Living in a place outside of India, how many times have you asked your child a question in Marathi only to have them respond in English? Your kids may understand pretty much everything you say to them, but they have a hard time reciprocating.
Here are some reasons why this could be happening!
1. Environment not suitable for learning
Living away from Maharashtra and your family means that scope for interactions in Marathi are limited. The otherwise normal exposure that your child would have gotten in your homeland, is sorely missing during their formative years. The only people they really converse in Marathi with are their grandparents. Those interactions aren’t enough to verse them in the language.
2. All interactions outside the home are in a different language
Right from the moment children step outside, every interaction that happens is in a language other than Marathi. Everyone, including their teachers and friends at school, predominantly use English. Even all the media they consume is in a different language.
3. Cultural differences cause them to disassociate
Around the time children enter their teens, they start to notice cultural differences between their homes and the world outside. It becomes difficult to accept and relate to speaking Marathi, essentially a “foreign” language for them. They sometimes start to distance themselves from their native backgrounds.
4. Parents find it difficult to continuously encourage Marathi conversations
Despite their many efforts, parents may find it exhausting to correct and constantly encourage their children to continue conversations in Marathi. It becomes easier to have a complete dialogue in English, rather than one half in Marathi.
5. Without much practice, their confidence is low
Given all of these factors, children don’t end up getting in much speaking practice at all. They may understand what is being spoken, but they lack the confidence to respond and carry out conversations in Marathi without instinctively switching to English.
At Speak Marathi, our lessons and teaching methods are designed to work around the common difficulties faced by learners. We use simplified structures to help students easily grasp the language, giving them the confidence to speak in Marathi.
Click here to learn more about our classes and here to schedule a demo session with our teachers.