Sikhs Of West And Punjabi Language - Why Nobody Talk About It?

[Jonny101]

The best way to teach punjabi to your children is to speak punjabi with them. Then when they communicate with you they should also speak punjabi. You can send them to the punjabi classes at the gurdwara all you want but if they come home and you speak English with them then they will not learn punjabi. To learn any language, person to person communication is crucial.

[SSD]

The best way to teach punjabi to your children is to speak punjabi with them. Then when they communicate with you they should also speak punjabi. You can send them to the punjabi classes at the gurdwara all you want but if they come home and you speak English with them then they will not learn punjabi. To learn any language, person to person communication is crucial.

Yes, but if you live in an area where there are no Punjabi people, it seems like a lost cause, why bother learning Punjabi if it has no use in our daily lives?

[JSinghnz]

Sikhs are so small of a minority, that they really won't use it in their lives. My family members have forgotten the Punjabi outside of gurbani, and don't write it on a daily basis. Punjabi people are also a small minority outside of some really special places. (I personally don't meet Sikh people on a daily basis and am usually the only one in a crowd).

What a strange logic that because you are in a minority, that you won't use your mother langauage.

Yes, but if you live in an area where there are no Punjabi people, it seems like a lost cause, why bother learning Punjabi if it has no use in our daily lives?

Another illogical reason of not learning your mother language.

[JSinghnz]

veer some parents have limited colloqiual panjabi but know gurbani and arth of the panjabi used there , whatever they have they are passing on is that the best start ?

I would love to learn more but I feel that what is useful in day to day is limited help as people don't speak so eloquently in Panjabi these days ...would love to be able to speak my beautiful maa boli to the fullest extent and stomp out those people's opinions that it's the language of ujard lok

The reason for those parents having limited colloqiual (whatever that means) Punjabi is because their parents

had no time to teach Punjabi to them.

[SSD]

What a strange logic that because you are in a minority, that you won't use your mother langauage.

Another illogical reason of not learning your mother language.

The 2 reasons I stated are very true, in India, the Sikhs have started speaking Hindu, they grow up learning Punjabi, but all their friends speak Hindi, all their teachers speak in Hindi, when they find their future spouse, they speak Hindi, and finally they speak Hindi after their married and with their new families. This is a real threat.

[JSinghnz]

The 2 reasons I stated are very true, in India, the Sikhs have started speaking Hindu, they grow up learning Punjabi, but all their friends speak Hindi, all their teachers speak in Hindi, when they find their future spouse, they speak Hindi, and finally they speak Hindi after their married and with their new families. This is a real threat.

The answer still remains the same for Sikhs in India too.

The parents have no time to speak to their children in Punjabi.

[jkvlondon]

The answer still remains the same for Sikhs in India too.

The parents have no time to speak to their children in Punjabi.

How long does it take? My Mum and Dad managed to swap out english gradually and replace it with Punjabi in household conversation,Dad used to drop arths on us from time to time as we listen to kirtan/paat in the home. This is while they were out of the home 12 hours out of 24 , like the gorey say 'where there is a will there is a way' . When they felt we were not being served they sent us to a dedicated Punjabi school(not gurdwara based) for a couple of terms. I can read and write punjabi , granted my reading is slower than I like but I think without listening/talking Punjabi it would be much harder to understand and might have gotten put off from striving to improve. My sister spent a year in India so her conversational skills are a lot better than mine (tet punjabi) so we only chat in Punjabi when we talk so both of us benefit with the practice.

I use the same technique with my kids as Mum did and I try to expose and encourage them to listen to Jugraj Singh ji's and Baljit Singh ji's English katha as the arths and terms used to explain concepts are helpfully put up on screen as they speak in Punjabi. I did send them to local Gurdwara Punjabi school but it was chaotic and they didn't benefit much. Next I will use a combination of youtube resources , classes at Karamsar Gurdwara and loads of conversation at home. Waheguru kirpa karo.

[JagsawSingh]

I agree that there is a problem with some Sikhs in India having an inferiority complex about Punjabi and preferring Hindi but I certainly don't think thats the case in the west. Perhaps thats because the Sikhs in the west are better informed and know that Punjabi is a full 900 years older than Hindi and that Punjabi, as well as being the language of our faith, is also the language of poetry and song. Thats why, in the west, Hindi as a language is as dead as a dodo. It is seen for what it actually is: a pointless, worthless new(ish) language without history and purpose.

So, I really don't see the point of this thread.

Listen to how well Sikh kids in the west today speak Punjabi and compare it to how badly my generation born in the west spoke Punjabi. This current generation puts us to shame. I mean how many of us in the previous 1 or 2 generations of western born can actually read and write Punjabi ? I certainly can't and hardly any of my cousins can but my children and many of my cousins' children can.

Just examine the facts: More Sikhs in the west speaking Punjabi than ever before.........The Sikhs in the west speaking better Punjabi than ever before. Such a respected language it's part of the national curriculum in western schools. Such a respected language that non-Asians are learning it more than ever before (I think I'm correct in saying that Chinese students have been consistently scoring some of the highest marks in Punjabi exams in schools in British Columbia ?)

Is this thread, and the posts within it, indicative of our national characteristic of always being pessimists seeing the glass as perrenially half empty ?

[Jonny101]

Yes, but if you live in an area where there are no Punjabi people, it seems like a lost cause, why bother learning Punjabi if it has no use in our daily lives?

But question is why isn't Punjabi part of our daily lives? As you must know Sikhs are a small minority of Punjabis. Less than 15% of over all Punjabis are Sikhs. Most are Muslims and then Hindus. Muslims have abandoned their language in favour of Urdu, the Hindus have abandoned their language for Hindi. Only Sikhs have taken up the cause of standing up for Punjabi and because it is the language of Punjab. The land of the Gurus, this is the language they spoke in. For the Sikhs Punjabi language and the land of Punjab itself has a special place in our hearts. (temporarily) The Sikhs are a nationless nation. Sikhs live all over the world but without a doubt our national language is Punjabi. No matter where I go in the world, I can always communicate with a fellow Sikh in Punjabi.

Besides, many people have done research and proven how advantages it is for children to become bilingual. Why wouldn't someone want their children to have this advantage? and in case of Punjabi, it comes naturally for us. As parents, Sikhs don't even have to make an effort. All they need to do is communicate with there children in Punjabi, make it the language of the household. The child will naturally learn Punjabi without any other effort. And incase you are a Sikh parent who was born and raised in the west, your Punjabi will also improve greatly simply by making this the medium of communication within the house.

Aside from this, it is so much more easier to understand Gurbani directly if you are proficient in Punjab than if you are not. For a Sikh this alone is reason enough to be motivated to achieve mastery over the Punjabi language. So much of our religious literature, kathas are in Punjabi. By denying your children Punjabi, you would only be making them disadvantaged in this regard.

[S1ngh]

^^^ excellent post by jonny and jkvlndon.

"When a language dies,

its words of love,

intonations of pain and caring,

perhaps the old songs,

the old stories, the speeches, the prayers,

no one no matter whom

will be able to repeat them again."

- ross