Peer influence on a child

My child goes to a home day care. Like all parents wanting the best for their child, we have weighed the prons and cons of sending a child to a home day care. The fact that one of my relatives ran a home day care made our decision making easier.
We have always agreed that our child must converse in our mother tongue "Kannada". We have seen several Desi kids born and being raised in the USA who often communicate in English. Often have we wondered why they don't talk in their mother tongue. This was one of the driving factors to not talk with our child in English. Its not that we are against the English language.... our theory is that once our child starts school, English is bound to be learnt. So use the time prior to schooling to familiarize the mother tongue.
Since our relative ran the day care, it only made learning Kannada simpler. But boy ... I didn't account for the peers .... peers of a year old child .!!!! A child is influened by its peers as early !!! There are other kids in the day care who do not speak their mother tongue and communicate in English. This is already having a profound influence on our child.
Only the other day we were having a nice family time together and were laughing when my little one standing by started laughing aloud and said "This is funny !!! " Were we dumstruck !!! Where / When did all the English come from ... we wondered.
For the past few weeks, the little one's communication has been improving exponentially and as is the English vocabulary. Here are some the lines / phrases used often :
* This pinky is funny (pinky is the little doll)
* Silly girl (refering to Pinky)
* No more TV
* I want strawberry (fav fruit)
* Come on amma ... lets go
* Have a nice day ! Followed by you too :)
* No diaper change
And many more :)
We still insist that the communication at home be in Kannada. Often times, we refuse an answer unless asked in Kannada and that ensures that communication happens in our mother tongue. But in our hearts I must admit , we are happy she is learning Kannada and English (to some extent) as well !!

ps: All of the clip-art and some of the pictures used in the posts are not mine and are from various web-sites on the internet. If you own them and have objection to having them published on this blog, please let me know!