Maintaining your local language is critical to your identity and contributes to a positive self-concept. The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) reiterates that continuing to study your mother tongue after childhood helps you learn how to value your culture and heritage. For parents, keeping your local language alive at home teaches children to take pride in their culture and roots.
In terms of its value in social interactions, speaking your local language can strengthen ties with family members. If the native language isn’t maintained, important links to family members may be lost. Parents of young children should encourage using their local language to prepare the child to interact with their native-language community.
Researchers cite that when parents are unable to communicate well with their children, they cannot easily convey to them their values, beliefs, or advice on how to cope with their experiences. Clear communication helps parents impart their wisdom to their children and enable them to become the kind of men and women they want them to be. When parents can’t socialize and influence their children due to language barriers, families could lose the intimacy that comes from shared beliefs and understanding.
Linguistic proficiency also helps immigrants to preserve cultural and linguistic connections to their home country, and being fluent in another language helps foreigners adjust more easily to new cultures.
