An interesting article in the Washington Post that I found today describes one way of encouraging kids to learn languages – through a shared task, in this case, shelling peas.
The article’s author explains that her son was reluctant to learn her mother tongue, Hindi, until a visit to India when he was four years old. During that visit, the son saw his mother and grandmother shelling peas and wandered over to find out what they were doing. He was fascinated by the pea pods and started to open them up to extract the peas. While doing this he listened to the others and started asking questions, which they answered in Hindi.
After returning to the States, the author continued to shell peas with her son while talking with him in Hindi and telling him stories, which he found very interesting, and he now speaks Hindi well. The author also explains how she heard the stories from one of her relatives while making noodles.
