A spreading Web of language help

The group was discussing Britney Spears and everyone wanted to know the same thing: How do you say "paparazzi" in Gujarati?

They settled on the term phota levavara, or photo takers.

"I figured that to bring Gujarati into my everyday life, it would have to fit the things that I do," like discussing pop culture with friends, said Chitavan Patel, who founded the Gujarati language group two years ago on meetup.com.

Patel, 28, said she formed the Los Angeles group to combat an ever-weakening hold on her native language. Born to Indian parents, she grew up in New Jersey speaking the language at home. But after she left for college, she found herself forgetting words, making grammatical mistakes and fumbling to express emotions.

"I didn't want to be the one to break the link in the language and [not] pass it on to my children," Patel said.

So the Santa Monica resident began seeking out language partners. She found others like herself.

Children of immigrants and expatriates are increasingly turning to online groups and websites to connect with each other and to reconnect with their native languages. They are discovering that it not only is a good way to hold onto an important part of their culture but that it can also give them an advantage in the global marketplace.

On Meetup.com's website, hundreds of language groups can be found in metropolitan areas across the country from West Coast to East Coast. Still more can be found on Yahoo, Google and Craigslist. Some people post ads seeking language partners.

With almost 100 members, Patel's Gujarati group has met regularly for two years. Members share similar reasons for joining the group.

"It opens the door to culture," said Patel, who is a financial planner and analyst for HBO. "Gujarati has a lot of idioms that are really quirky and funny; and if you didn't understand the nuances of the language, then you would miss a lot of that stuff, a lot of the color."

There is little data on heritage language trends and even less on online usage, but experts say there are more options available than in the past.

It used to be that maintaining one's native language in this country was discouraged. Further helping to sever linguistic ties, newly arriving immigrants in the U.S. had little contact with family back home, said Olga Kagan, executive director of the National Heritage Language Resource Center at UCLA. The center develops curricula and teacher education for language students.