Mother Tongue & My Origin Story

The good thing of reviving a company blog is that I get to look into the past and find a part of me that was younger, inexperienced and still naive.

It’s simple nostalgia because I was in a place where I only dreamed of being a certain kind of a storyteller in the next few years.

In 2016, when we celebrated International Mother Language Day, I considered myself The Misfit Bengali.

That was 6 years ago!

The past few years have clearly blipped. I have not captured the work that I have done so far.

Do I still consider myself a misfit? Or have I tried to change that narrative about me?

Let’s begin by saying that I have made an attempt to work on my origin story! My mother tongue is closely related to my identity as a Bengali. My language holds the clue to where I come from, my comfort with the languages that I grew up with, listening and speaking at home and outside it, make up my origin story. It holds the key to how I perceive myself in the world and the attempt I make to connect to someone who doesn’t speak my language.

Let’s begin by talking about what I have done with my language skills. I taught myself to tell stories in my mother tongue Bangla.

From finding an ideal story, to translating it using the vocabulary that comes most naturally to me, to getting the grammar and fluency in my mind & tongue, to writing the story using Hindi script (since I don’t write in Bangla), to reading or performing it perfectly so it flows like a river….it is extremely tough and challenging to tell a story in Bangla, every-single-time!

Telling a story in my mother tongue is an adventure for me. I challenge myself and throw myself into the ring to see how I fare.

So what have I done so far?

And very recently, I retold one of my most popular stories “Hippo” on Bangla!

I told the story to coincide for this year’s International Mother Language Day Celebrations – Many Languages, Many Stories. The day also happened to be World Hippo Day, and so I chose to retell Hippo in Bangla for the very first time!

Watch the story on Instagram (Instagram Link)

This year, our campaign is BIGGER than ever before!

YSB Tribe of Storytellers has been stealing the limelight for the polygot presentation where 22 storytellers came together to tell ONE story! There are multiple Indian languages, some you may not speak at all…but if you lean in and listen, you will understand the story equally well!

Knowing your #motherlanguage is more important than you think! So while we recommend speaking your mother tongue at home, we also recommend listening to stories in your own tongue and others that are not your own.

Using the mother tongue from an early age has a life-long impact on the child’s social & emotional development, his / her interaction with society, one’s adaptability to changing environments and acceptance of people who are not like them.

Let’s see how!

💬 A child who grows up being exposed to diverse languages (including one’s own) is more aware of oneself and others. The child grows to experience and learn from a multi-cultural environment knowing well that everyone has a distinct language and identity. While the child learns to own one’s mother tongue & cultural identity, he/she learns to respect others as well.

💬 The child doesn’t consider a different language alien or inferior. The child doesn’t fear or mistrust anyone who doesn’t sound like one’s family.

💬The same child grows up to be curious, patient, respectful, empathetic & kind to a new child who comes from a different part of the country and does not speak like him/her.

💬The same child is more flexible when travelling to new places and meeting new people. He/she is able to adjust to new tastes, new sounds and new experiences in a city or country. The same child is now ready to learn more languages, more foreign than one’s own!

💬The same child is able to own his/her identity and share it with pride in college. The child, a young adult now, will be able to speak of his/her multiple-cultural exposure.

💬This young adult goes on to build & form diverse teams, in college and then at work. By now, an adult, he/she is not afraid to move cities or countries to take up a job or start a business in a region where he / she doesn’t speak the language.

💬A child who grows up comfortable in one’s own language, has a listening ear for other languages. Likewise, he/she will know when to speak in one’s mother tongue and when not to. As an adult, he/she makes the right choices and won’t divide or alienate people for speaking a certain language. He / she will naturally unite & integrate people irrespective of their diverse language & dialects.

Do you still feel knowing one’s mother-language is not important?

Perhaps you do understand the importance of the mother tongue, now! So let’s begin…

Follow #YSBTribeofStorytellers as we showcase India’s diversity through stories & conversations in our mother language. Our multi-lingual storytellers are pushing the boundaries of storytelling to make deeper impact with stories in their mother-tongue. We have tied up with publisher Eklavya to retell some of their children’s books in other regional languages.

Come, experience #manylanguagesmanystories with YSB Tribe of Storytellers through our LIVE sessions & stories in our digital library.

Our campaign is LIVE till 28th February 2022. So join in!

Hashtags: #Storytelling #YourStoryBag #StorytellersinIndia #malayalamstories #malayalamstoriesforkids #storiesinmalayalam #malayalamstoryteller

#internationalmotherlanguageday

#bengalistories

#multilingualstorytelling

#multilingualstorytellers

#indianlanguages