Lit we Like: Teaching your kids Hindi

Cantonese was my first language, although you'd never know it considering I'm only functional when ordering dim sum or reciting phrases that were common in our house growing up, such as "take off your shoes," "be quiet," don't waste food," and "wah, so expensive!" All kidding aside, I regret not maintaining my native language and am looking forward to re-learning it with my daughter when she's old enough for lessons.

I could also take a cue from Paridhi and Dinesh Verma, a couple who have two children and are committed to teaching them Hindi - in a fun way. I know Paridhi personally and was psyched when I found out about her family's endeavors. Here's what she had to say:

As many first generation Americans before us, we tried to persuade our children to learn our native language -- Hindi. Maybe you have faced the same hurdles we did with limited language learning resources. When our attempts to find books and resources that would make learning Hindi fun failed, we decided as a family to write these materials ourselves. We were inspired by our son who developed a transliteration scheme that he used to self-teach the basics of the Hindi language. We applied the techniques he used, combined them with funny stories that our daughter seemed to enjoy, and created this set of books. We believe these books teach Hindi using entertaining stories, cute and colorful characters, and a variety of activities. The goal is to make learning Hindi a fun-filled experience and not a tedious chore. We hope you and your children will enjoy the benefits of these books.





For more information about these books and the Verma family, check out their site: Chanda Books.

How are you teaching your kids different languages? Any tips?

Does U.S. education fall short?

As a new parent, I've got a few years to go before I'll need to start worrying about schools. I don't claim to be an academic, and I certainly wasn't an overachiever in high school. My parents weren't the typical "make all As on your report card" Chinese parents. But I do worry about the state of the U.S. education system.

There's been a ton of press about the pressures many Asian, and Asian-American children face in academic environments...and that's also a fair statement for many non-Asian children across the country, especially in the Northeast. I don't want to turn this into a political discussion, but I wanted to share a Wall Street Journal story - "Are Hard-Working Chinese Kids A Model for American Students?" - that presents a high level comparison of U.S. school/study habits with those of Chinese and Indian kids. "Beautiful Country" is a column that explores American business life and culture from a native Chinese perspective. The author, Li Yuan, is a talented and insightful writer - be sure to check out her stuff.

Here's a video clip that published with the story from a documentary called "2 Million Minutes," which followed students in the U.S., India and China to show how they spent their four years of high school -- which works out to about two million minutes.



A fascinating discussion, and one that will only continue to evolve in the competitive and globalized environment in which we live. Got any thoughts or experiences you'd like to share? Let us know, and we'll pull it together and publish on a future post.