Moving countries often comes with cultural adjustments, but for one Indian mother who relocated to India with her American daughter, an unexpected challenge has emerged: pronunciation. A light-hearted video showing the mother trying to teach her daughter how to pronounce certain Indian words has amused social media users.
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The woman, identified as Pragnya Narendra, shared the clip on Instagram, capturing a playful exchange with her daughter over pronunciations such as “Chithra” and “Bengaluru”.
Mother explains the pronunciation struggle
“The biggest challenge we're having after moving to India with my baby, who is an American and her accent is American, is... guess what it is?” the mother says at the beginning of the video before both burst into laughter.
She then tries to get her daughter to pronounce “chithra”.
{{/usCountry}}She then tries to get her daughter to pronounce “chithra”.
{{/usCountry}}“Okay, the biggest problem is: ra. Huh, tell: chithra,” she says.
“Chith-the-ra,” her daughter replies.
“Chithra,” the mother repeats, only for the child to respond again: “Chith-the-ra.”
“No, no, chithra, chithra, tra,” the mother says, continuing her attempt to correct the pronunciation.
The conversation then moves to Bengaluru.
“Bangalore,” the mother says, with her daughter repeating the word. When asked to say “Bengaluru”, the child manages the word, but the mother tries to emphasise the final “ra” sound.
“Ru, Bengaluru-ru-r-r,” she says.
“Bengaluru... r-r,” the daughter replies, leaving her mother laughing and facepalming.
“How do I explain to her it is ra, it's not r, r?” the mother says.
Accent also affecting spellings
The mother goes on to explain that pronunciation sometimes creates confusion while her daughter is writing.
“And that's why she's not able to write spellings correctly. When she's pronouncing it, she's pronouncing the as te. Tell chitthe,” she says.
“Chitthe,” the daughter responds.
“The, not te,” her mother corrects her.
“The,” the girl replies.
“Ha, and so she writes it the. This is the problem I have,” the mother says.
“I don't get it,” the daughter responds.
Text overlaid on the clip reads, “The struggles of living in India with an American accent,” while the caption says, “It is funny but it is also a struggle.”
Watch the clip here:
Internet finds the exchange adorable
The video drew amused reactions from viewers, with many finding the child’s accent endearing. One user wrote, “Her American accent is too adorable.” Another said, “‘Bangalore’ pronunciation struggle is so cute.” A third commented, “This is such a wholesome problem to have,” while another added, “She sounds absolutely adorable!”
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