Thoughts

Great! You have decided to have your kids learn Kannada. “Anyway, we speak Kannada at home, so hopefully, we can get kids to learn Kannada as well” – you think. Of course, as the saying goes,” Mother is the First Teacher and Home is the first school”. Kids do learn Kannada in their initial years if parents take enough effort to introduce the language and work with them to learn. But soon, as the kid is ready to go to Kindergarten or elementary school, inclination and fascination to learn English, surpasses the interest of learning Kannada. Naturally, the child sees the world operating in English and to make itself part of it, it starts to show more interest in English. Time spent on learning English is far greater than the time spent on learning Kannada. Quite natural isn’t it? Parents don’t have enough time to sit with kids to teach Kannada. Kid also starts pushing back to see how it can get away speaking Kannada and avoiding it altogether. While mostly it depends on the will, conviction, tactics of parents, but mostly kids succeed in avoiding Kannada. Now parents are looking for solutions.

Once parents realize that teaching Kannada at home is not yielding expected results, they start to look to see how other community members are addressing this issue. If lucky, there may be a Kannada School run by the local community. It’s a great relief for parents to have a support system like the community Kannada school. Some parents are so “relieved” that they transfer the responsibility of teaching Kannada to the community school. Some step up to be volunteers in the school to teach or other activities. Kids learn alphabets, reading, writing and some vocabulary. Initially, kids start to learn well. Barring very few cases, even after several years of Kannada School, kids don’t seem to embrace the language like the parents expect them to. Kids don’t speak in most cases. Most kids are not fluent in Kannada. By the time kids master the basics of Kannada language, they turn into teenagers and middle or high school work becomes demanding. It becomes increasingly difficult for kids and parents both to maintain the commitment needed. So slowly parents give up on the goal with disappointment.

Very commonly, we can see that, even the well performing elementary school kids in Kannada, seem to struggle in later years. Language retention in Kids deteriorates over a period of time, despite attending Kannada schools.

“Why learn Kannada?” is probably a question that haunts non-resident Kannadiga parents, especially kids who are in middle or high school. Answer is no different to a question someone were to ask you about your lifestyle, food you eat, cultural activities etc. Unfortunately, parents struggle to highlight the value of Kannada language for their kids.

So how do we get out of this disappointment, what steps can be taken, what solutions exist – are the questions this write-up tries to address.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

Yes, Indeed! It takes a village to raise a child. It is difficult for a family alone to provide a learning and appropriate environment for a child. Child struggles if the environment at home and outside is not conducive and does not match parental expectations. So, it is vital to create a supportive environment for learning Kannada.

Is it not enough to engage kids in a community Kannada School?

Of course, it is a huge help to have kids be part of the weekend Kannada school. Weekend classes with other kids will motivate them to learn better, Interaction with other kids, seeing other kids perform, community importance for learning will reinforce the kids to embrace the language. However, these sessions usually last for an hour or two within a week. That is not enough.

What else needs to be done other than weekend classes?

Learning Kannada is a rewarding, fascinating, and occasionally frustrating experience. Just like other training such as swimming, art, music, martial arts etc, learning a language also requires discipline, conscious effort and investment of time and energy. Parents cannot be delegating this responsibility to a community school alone or hope that school alone will help with the cause of preparing kids.

There is a lot more that can be done and should be done, besides the regular classes. Let’s explore those factors and opportunities.

Incentives

Most parents know that rewards can be the “magic” to managing our kids’ behavior. Whether it’s cleaning up after playtime or finishing homework, rewards can grease the wheels and help family life run a bit more smoothly. However, we are looking for a sustained interest from the kids to learn. Approach of the rewards may not create the intrinsic reward to keep the kids going.

So, the real secret to help kids learn, is to help them recognize the incentives for intrinsic motivation to learn the language.

Kannada is not the enticing means for transacting with the world, especially for an American environment. But if we can help kids understand that, just like our culture, embracing the language strengthens our identity, understanding of our roots and heritage, builds self-confidence – it will go a long way. Kannada is not just a language for exchanging pleasantries, but provides a way to emotionally connect with our native land, culture, relatives, especially grandparents.

Let’s be honest. Just like any other marketing that works in our lives, we usually get to know of the nice things from others and long for the similar experience pursuing them. So the bottom line question for a parent is “Are you ENJOYING the language?”

How are you enjoying the language? Do you talk often? Not just the limited conversations, but are they engaging conversations with others? Do you read books? Do you listen to music? Do you watch Kannada entertainment? Do you have Kannada friends who you often meet? In other words, Do you have fun, entertaining and engaging experiences of the Kannada language on a daily basis, that conveys, emphasizes and influences your love for the language for others around you, especially your kids?

Please take time to think through this. More Kannada interactions we have and if we can provide the same to kids, that will make a difference in driving the value of the language. Isn’t it?

We tend to become passive and assume that our interests do not mean much to kids. Not true. It’s not necessarily they need to be part of all you do, but if they observe, passively notice, listen to the language often – it provides a greater opportunity for the appreciation for the language and the possibility of immersing with the language.

Again the question is – Are WE doing enough?

Let’s spread the love of the language and see the magic happen!

ಕನ್ನಡ ಬಳಸಿ, ಬೆಳಸಿ!