Welcome to My First Blog Entry

Welcome to my first blog entry.  I decided to write this blog because I have many thoughts and ideas about being raised as a first generation Indian in America.  Having gone through school, college & now the experience of having my children in school, I have alot to say! Issues such as language, food, clothing and social relationships have always been  a delicate issue in my life.  For my parents, raising children in a brand new culture was something that could not be learned from others before them.  As part of the early wave of Indian immigrants, they had to figure out how to raise their children while balancing both cultures.

One of the biggest issues that Indian paernts deal with is the idea of language.  There are two sides to this issue.  First there are those parents who completely lose their mother tongue and do not give their children the chance to have exposure to it.  This group of parents end up removing all parts of the Indian culture from their childrens lives. I believe that if infants/young children are given the chance to learn their mother tongue, then it will be a part of their upbringing and always be a part of what they know.  Eventually however, chldren begin school and are educated in English. It is at this point that they need to incorporate their education into their day to day lives. 

In my opinion, children must use their English speaking skills on a regular basis so that they can improve their ability to communicate with others.  In my own life, my husband and I taught out children punjabi and gujurati (mother tongues) for the first three years of life, and then switched to English.  My children do still understand their mother languages, however communicate in English.  This is all I have to say on this matter for now, however, I will certainly elaborate on this topic more on a future blog post.

I invite readers to comment on this and all my future blog posts.