Is it important for your child to speak english?

I've no negatives against children speaking English but its funny when parents only speak to their children in English and want their children to speak back only in English too. If the child is a little older I would have had no issues with that. You are just adding another language in their schedule. But at the age of 3 or 2 or even less, is it the right thing to do? Is our language that bad? Is it shameful to speak in Hindi or in any other dialect?

I also speak to my son in English and quite often. But its only now when I feel his Hindi vocabulary is more than enough at the age he is in(3 yrs.). So now we are starting to focus on his learning words for the same things etc in English too. But that doesn't mean talking in Hindi is a no-no.

The other day when I had some guests over at our son's b'day, one of my friends wife was talking to her son, who was 2.5 year old, only in English and asked him to say bye to us by calling our names! I was astounded. I didn't say anything then since they were our guests and it wasn't anything positive that I wanted to say.

Maybe some of you will not agree with my thoughts. However, I feel when we call our elders by uncle or aunt or anything but their names, we do so to give them respect. And I don't see anything wrong in it. Do you? We don't even call the non-relatives who are elder to us by their names or even the strangers.

My mother never taught us to call even the house helpers/aides by their names. We were always asked to refer to them as bhaiyya or didi. I also have the same rules for my son. He is not allowed to call my maid and cook by their names. He also has to refer to them as didi. And I also talk to them saying "aap". They are also human beings and deserve their share of respect.

I've seen a lot of small children talking to the house helpers in such a rude, disrespectful tone and their parents don't say anything to them. I really wonder at the kind of values that are being passed on to the children.