NRI Tips: The ‘unconscious adaption’ to the foreign culture and language.
When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself. ~ Plato
I talk to myself all the times, I always have. Bigger the dilemma, more I talk; this is also another way of my brainstorming and mulling over new ideas.
Be it a thinking out loud or in whispers or in silence, thinking is part of being human. Thinking and logic is what separates us from the animals. We all think, it is a part of our problem solving nature.
For those living overseas or away from the place of your childhood, do you ‘think’ in your mother tongue or the adopted foreign/new language?
Back home in India, my train of thought was always in my mother tongue. It was natural; speaking the same language as my brain, thinking something and then saying it loud during the conversation. It was automatic -without noticeable delays.
Ane then, I came to America. 
When I first came here, I recall that I continued to think in my mother tongue, even when talking to my American colleagues - in a meeting at work or any other social settings. I used to think in my Indian language, and then translate my thoughts it into English for the verbal exchange. At times it slowed me down; It was no longer automatic. I used to re-phrase a lot. This is how it was; I never thought it would change much.
However, lately I find myself thinking in English more and more often. Over the years, it seems, my thinking mechanism has also adapted to the local language, the local way of communication. Even when talking to myself or brainstorming alone, I generally think/talk in English – most of the time. I don’t recall paying any special attention or making extra effort to thinking the ‘foreign’ way. Over the years, my thought process has adapted to the language that I speak more often. This is an example of the ‘unconscious adaption’; we are adapting to our surroundings without any special effort or realization.
Interestingly though, on some occasions -under very demanding conditions- I switch my thinking to my mother tongue. For example, during the last parts of my exercise or work-out routines at the gymnasium; when there is no energy or will-power left, I have found myself counting towards zero in my mother tongue. On other times, if I am very upset, I switch to the language that my mother taught me – mainly to scold myself if it was my mistake.
Our logic and thinking – our brain – seems to adapt to the foreign culture over time, just like we all do. However, if we dig deep enough, we can still find the residue of our heritage and cultures in the depth of our existence. The past never leaves us, even though it is gone.
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#1 by Nalini P. at August 20th, 2009
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Oh my God, this is sooo true.
Never thought about it until read this.
#2 by Sharmila Valli Narayanan at December 25th, 2009
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Hello to The Indians Abroad. Thanks for leaving a comment on the Indians2020 website. Thanks to your posting I was able to check out your website and am very impressed with it. I hope to write some articles for your website in the near future because the experiences of the NRI in US, Canada and UK is very different from the Indians in Malaysia and Singapore.
Firstly, we are Malaysians and Singaporeans first because we have been here for three generations or more. Therefore we do not come under the patriotic Indians as we are patriotic Malaysians and Singaporeans.
Most of us have lost contact with relatives in India and have formed our own large families in Malaysia and Singapore. Take me for instance. My widowed maternal great grandmother came to Malaya (as it was known back then) in the early 20th century with 2 daughters, one of whom was my grandma. We do not have much contact with the children of my grandma’s sister — it got lost along the way. My grandma had 11 children of whom each had an average of 4 children and their kids had an average of three children — so that family has really grown! If for a function we just invite the relatives from my grandma’s side it will easily number more than 100! That’s not counting the relatives of those who had married into different families. We have never had the need to go back to India to look for spouses as there are enough Indian Malaysians from various ethnic Indians (like Malayalees, Tamils, Telugus, Punjabis, Gujeratis etc) to fill up the quota. Interestingly, after more than 100 years of Indian in Malaysia, generally each ethnic group marries within its own group although mixed marriages between the different ethnic Indian groups in Malaysia is more common now than 30 years ago.
I read your blog about thinking in one’s mother tongue. The huge difference between what happens to the NRI and his mother tongue in the West and in Malaysia and Singapore is not due to the brain adopting to the foreign culture and the dominant language around us. If that was the case, then Indian Malaysians should be thinking and speaking more in Malay as more than 60 percent of the population is Malay. In Singapore since more than 70 percent of the population is Chinese, Indian Singaporeans should be thinking and speaking in Mandarin, which is not the case.
The situation in Malaysia and Singapore is due more to the perception of the Indians that English is a a far superior language; it is an international language — the language that opens economic doors. Plus, it is widely believed that it is more prestigious to speak in that language than in one’s own mother tongue. Some parents worried that their kids won’t be able to speak good English (in Malaysia the education system is in Malay, which increased the paranoia among Indian Malaysians about the possibility of their children not being able to converse in English. In Singapore the education system is in English. That should give enough confidence for the parents to speak mother tongue at home but that is not the case either. One good thing about Singapore’s education system is that it has insisted on the child learning its mother tongue so you will find some Indian Singaporeans who score A in Tamil in A level and still not be able to speak well in that language!), insist on speaking English at home so that the kids speak it well. And these parents do not lose sleep over the fact that the mother tongue is lost.
I predict that if this trend continues, in about 50 years or less, we will have Indian Malaysians in Malaysia but not the Indian languages especially among the urban middle and upper middle class. The Indian language and culture will only be alive among the lower income group. The urban middle class is in danger of becoming “black skinned white man” or as they say in Tamil karuppu tholz vellai karan.
And another thing: the majority of Indians in Malaysia and Singapore are from South India especially Tamil Nadu. So Bollywood although is available here and is enjoyed does not rule…it is Tamil films that rule here! So maybe in your website instead of just Bollywood, you should also make room for regional movies especially those from the South.
#3 by admin at December 26th, 2009
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Hi Sharmila
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Thanks for your detailed viewpoint and thanks for sharing your opion. Just some brief comments on your commet
- Based on what i have heard from others, and what i have experienced, our brain does adapt to the language we speak. With time, if we end up speaking a mixture of two languages, our thinking follow the same route. It does not matter what people around us speak, rather what we speak.
- You are more than welcome for the guest posts in the future. As long as it is relevant and well written, you will be published.
- As far as including other movie industies, other than bollywood, your point is well taken. There is no exclusion for any part of India, it just so happened that author/writers is/are not exposed to the south so far or they chose not to venture there. If you have something entertaining to say about Kollywood or others, you are alwayas welcome.
Regards.
The Indians abroad