Mother tongue is the first language a child speaks when he learns to communicate. In my opinion, the child should learn their mother tongue before they learn English. The mother tongue connects the child to their roots and gives him a sense of belonging to their culture. Plus, knowing more than one language is always a plus point. Its gives the person more value. My parents always spoke to us in our mother tongue and this helped us communicate with our elders and use it as a code language in numerous places *wink*.
I know many families who talk in their native language other than their mother tongue because they are ‘ashamed’ of it. It’s a tradition in my home country, Pakistan where everyone talks in the native language (Urdu) and only the elders in the house are connected to their mother tongue. Its heartbreaking to see that the new generation are far from their values and tradition because their parents thought it would be ‘more decent’ to value their native language over their own.
We should be proud of our culture and teach our children where we came from. We need to keep our culture alive. We need to start loving ourselves.
Mamameeya 
It is sad to see a whole generation of people ashamed to speak their own mother tongue! I grew up with an English-speaking mother and a father whose mother tongue is French. My father never spoke to me in French, and still doesn’t to this day. Luckily, I had the opportunity to learn French in my community and to appreciate that part of my heritage anyway.
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Yes its true. Its very common these days.
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I couldn’t agree more. Learning more than one language is so advantageous esp your mother tongue. I hope to teach my children my native language. English, they can learn in School 🙂
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I agree completely! It’s very interesting because a lot of families I know are desperately trying to keep their children fluent, but the children are pushing it away. I think it is something to be proud of!
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I wish you expounded more on some of your thoughts! I mean that as a sincere compliment- some posts run on and run, but I wanted more from you. For example you throw out a bomb of statement, “Its gives the person more value” and then run away. What kind of value, economic, cultural, intrinsic? What do you mean by this? What are you saying about people who speak only one language. Also, as someone who speaks English and only English I was confused by your terms “mother tongue” and “native language”. I can deduce what you are getting at but don’t make me do that much work! Make me focus on what you are saying versus what you are leaving out.
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That is a very deep insight. Thank you. I will keep that in mind.
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