My grandchildren have a boxer pup. He is growing up quite well and one day may look like this handsome model. More importantly, he is being trained to understand several languages. English, Kannada. Tamil, Hindi, and a variety of loud screams with a powerful but limited vocabulary to signifiy raw emotions.
Now, children are supposed to learn languages easily. Remember we had in Math separate classes for algebra (comes from an Arabic word!), arithmetic and geometry? We had separate lessons because each presents its own interesting points and challenges. Now suppose you had combined classes with all three thrown at you randomly, would you still pick it up as well!? Thankfully nobody has tried this experiment.
But if you are a Bangalorean with a diverse set of friends and relatives and neighbours and school mates, you learn languages in a vocabulary goulash. I often observe people (except oldies like me) answer a line in say Kannada with one in English. Switch to English and you get Hindi back. Or even Tamil. Then you decide to emigrate to Dahl-land and speak in rashtrabhasha, only to be yanked back with a bit of Kannada or English.
Nowadays someone sends me emails that I can learn and master English easily by taking their lessons. They guarantee a dramatic improvement in my poise, confidence and employability. I know that for decades this is a good business in Kerala, Punjab and such. Regions where people grow up speaking their mother tongue so well they don't really need to learn English, until they hit the career wall and want to emigrate to richer lands and lifestyles.
Poor people who don't learn their mother tongue well are indeed the most deprived. They will discover that they are like plastic flowers, with no inner sap or nourishment as they grow up.
That brings me to the boxer. What is his mother tongue? Should we bring him up to be a polyglot?
