Cars!
Cars are the most wonderful creation man has made. It takes a keen eye to appreciate the beauty of cars and the differences in key features of different cars.
You might be thinking what am I writing. Clearly the above lines are not about me. There is something else which is about me and that is interest in languages. Apart from the two languages, Hindi and English, which I know how to read and write, I can lend my signature in Assamese as well, the language I studied from 1st Std to 3rd Std.
Recently, I have witnessed Dhruv’s increasing interest in other languages. The moment he hears a new language he becomes curious to know which language is that and he gets to hear quite a number of languages while playing in the park in the evenings. These days the questions about cars have taken a back seat, slightly, and those have been overtaken by questions about what is the language of a particular Indian state. Example – Which language is spoken in Gujarat? Telegu is the language of which state? Why is the same language, Hindi, spoken in UP and MP?
He has a plan of action for the summer vacation for both of us, keeping in mind that both of us form a team. He has a long list of languages that he wants to learn and his plan is to begin with learning Kannada which will be followed by Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, German, Spanish and so on. Basically he desires to know them all.
Last night, while I was doing the dishes and clearing the kitchen, he came to me with “Mummy, kya aap ko Sanskrit aati hai? Mummy, do you know Sanskrit?” I steered him in the direction where his Dadi was sitting. She has taught Sanskrit in Middle school for 40 years.
What happened next? He gave her English and Hindi words asking for their Sanskrit names. Non-stop. For more than 15 minutes. When he ran out of words, he took to the room and began picking up the name of the objects from the room. The last words were Television, Christmas Tree, Book shelf, Books. He was not at all convinced with the word ‘Christams Vraksham’ for Christmas tree because how can the word Christmas remain the same.
No, he does not remember any Sanskrit word if you ask him today but Dadi surely must have had a refresher after 7 years of retirement.
Linking up with #MondayMusings hosted by Corinne Rodrigues,
#mg hosted by Mackenzie Glanville,
and, Microblog Mondays hosted by Melissa Ford
The Bespectacled Mother 
Ha ha ha – your son is a true entertainer. I love his inquisitive mind and his enthusiasm. I hope he retains it for ever and ever. And I hope he keeps you, your MIL and every single person in your family always on their toes.
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Amen to his retaining the inquisitiveness. Do you know about blood groups Tulika? These days he is also into asking us and other children about their blood groups. Today he came from school with the proud knowledge of one of his classmate’s baby brother’s blood group. Now the question is what does O in O+ve mean?
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That is wonderful, to have such an active mind. Happy you are doing everything possible to nourish me. The linguistic gene escaped me, but one of my grandfathers spoke six languages. And, translators can make good money, especially knowing certain languages.
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Lovely Dhruv. He too resembles my son Mithu more like two of us. His childhood favourite was always cars and he was also a non stop question generator. I can afford to teach Tamil for you & naughty Dhruv. Please show this comment to him dear…….
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That is one curious and bright child of yours Anamika – he will go places I am sure – guide him as best as you can for he will shine bright – I know just Hindi and English but my mom knows French – learning languages is fun and it opens a window to another world and culture.
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That one would have been so much fun.. and in a way, scary too. Thank God for his Dadi 🙂 But I am often astound by the interests kids have for various stuff. And so sweet of Dhruv ❤
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My husband loves languages too. He loves going into New York City and listening to see if he knows the language someone is speaking (if not English) and greet them in the language. Enjoy the learning
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How delightful your little chappie is! No need for television at all with your daily discoveries of happiness. Stay blessed all of you
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It’s so nice to see him curious about languages… Dadi must be so patient to answer all his questions… I myself love learning new languages… Earlier I used to learn by reading, but now it’s just by watching regional movies on YouTube 😀
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How wonderful that he is showing interest in languages. And poor dadi 😉 if he remembers that he is going to learn languages, summer vacations are going to be fun. On a serious note, childhood is the best time to pick a language. Adults think way too much before learning something new.
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Ah! That boy never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps you should download one of those language apps for the summer! He could even learn Spanish! 😉
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That’s something …the curious case in words and translations. 🙂
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I think kids teach us more than we teach them. They make us think, making us reach into the dusty recesses of our minds and pull our long forgotten bits of information. Dhruv sounds like a darling and looks like you have an action packed summer holiday awaiting you 🙂
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Anu,
Loved this post. Children are so curious and such fast learners- even though he may have forgotten the Sanskrit words as soon as dadi said them, believe me, they are there somewhere in his sub conscious. Many years later, you may be surprised to know that he remembers this incident and even some of the words of this grand old language. ( I love languages myself and am with Dhruv in his quest to learn new languages in the summer.
Susie
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Too cute. Do you know the Duolingo app? It’s so kids can play around with other languages.
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A child’s mind is so wonderful as its still learning and absorbing so asks all sorts of questions. How different are the children of today from us? Actually they are more of free-thinkers than us who conformed way too early to our parental conditioning. I think its fabulous that he has such amazing curiousity into linguistics – more power to him learning all the languages he wants to!!
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I love the titke of your post. HIS DREAM IS ADMIRABLE. i hope he will pursue it… & that u will share the journey.
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Love for languages seems to be in his genes, Anamika! I, too, have always loved knowing about languages, their birth, their history…I would pester my friends to teach me Gujrati and Tamil when I was in college and my dance class. I learnt German for a while, but then got married and so had to learn a whole new language – the one spoken by an Indian bride! Now, however, if I do get the chance, I would love to polish my linguistic skills. But, you do encourage Dhruv to learn all the languages he wishes to. Kids can learn languages better and faster than us adults!
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Aawww this is so cute! Is he really intending to learn all the languages this summer vacation? If yes, do let him know that he has a friend in me, as I’m planning to get back to learning Spanish after the exams.
On a serious note, it’s great to learn new languages, specially foreign ones. It helps to understand the meaning of any random word you’ve never read before, courtesy etymologies. It’s helped me a lot in my SpellBee journey, even though I learnt etymologies before Spanish 🙂
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Isn’t it the sweetest watching children learn, they are so curious, he sounds so wonderful #mg
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