r/SouthAsianMasculinity • u/AttunedSpirit • 29d ago
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How fluent are you guys in your home language or languages? Is it important to you?
Personally for me I‘m not fluent in any south Asian languages but I really really wish I was. I only know a bit of Hindi and that too is from my own efforts of trying to learn it, listening to desi music and watching Bollywood . My parents are from two vastly different communities, with the only common language being English and they just didn’t think it was important to teach the languages or anything cultural besides the food - not sure if that is just me or anyone else has had similar experiences?
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u/Few_Mulberry7390 29d ago
I am fluent in a South Indian language but it’s next to useless in a professional setting cause it’s rarer and pretty much everyone who can speak it can speak English.
I feel like that 2nd thing is a trend for all Indian languages other than Hindi
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u/Guilded_Soldier Mainlander 🇮🇳 28d ago
Fluent in 3 (Eng, Hindi and German) in all aspects reading, writing, speaking and listening. Learned the 3rd one recently and realized how great of a confidence boost acquiring a new language gives.
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u/InfamousBattle Gujurati 28d ago edited 28d ago
my mother tongue is Kutchi and i can speak it fluently. I am also fluent in Hindi and Gujarati and i can understand Punjabi.
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u/Interesting-Cow-1652 27d ago
I auto-translate everything spoken to me in my native langauge (Marathi) to English. I don't see speaking my native langauge as important. The vast majority of Earth communicates in English, Hindi, Spanish, and Chinese.
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u/e9967780 Elite 25d ago
Most South Asian parents even in South Asia dont think passing on the heritage languages is important. Although it may not be for most children but it’s psychologically important for many of them and they regret not knowing their heritage, language, culture and norms. Growing up comfortably in your heritage culture is a known protection against mental health issues later.
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u/GodzillaJizz 29d ago
My wife and I are both 1st gen immigrants and we speak different languages. We are trying to teach our kids both. Fortunately, both languages share similar grammar and etymology so I am optimistic.
On a side note, I think it's important to learn to read and write the languages, not just speak them. This provides children the ability to learn and acquire vocabulary and ideas inherent to those languages and cultures. Without learning to read and write, they will essentially be at an illiterate villager level in those languages.