Speaking more than one language is both a fun and sometimes tiring experience. On the one hand, you can express yourself in more than one way, so that more people can understand. On the other hand, sometimes the languages start to mix in your head and speech, or you can find it tricky to properly express what you want and feel in one or all of them.
Like a girl in this story — her native tongue is Hindi, so she feels most comfortable expressing her opinions with it. Yet, her stepdad and stepbrother don't understand it, which started causing some tension in their family. The whole thing went so far that the stepdad suggested something drastic. In fact, it was so harsh that his wife was taken aback and didn't even want to entertain this idea.
More info: Reddit
Being bilingual is both fun and complicated — it opens up more of the world to you, but at the same time can cause some confusion
Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Like in this story, where a girl lives in a blended family of Hindi and non-Hindi speakers
Image credits: Jithin Murali / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Since Hindi is her native tongue, she usually uses it to express her emotions, which is very normal
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
But her stepbrother and stepdad don't understand it, which causes them to feel uncomfy
Image credits: anon
So, the stepdad suggested the girl's mom punish the daughter anytime she unconsciously spoke Hindi
The OP and her 11-year-old daughter, Anya, come from India, which makes Hindi their native language. Did you know that if you rank languages by the number of native speakers, Hindi ranks in 5th place with 345 million native speakers? So, the original poster and her daughter are blessed with a common, thus useful language.
Sadly, the girl’s father died when she was only 5, which caused her to move with her mom abroad. If you’re wondering how it caused this, well, her mom couldn’t handle the pressure of their environment to marry some 60-year-old sleazebag, because “no woman can raise a child alone”. You get the gist.
After moving away, the woman met a man whom she wanted to date and started their relationship. Everything was going alright, and so after some time, they got hitched and formed a blended family of the OP, her daughter, the man, and his son.
At first, the husband’s son was with them only half of the time, as the other time he spent with his mom, but after her passing, he joined their household full-time. And that’s when the main problem of this story started appearing.
The thing is that Anya has a little habit of talking in her first language, Hindi, when she’s experiencing overwhelming emotions, like excitement. It’s a very common phenomenon that happens in bilingual people. That’s because usually it’s easier for them to express intense emotions in their native tongue than it is in any other language.
The reason behind it is that the first language is typically learned in more emotional contexts, like home, while the second one is in less emotional ones, like a classroom. So, this might cause the second language to trigger weaker emotional responses, thus not the first choice to express big feelings.
Image credits: DC Studio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The OP didn’t see any problems with this habit of her daughter’s, especially when there are only two of them talking. If there are some other people around who don’t speak Hindi, she simply reminds the girl to switch back to English, which she does without any complaints.
The only one who had a problem with this, at least at first, was the girl’s stepbrother. He complained that it made him feel bad that he didn’t understand what his sister was saying. Ever since he expressed it, the girl started making even more of a conscious effort not to talk in Hindi around him, and everyone thought that the problem was solved.
Then, one day, the woman’s husband voiced an idea that maybe she should start punishing her daughter when she speaks Hindi unconsciously, at least until her brother starts feeling better.
The woman was horrified by such an idea. Not only is it unfair, but punishing a kid for using their native language can have major negative consequences in the long run.
After all, their language is closely tied to their cultural and personal identities, and punishing them for it might cause them to feel shame and anxiety. These can result in low self-esteem, impact their educational outcomes, and have all the other negative consequences for their mental health and well-being.
So, no wonder the mom didn’t agree to do this. Netizens agreed with her judgment – they pointed out that punishing someone for doing something that’s natural for them is only going to cause more hurt for everyone in the long run. Instead of punishment, the best mom could do is a gentle reminder, not anything harsher – let’s not traumatize kids because of their language.
What do you think? In your opinion, is punishing the girl the right step in this situation? What other solutions would you suggest? Share all your thoughts with us!
The mom was horrified by such an idea and refused to do so, which netizens agreed was reasonable
