Yes, thats true. Like all parents, I always like to note my baby's giftedness. The one I am going to blog about today is his multilingual-ness.
Pratham started speaking proper sentences a little above 2 years. For that matter We always spoke to him in our mother tongue konkani. Unlike many indian parents who believe that its better to teach their children English, we reasoned that he would pick up english when he went to school and its best that he learns his mother toungue well. So right from the time he was a baby, we and our family members always spoke in Konkani. Even as a baby of 2 years , pratham prattled and lisped in North Canara Konkani. He picked it up while i was away on my work trip to the US. When I came back i got to hear my baby speak in this accent of Konkani so unlike mine( mine is a mixture of konkani, goan and marathi hahaha) TOday ofcourse he speaks like a seasoned guy.
The Next language he picked up was Telgu. How come? well... at this daycare that I first put him, the aunty knew only telgu. The few english words that she spoke were typical south indian accented(!!!!) so we had Pratham say "Aepil" for Apple and u get the drift? so from 1 years to 1.5 years he understood telgu and seems conversed in telgu with the aunties there. Of course back home with us, he never responded to any other languages other than Konkani. Even today when some people try talking to him in telgu, he responds(in english though) but looks like he still remembers the language.
The next in the list is Tamil!!! yes , no surprise actually, bangalore has more population of tamilians than kannadigas. This he picked up at his later daycare where all the caretakers are tamil. I am told that he spoke in tamil and was very much a tamil guy. He actually tried speaking to us in Tamil, but we are illiterate of that language and told him that we cant understand it ( this was when he was around 2).
Now comes the turn of English. I think he picked it up in the daycare again. The Daycare incharge speaks in english and well thts where he must have picked it up. TODAY he is extremely fluent in english for a child of 3.5 years. Surprisingly, during our US trip last year, he didnt venture to speak English at all!! But the moment he landed back in india, he had a new motto - When at home speak Konkani, But when out speak in ENGLISH(even with papa and mama)!!! Its funny to see him speak to the house maid in ENGLISH when the poor thing doesnt understand one word of it. What more, the daycare ladies are telling me that he no longer speaks to them in tamil but only in ENGLISH!!!!! He has become quite an english man !!! I will blog about his prowess in English. U will be surpised!!
The other two languages are Marathi and Hindi. He understands them to some extent . He tries some Hindi sentences and sings songs in marathi.The other day he said "Ke Kar rahe ho" in a funny accent. He meant to say Kya but ended up saying Ke and well.... i am afraid that he was getting a southindian accent in his HINDI. OOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOO!! Alarm bells in my mind.
I am soo proud of my son speaking so many languages and that too picking them up on his own.
During our recent US Trip, I remember speaking to a cambodian lady now settle in US. She was proud that he knew "2" languages" - english and cambodian. I almost laughed aloud(no i didnt ) when I informed her that an average Indian speaks 3 languages at least!! and my son all of 3 years old speaks 6 languages!!!
lemme see which is the next language in his reportaire!!
