Why it is Important for Children to Maintain Their Mother Tongue in the United States · Sep 20, 06:12 AM
By Pao Lee, Ed. D.
Language is a system of communication used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; it is the principle medium of expressing and communicating thought and feelings. Albeit a nation composed of many different peoples and communities, the United States only speaks one principal language—English. In order to communicate effectively in mainstream American society, then, one must know the English language.
Though it is important for people to know English in America, it is just as important that people maintain their mother tongue. “Mother tongue” refers to “native language,” or “one’s parents’ language.” A person’s mother tongue serves as an effective mode of communication with his/her ethnic community. Moreover, a person’s mother’s tongue is an indicator of his/her culture and history.
The preoccupation with learning English in the United States has, in many instances, displaced mother tongues, especially among children of immigrants and refugees. Children of immigrants/refugees, who grow up in America today, are oriented with the English language daily in school, with their peers, siblings, and by watching television. Because the bulk of their days are consumed with the English language, these children psychologically think that English is more important than their mother tongue. Thus, they take their native language for granted, often neglecting to learn it and/or speak it unless absolutely necessary. In time, these children only maintain the most basic components of their native language and intricacies of the mother tongue are lost. With the loss of the mother tongue comes a deterioration of cultural identity and communication.
Language is derived from the history and culture of the people who speak it. Often times, information about a specific culture, which is expressed by complex terminology and language structure, can only be understood in that culture’s language. For example, many words and concepts in the Hmong language do not exist in English. To illustrate, the closest English translation for the Hmong phrase plig looj koov is: the sickness of a person is caused by the leaving of his/her soul because someone in the family has done something to offend the soul. If children of immigrants progressively shed their mother tongue, then, they will lose an important aspect of their family’s history and culture.
Children who do not maintain their mother tongue do not only lose a crucial element of their culture and history, they also have a harder time communicating with and for their monolingual parents or elders. When children lose their mother tongue, they can only converse with their non-English speaking parents and elders at a superficial level. This leads to a communication barrier between generations. Also, when asked to be translators for their non-English speaking parents or elders, these children often translate with uncertainty, or are unable to do it accurately. This is a major cause of miscommunication between non-English speakers and English speakers.
Because of the real need to know English in the United States, many immigrants only encourage their children to learn English while neglecting to realize the importance of maintaining a mother tongue. Children start losing their mother tongue when parents and elders do not take the time to correct improper utterances or teach complex vocabulary and concepts. As parents and educators, we must encourage our children to maintain our language in order that they will have a sense of cultural identity and be able to communicate freely among different peoples.
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