyone by default, even if they speak to me in a different language. Marathi is not something that I picked up fully due to the fact that there was no one who I could interact within that language. I can speak certain words in Marathi and understand when someone is speaking to me. I can also understand a bit of Gujarati, Tamil and Urdu. I can understand Gujarati cause there were people who used to speak to me in a mix of Gujarati and English. While Tamil is something I understand very well due to the fact that my father can speak it and we from a very young age have been watching Tamil movies." - Joshna
"I use Malayalam and occasionally English to communicate and interact with my family. Growing up, I was exposed to both these languages in one way or the other. My parents had taught me bits and pieces of Malayalam, starting from small words and then stringing them together to make simple sentences. Even before joining school, I was beginning to understand the language and its vocabulary although very limited. At school, reading simple poems and stories in both English and Malayalam along with using the language to converse at home greatly helped me. Reading simple books in both English and Malayalam and building vocabulary by reading and finding new words and understanding their meanings was a regular thing. All of this along with being able to communicate with the language and practicing regularly is what helped me build my language." - Krishnan
"The primary language of interaction with family is Hindi. Growing up in the 2000s, there was incredible stress on learning the "global language" that is English. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, I attended an "English-medium" school where I was asked to interact in English the whole day. However, I think on a more personal level, my parents attempted to keep my connect with Hindi. Both English and Hindi newspapers (Nai Dunia and Times of India) and magazines (India Today and Nandan) were a stable in our household. At the same time, my parents promoted my creativity in Hindi by asking me to write poems and short stories in Hindi. Further, I was always told to keep a diary in both the languages. However, I continued to be judged by English proficiency academically. Therefore, I think I've come to think of English as a more "professional" language while Hindi is personal." - Sanket
"The languages I use to interact with my family members are Odia and Hindi. My regional language is Odia and my family always communicated in that language. However the use of Hindi in our daily speech is also present. I grew up listening to these two languages and eventually understood how to communicate using those languages. As I grew up and joined school I was engaged in reciting rhymes and short stories in English in order to make myself familiar with the language. Alongside my parents also used to make me write certain sentences in English, Odia and Hindi so that I have an idea of what I'm speaking. They used to make me write 2-2 sentences five times each in all the three languages. The sentences had the same meaning just that they were in three different languages. This activity helped to gain a better grip on my speech and also helped me understand these languages better." - Mohit
"My parents always held conservative views about their mother tongue and were firmly attached to the Malayali diasporic sentiment. As such, we spoke almost entirely in Malayalam in our house, unlike other Malayali friends of mine – who preferred Hindi. To say that they played only a minor role in my Hindi proficiency is an understatement; Hindi was almost never used in the house. Malayalam films were preferred in the household over Hindi ones. In fact, despite being exposed to North Indian culture for almost all my life, I can count on my fingers the number of Hindi movies I have watched. Most of my exposure to Hindi was from interactions with my friends at school and outside. When I would ask my parents about the lack of Hindi in the house, they would reply how I would only be using Malayalam and English when we move back to Kerala. They were quietly political about language use as well.
On the other hand, English was actively encouraged – with them insisting on having a strong English ‘foundation’ as a key to professional ‘successes. I attended an English medium school, where formally we had to speak in English all the time. I used to get scolded for watching English cartoons in their regional variations and was instructed to start reading the English newspaper early. I was subscribed to various English publications as well.
Since Malayalam was the mainstay in the house and my parent’s friend circles, I was culturally more exposed to it than the language of the place I was staying in. They would specifically order Malayalam storybooks like Balarama, Kalikudukka, dvds, and we would participate in cultural events centered around the Malayali experience, organized by the local Malayalam association. I attended weekly Malayalam classes organized by the association, with homework that included learning the alphabet. As such, I have developed a slight indifference towards Hindi as it was never personal for me." - Nixon
"My family converses in 3 different languages: Malayalam, Hindi and English. Learning Hindi and English was mostly done in school, but my mother used to guide me in writing and reading the languages at home. Particularly for English, my parents always encouraged my habit of reading, by buying me quite a lot of novels and taking me to book fairs. They believed that it would help me develop a better vocabulary and structure my writing better. I distinctly remember the cold winter mornings of Delhi when my parents would take me to the annual World Book Fair. As far as Malayalam was concerned, my maternal uncle and aunt, during summer vacations, would give me basic writing exercises. But I would lose track of what I learnt once I came back to Delhi. While in conversation with my mother regarding this assignment, she mentioned that firstly, language is necessary for communication. The second reason for their intervention was to make sure, as parents, that I was learning the socially correct way of using language."
- Akshaya
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