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Introduction
The world is a place of diversity. Different cultures, various languages, and a different set of people are living in this world. Though we have a few common languages to communicate, many of us have a particular mother tongue, which we follow in our family. It is perfectly acceptable to learn as many foreign languages as to communicate well with people, but at the same time, understanding and praising our mother tongue is more important. It gives us the pride to learn and converse in our mother tongue
Importance of mother tongue
Every other language has some uniqueness, and so do our mother tongue. We need to praise and learn it as much as we can. Talking in the mother tongue at home helps the child grasp things quickly and get a personal bond.
It is the best way to reach out to all people who talk in our mother tongue, especially our old generation. Not everyone in our native place can converse in a foreign language, but they can converse in the mother tongue. Our native language plays a major role in such a situation where we can reach out to as many people as we can.
Understanding and talking in the mother tongue helps the child to converse well with their grandparents. Grandparents are kid’s best friends, and they connect more with their mother tongue.
Mother tongue is the sign of our culture, tradition, and roots. Without a mother tongue, we quickly forget these essential aspects of life. If we missed doing it, we can’t pass it on to the next generation.
It is much easier to express our feelings and emotions in the mother tongue. We can quickly relate to events and learn other languages if we have the mother tongue as a base.
It is a personal opinion to learn the other tongue or not, but learning is good
Understand letters in Mother tongue
As a family, converse in our mother tongue Tamil. My daughter is well versed in the language, and she knows as many words as she can. But we haven’t introduced the letters and words visually other than reading books. She picked up the interest in learning the letters and wants to do it daily. As she is in a sensitive period of learning, I want to encourage her more. So, we did some activities at home to learn the letters.
Tamil Letters
There are 247 Tamil letters and they are divided into following categories.
1.Tamil Uyir Ezhuthukkal.(12 letters)
2.Ayudha Ezhuthu (1 letter)
3.Mei ezhuthukkal. (18 letters)
4.Uyir Mei Ezhuthukkal (12*18 letters=216)
Tamil Uyir Ezhuthukkal
Uyir ezhuthukkal are said to be vowels and learning them is the basics of Tamil language. We did different activities at home to learn them. Interested in knowing them , Please scroll down.
1.Flash cards and Tamil wooden letters
- Flash cards always plays a wonderful role in kids learning . So we took that path and started to learn through flash cards.
- Then we took Tamil wooden letters for matching activity. Using real letters helps the child to touch and have the sense.
Please click here to purchase Tamil Wooden letters
2.Pasting on wall
Pasting the learning material on wall always grab child’s attention and they love to read it with interest. I have pasted Tamil Uyir ezhuthukkal and mei ezhuthukkal near her play area which helps her to read it often.
3.Sticker activity
- Write the letters on dot stickers in a random manner and draw a tree image on a white sheet.
- Ask the child to paste the stickers on branch in sequence manner
- Pic 1 and pic 2- This is kind of listening skill development activity in kids. I read aloud a letter and she has to find the particular letter and paste the sticker on them .
- I have pasted the dot stickers in a random place by mentioning the Tamil letters (Uyir ezhukkal) and she has to draw the line in a sequence manner and connect it.
- Along with understanding letters , we did pre-writing skill activity too.
✅ Please click here to purchase the dot stickers
From India
From USA
4.Draw a line and match
Write the letters on both sides and ask the child to draw a line to match them
Summary
There is no forcing or judgment for learning our native language. But learning gives us an excellent feel as we can pass the beauty to our next generation. If not us, who will praise our native language. If not us, who can lift the roots and save it without getting buried. If not us, who can celebrate our mother tongue. If not us, who can follow our culture, which gives us identity and helps us survive in this diversified world. Let’s join together in saving all our mother tongue and pass on the worthful knowledge to our kids. Learn any number of languages and converse in them, but don’t ever forget our native language.