Sindhu and Rushil have been taking Hindi as a 2nd language at school. They grumble about the classes and complain incessantly. Sindhu will be going to middle school and will have write exams next year even for the 2nd language class. She is adamant about dropping Hindi and picking up French. I'm tempted to give in as I feel helpless as I can't help her with her homework, Prasad doesn't have the inclination and we're completely dependent on her tutor. After 2 years, Sindhu can read and write phonetically but she can't form a sentence in Hindi nor does she understand any of it.. My dilemma is that if we drop Hindi, there is no "Indian" skill that they are learning. It's a pity that we're in India and they are not learning an Indian language, Indian music or dance. We even go to the temple less than we used to in the US. A friend of mine was joking that it's easier to find a good tabla or Bharatanatyam teacher in the bay area than it is here. I could same the same for learning Telugu, yes I know we could teach them but that hasn't really worked so far. A part of it is they have no interest in any of these things. Rushil is more into sports and he's taking swimming/karate in the summer and soccer in the winters and spends the rest of his time playing cricket. Sindhu is taking swimming and drama classes. Sports are even more important for Sindhu given she's entering the age when most of the girls just hang out and talk.
This brings me to the question of what are they gaining from living in India? Will they look back at these years fondly, miss their friends and family and want to visit India? I hope so.
2 comments:
I think they will definitely remember these years very fondly. And years from now they may also very deeply regret not having learnt a new language or art form or really experiencing all that they could have. Living in India may very well change their lives, as my one year at age 12 did.
Our experience is that very few kids actually like learning a language - I know I hated Hindi all through school, but am now glad that I am fluent. We didn't have the option of switching languages (Hindi and Kannada were both mandatory when I was in school). I wonder if Kannada would be easier for Sindhu? It is pretty close to Telugu and I can understand and read Telugu just from knowing Kannada.
Like Raji said, I have cousins brought up in the US, who now regret never learning Tamil as kids, plus, we have family members who don't speak English fluently, so we enforce Tamil at home.
I'd say hang in there....:)
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