As Gujarati was regularly spoken in my childhood home, I spoke it so readily that I wasn’t concerned about passing it on to my kids. What I worried about most was how I would teach them Spanish when I wasn’t fluent and neither was my husband! Then a funny thing happened: I moved away from NJ when my older daughter was 7 months old and was left as the only Gujarati speaker in her life. I started to struggle with talking to her in Gujarati because it would exclude my non-Gujarati speaking husband. I desperately wanted to create a way to make learning Gujarati easier for both of them.

While researching the books, I realized that Gujarati is an age-old language with many dialects, and some of the words you know may differ from the ones I used in my books. I am also aware that Gujarati is complex and spelling Gujarati words phonetically in English can be very tricky. I’ve provided the pronunciations based on the Gujarati spoken in my childhood home, and in the way I felt was best for American born children to connect with. As you read these books with your little ones, they will become familiar with the nuances of the language, and with your help, expert Gujarati speakers! If you ever have a question on how to pronounce a word, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

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