Nishita is Indian with an American/Palistinian husband and a 16 month old daughter.

Nishita's story

1. When did you arrive in Dubai?

Nishita and her husband Amjad arrived in Dubai in October 2005.

1. Please introduce your family and the languages spoken by each family member.

Nishita is Indian and was born in Iran. She grew up in an Expat environment and speaks Hindi and English. Nishita’s husband Amjad is a U.S. citizen with Palestinian parents. He was born in Kuwait and speaks English and Arabic. Nishita and Amjad have one daughter Nyla who is nearly 17 months old. Nishita and Amjad speak English with each other. Nishita tries to speak mostly Hindi to her daughter but it is easier for her to speak English so she actually speaks more often English. Amjad speaks mostly Arabic and maybe 20% English to his daughter. Both parents don’t have a specific system of when to speak which language to Nyla. Sometimes they choose the language in which a certain word is easiest to learn for Nyla. Nishita’s parents speak Hindi and Amjad’s parents speak Arabic to Nyla when they are visiting.

1. What are the language goals for your kids? Why is it important to you that your children learn these languages?

The language goals for Nyla are that she reads, writes and speaks English, Arabic and Hindi to the level of a native speaker. It is important that Nyla learns English because she is growing up in an English-speaking environment. Nyla is attending an English nursery and will attend English schools. Nishita feels it is hard to teach Nyla Hindi and Arabic as everybody speaks English but it is important to her and her husband as both languages are part of Nyla’s culture and who she is.

1. How did you hear about the multilingual network?

The workshop “How to raise children bi-/multilingual” was listed on the expatwomen.com website.

1. Did you attend the “How to raise children bi-/multilingual” workshop? Did attending the workshop have any impact on your language goals? Did you implement any changes afterwards?

Nishita hasn’t attended the workshop.

1. Do you attend the multilingual network meetings? What motivates you to attend?

Nishita hasn’t been to the multilingual network meetings yet but is very interested in the topic of the next meeting.

1. How often do you use the multilingual website? What do you use it for?

Nishita has only used the website a couple of times. She checked out the details of the “How to raise children bi-/multilingual” workshop, looked at the event calendar and the language resources for Arabic.

1. Where are you now in relation to the language goals you have set?

Nishita has the feeling that Nyla is a little bit behind with her language goals in Hindi and Arabic. Living in an English environment, Nishita ends up talking more English with Nyla than Hindi. Nishita’s husband speaks 80% Arabic with Nyla but that’s only on the weekends as he is working long hours. However, observing Nyla’s reactions to what is said to her in Hindi and Arabic shows that she already understands some Hindi and Arabic. Nyla is “on track” with English also thanks to the English nursery.

1. Do you face any problems that keep you from achieving your language goals? What else would help you to achieve your language goals?

Nishita would like to expose her daughter more to Hindi by seeing a Hindi-speaking doctor or attending a Hindi playgroup or a Hindi singing class. It would be great for Nyla to go to an Arab-speaking playgroup. Arabic is specifically difficult as Nishita doesn’t speak Arabic but it would be great for Nyla to be part of an Arab-speaking playgroup. Nishita is currently looking for an Arabic tutor and meeting other mothers in the same situation would be helpful.

1. Do you have any special tips for parents who want to raise their children bi-/multilingual?

Being really persistent and making the effort to speak the mother tongue. Nishita knows it is hard to switch to Hindi from English. Attending playgroups and other activities in the “minority” languages helps a lot. From her experience, Nishita doesn’t think it’s so important to speak only one language per person. She sometimes tells Nyla the name for an item in all three languages.

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