MY MOTHER'S TONGUES

Musings on multilingualism.

Sumi’s mother speaks two languages: Malayalam and English. She speaks Malayalam because she grew up in the Indian state of Kerala, where Malayalam is the local language. She speaks English because she learned it in school in India; years later, she would immigrate to America. Similarly, Sumi learned Malayalam—“my first tongue”—from using it with family at home in America. Sumi learned English by listening to other people at school and in the neighborhood; mother and child are now comfortable in both tongues. Sumi explains that learning a new language can be difficult—Sumi’s mother struggled with American English when she arrived in the U.S., while Sumi needs help speaking Malayalam when visiting relatives in India. While learning a language might be challenging, it also opens so many doors, which is why Sumi considers multilingualism to be the ultimate superpower. The illustrations, which mimic tapestries, are a clever companion to the text, which often invokes a weaving metaphor to explain the feeling of bi- and multilingualism. At times the book feels more like a lecture than a story. Still, it conveys an essential message about the power of language, and the lyrical narratorial voice beautifully balances curiosity and playfulness.

A charming ode to the joy of learning new languages.