Zeeshan Hanif 🇨🇦🇵🇰

It is not cool if your children cannot speak Urdu or their regional language. This is a pet peeve of mine. The other day, on a flight from Karachi to Lahore, I overheard a couple speaking to their toddler in the most tortured English imaginable, with the little one responding in curt sentences and an affected English twang. When did speaking English become a status symbol, while our own languages are treated as inferior? There is nothing wrong with learning English, but why should it come at the expense of the languages that connect us to our roots, culture and identity? The British left 79 years ago, but the colonial mindset lives on. We may have shed our rulers, but we haven’t quite shed our need for their approval. Sometimes, it feels as though we are brown bodies with puny white souls. Being multilingual is an asset. Being disconnected from your own language is not a badge of sophistication. I am a proud mother of a daughter who speaks fluent Punjabi, Urdu and English. Why choose one when you can give your child all three? #MotherTongue #ColonialMindset #Multilingualism #CulturalIdentity #LanguageMatters