How do you feel when you cannot use your mother tongue? Write few lines
Answers
Answer:
I feel irritated
Explanation:
if I need to see my tongue I'll see in mirror
Answer:
Backstory: I was born in Cuttack, Odisha to my Odia parents who had spent their entire lives in Odisha. However, at that time, my father was working as a senior operations manager in a textile plant in Panipat, Haryana, so my mother had to travel with a 22-day old me from Bhubaneshwar to Panipat, all alone. Since then, I have been living in Panipat, aka the land of battles. We shifted again, to Vapi, Gujarat after some 10 or so years and stayed there for 2 years. We shifted back to Panipat afterwards. Then, Maa and I shifted to Pitampura, New Delhi, for my studies and spent another 2 years there. So, I have lived quite an oscillatory life, to say the least.
Coming back to the linguistic issue: The first language that my parents taught me was English. Yes, that’s right. ENGLISH is what they taught me first. They started with words like, water, lunch, pigeon, hot, cold, chilli, handkerchief, etc. Soon they began with sentences, “how is my sookie today?”; “did you take your lunch?”; “you want w-a-t-e-r?” Soon, I could speak pretty well in English, and that’s where the trouble began. As soon as I entered 1st standard, I started having serious trouble understanding Hindi, as a language subject. I scored pretty low in my mid-term test (we had to write the hindi word for the pictures drawn). The teacher calmly explained my parents that it is important for a child to be well versed in Hindi as well. Now, my Odia parents had no idea how to tackle this problem. So, our landlord’s kids agreed to help me with my Hindi. They got me their old hindi books and would teach me to read and write and help me with the pronunciation as well. Gradually, I picked up the basic gist and started improving. So, by the age of 12, I was pretty good in both English and Hindi. Y’all must be wondering, “problem solved!”
Odia problem: I used to visit Odisha every 2–3 years and people would mildly point out that the child cannot speak, read and write Odia, which is “disrespectful to Odisha”. My parents would defend saying, “she can understand Odia pretty well” smh! I visited Odisha in 9th standard for my uncle’s wedding and boy! I felt really horrible as I couldn’t speak Odia in a descent way in front of the gazillion relatives that were visiting us. My cousins quickly stepped in, would correct me with my mistakes and did all that’s possible to normalize the situation. My 3-month elder cousin would act as my personal translator. That’s when I decided, I want to learn Odia, I want to be able to speak Odia just as I am able to understand it. My parents didn’t force it, neither did my relatives or my cousins. It was an inner burning desire at this point. I WANT TO LEARN ODIA. My grandparents got me some basic Odia lettering books, and off I started. I started on my own, seldom did I ask for my parents’ help and in a year or so, I could read basic Odia words. I left the practice after a year or so during my JEE prep.
I was fortunate enough to find Odia students in my college, and one happened to be in the same wing as mine. Let’s call her Preeti. Raised in Odisha for her entire life, she is well versed in Odia and has since helped me in “spoken Odia” a lot (also with some written Odia, she’s an amazing teacher!) The next time I visited Odisha after 9th standard was in December, 2019 and everyone was really happy that I could speak descent Odia now. I was happier than them as it felt like a personal achievement for me.
I’m still trying to read basic Odia words and sentences as a part to improve my Odia. I hope I’ll get better at it with time.
It is not a derogatory thing to be not able to speak your mother-tongue. However, I feel that one must at least try learning it at some point or the other, not for someone else’s sake, but to help yourself connect with your roots in a better manner. I’m 18 and yet I ask for my 12 year old cousin’s help with Odia. I don’t really stress myself out with it, but yeah, I do make some efforts.
I hope my story gives you another perspective