In Singapore, Mother Tongue has become an imperative part of the education curriculum. People have no choice but to take up their mother tongue and master it to attain good marks.
The good news is that studies have shown that we learn better in our mother tongue. Associating ourselves with our mother-tongue speaks volumes of our identity as well. We have a sense of connection with our culture and we can look at it as a second mean of communication.
The first way to master or at least effectively communicate in your mother tongue is to stop hating it and start appreciating it. Develop a positive attitude towards learning your mother tongue and be excited about learning it. You have to understand why you need to speak your language besides attaining good results in school. There will be other benefits and you have to keep those in mind too.
When you master your mother tongue, you will be able to converse with your grandparents and non-English speaking relatives. I know that attribute is so over-expressed but trust me, the last thing you want to feel is linguistically handicapped when you can’t communicate with your sweet grandparents. It feels nice when you put someone else at ease just by speaking with them in their language. You will also gain the benefit of understanding the finer things in life. For example, when I started learning my language, I read a lot of poems to brush up my mother tongue skills. I was amazed at the way things in life could be expressed so beautifully through language.
I have always improved at languages by speaking it. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes or sounding weird. It’s your mother tongue and what matters most is that you are trying. Try conversing with your grandparents. Ask them what certain words mean and in which contexts you can use them. When you converse with them, you are exposed to the different sounds and intonations of your mother-tongue. You can attend parties, where you will meet people who will speak your mother-tongue. You should listen or participate in these conversations without any fear and hesitation.
I also tried role-playing in my language once. We came up with random scripts and acted out the roles in my mother-tongue. It was heaps of fun and really enriching but it was a sure way to get my siblings and cousin’s to get a hang of speaking our language. They really enjoyed the session and it left some of them motivated to speak more of their mother-tongue. Nowadays, when we get together in a small group, we make an effort to speak our mother-tongue as it provides us with a sense of belonging and togetherness.
I’ll give you another example; I grew up watching the Chinese drama at 3pm. The one with Zoe Tay and Li Nanxing- The Unbeatables. Actually, that was at 9pm. But my point is, I watched it everyday and after one year- I could understand basic Mandarin conversations that my Chinese friends had. I could also communicate in small sentences. I’m not a hundred percent fluent in Mandarin. What I never did was converse with my friends. If I had done that, I’m sure today I would have been a fluent mandarin speaking Indian. I’m not telling you to be a potato couch and I’m definitely not saying the T.V is good. Don’t quote me. But do watch movies that are spoken in your mother tongue- best if they have sub-titles. My cousin from Australia learnt Malay through audio cassettes and Cd’s. She found that very effective and recommends it to everyone. Another way to interest yourself with your mother-tongue is to hear radio broadcast programs. You eve can do this while you are busy with hands-on tasks.
Don’t underestimate reading your mother-tongue books. You can start off reading the ones with more pictures and colour to familiarise you with the concept of association. Slowly, you can move on to novels and even learning guides. Read out aloud and keep repeating sentences until you can read them confidently. Don’t forget to read the dictionary. It’s a best friend- in any language. Make it a point to browse through your dictionary every twice a day and try to make sentences out of these new-learnt words. You can also read newspapers in your mother-tongue language. Make sure you make notes of whatever step you take to improve your mother-tongue. Jot down vocabulary and words that you don’t understand and help yourself by referring to the dictionary. Even if you think you don’t know- try to make sense of the word or sentence. You will learn the rest of mastering a language in school during mother-tongue periods. However, you have to make that extra effort.
I know the pressure on you is double. You not only have to learn to speak the language but also write. Some people get the jitters when it comes to the writing part of the language, even English. Don’t fret. Be a learner. Develop a desire. One way is to write essays in your mother tongue and get them marked. They don’t have to lengthy. But you can use them to analyse how you express your thoughts and ideas and if you are doing it the right way. You can also test yourself through spelling and dictation.
Success comes with hard work and practice. Especially when referred to studies. There is hardly anything called luck. Don’t make comparisons with English and your mother tongue. If the words don’t flow, don’t be discouraged. Work harder.
It will help if you can expose yourself a little to your culture and understand how the language works. Sometimes you can find complications within your mother tongue. You might find different people speaking your mother tongue in different slang’s. Don’t confuse yourself. What you learn in school is probably the right format and includes the right syllabus.
