flowing thoughts

Being able to communicate with others gives me a sense of power. Whether it may be my communicating skills at school or my speech at home with my family, I felt a sense of belonging. Growing up, I was taught two languages and heard two other languages regularly. I learned my first language which is Tamil through my grandma, and English through my parents. Switching between these languages happens very often and unconsciously. Growing up, I was exposed to a lot of informal speech and my parents would change between English and Tamil every sentence. Living in India for the first year of my life exposed me to a lot of dialects and slangs that changed on a daily basis. I would hear my grandma conversing in a language called Kannada, and I begin picking up words and pieces that still to this day can speak and recognize. Having a variety of languages spoken to me confused me and started to become a challenge. As I began to speak my first words, it was a fusion of my mother tongue, Tamil, an