Posted on by UmaS

Linguistic skills !!!

What’s your mother tongue ????

Hindi / Gujarati / Marati / Tamil / Telugu / Bengali / Malayalam / Kannada / Any other Indian language.

Are you fluent in your mother tongue ????

If yes, try speaking in your mother tongue for an hour or so, without using any other language words and especially no English words.

OMG !!!! I tried and it and I completely failed.  Because of so much English words finding their way into the Regional languages and because of the fact others too understand these small English words, it is becoming extremely difficult to converse in one single language.

And secondly, when I tried to talk purely in my mother tongue, ppl started giving me funny looks, including my maid.  🙄

Now after staying in Hyd for some years, Telugu and Hindi words have found their way into my vocabulary. It’s strange that these words pop up in my mind now and not when I badly needed to converse with an Auto driver.

While I loved to shop in Nalli Silks in Hyd, for the need to converse in Tamil with someone, I am searching ppl in Chennai to converse in Hindi !!!  I’ve actually found a lot of ppl, who make life easier for the Hindi speaking crowd in Chennai.  Thats the irony of the human mind – it wants what is not available.

 

From forced English conversations at school to a state where English words are considered to be part of the Tamil vocabulary, it’s an amazing journey.  If my Tamil teacher is here to listen to my language skills today, I am sure that she’ll want to wrangle me.

So, how skilled a linguist are you ????? Do you converse in the pure form of you mother tongue or use English words liberally in-between ???

33 Replies to “Linguistic skills !!!”

  1. I am not fluent in Malayalam. I speak with an accent and I can’t write (can read to an extend). I can speak extremely well in Hindi and English because those are the two languages spoken in the surrounding I grew up in.

    As long as people understand me and I can understand them, I am fine.

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  2. Landed here from Smitha’s blog..

    Oh dear, I don’t even try this exercise for an hour to realize how miserably I’d fail talking continuously in Tamil. Although I can speak, read, write..I wouldn’t challenge myself 🙂
    I guess English has taken over most of our conversations – for good or for bad!

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  3. I am fluent in Kannada, but not the pure form!
    I can read and write – but, reading is a bit slow…
    The husband has a wider vocabulary in Kannada.
    I grew up with English being the predominant language at home! Mom used to scold us in English much more fluently than in Kannada!! 😉

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    2. Pix, scolding in English ??? You shld’ve learnt all the baddy baddy words first !!!

      When we shifted to Hyd, S first learnt all the bad words in Telugu !!! When I asked him why, he replied with a smile, at least I shld know when ppl are scolding me !!!! 😆

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  4. He he .. we both decided to do this some days bk @ home and it ws total fun pulling each other’s legs when we failed 😛 I said bilkul, mathlab so many times in Singapore 😛 😛 Telugu ‘ante’ figures liberally in my conversation nw 😉

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  5. my mother tongue is kutchi… but i m not fluent and rarely use it… i understand it fully but dont speak.. though I think I can… !

    i dont know about other languages… but i dont think we can speak hindi or gujarati… without using english words.. such is the influx of that language.. !

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  6. I can never try this even..English has such a impact on us..some words will sound too odd if u say them in hindi..like sorry, thankyou, welcome , … 🙂
    I m fluent in hindi and can read/write easily…Hinglish is best among all 🙂

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  7. Even my maid who knows barely a few words, diligently uses them all in her telugu conversations with me.

    My conversations these days are a shameful mix of malayalam, telugu, hindi, kannada and english! Shameful!

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  9. Well I tend to speak a lot in English..earning me the “peteruuu” title 😛 But ya, I can understand good tamil as well and talk to a certain extent..can’t read fast, coz never bothered reading much…oh btw my 2nd langauge was tamil in school 🙂

    I also understand hindi/maru/gujju to a certain extent..malayam and telugu here and there..

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  11. yeah, totally true 😛
    I cannot speak tamil (mother tongue) without english creeping in…….. and my tamil is not all that great thanks to spending my teens in Kerala 😛

    malayalam has almost become my mother tongue 😛 😛

    but yes, I dont think I can use any language without using english words 😛 may it be hindi/tamil/malayalam

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  12. I was a malayalee born in Kerala but brought up in Bangalore. Most keralites are amazed tht my malayalam is so good & I realised why after I heard a few ‘out of Kerala’ malayalee kids :-D. I can speak fluently and taught myself to read the language but I’m not fluent.
    I know arnd 5 languages tho not fluent in all if pushed into a corner I can save my life with anyone of them :-D. I dont get the chance to use it often so when I go home I discuss animatedly the state of the economy with the auto-drivers and vegetable vendors in these languages 😀
    Now u r asking if English creeps in while talking….ofcourse it creeps in. And I refuse to feel guilty. Even shudh language speakers dont have an alternative word for oranges, apples and carrots do they 😛
    All the same I’m quite disappointed tht my children dont show the interest in talking in any other language except English 😦

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    1. Oh !! Dont ask abt the kids !! Even mine refuse to talk in anyother lang except English !! Hindi is OK !!! Now, after shfting to Chennai, some tamil influence is happening, which they are refusing to acknowledge !!! 🙂

      You too are quite a linguist !! 5 lang WOW !!!! 🙂

      Hey !!! I too talk with the auto drivers, veg vendors on so many issues, in their local lang !! Imagine, how I’ll be conversing in telugu !! The auto driver will drive at top speed to reach my destination, so that he can be done with my stupid telugu chatter !!! LOL 😆

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  13. I am comfy in Hindi and English only 🙂 not my mother tongue :)becasue didnt grow up with it..I can understand it in bits though….

    long time back I wrote in reply to a Hindi comment on my post,

    bhasha koi bhi ho samajhana adhik aavashyak hai, aisa mera manana hai..
    Whatever be the language , an understanding is far more important…

    Languages are constantly evolving…changing according to the times..as is also the case with cultures..and thats how it should be 🙂
    good post Ums 🙂

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  14. I am comfy in my mother tongue as well as English. Hindi is fairly decent. I can speak broken Tamil and bits n pieces of French 😛
    I grew up in Kerala during my early years and stayed with my family throughout so remembering malayalam isnt very difficult. I am quite fluent in it. But now that I’ve lived in so many other places, people assume that I will have forgotten it, so then they are surprised when they see my Malayalam is good! 🙄 go figure!

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    1. I guess with globalisation, this is what happens. The identity and distinction between different cultures and boundaries is rapidly disappearing. Welcome to the world… a small village! 🙂

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  15. I am better in Tamil than English… but speaking in purest form… it will turn into a funny thing….

    have you seen??? In aayirathil oruvan film many don’t understand the proper tamil… ?? 🙂 🙂

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      1. film is a different try.. kinda Pirates of Carribean movie in Tamil…

        but the real rocker is Tamil Padam.. don’t miss it.. and the miss the chance to laugh 🙂 🙂

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