Learning your mother tongue should be celebrated and not shamed - Pabi Moloi
Pabi Moloi shares her views about teaching children their mother tongue and just learning an indigenous language in general...
Language has traditionally been know as a means to uphold culture, heritage, and also adds to a sense of individuality to a person's character. When you can connect through language, you can break down barriers.
Making sure that your children elongate the tradition of your mother tongue is a topic that is debated by many parents nowadays. Where some feel it doesn't add any value to their children's lives and is a tedious action with their busy schedules, we believe that it is our responsibility to pass on the baton and make sure that our children continue our indigenous languages.
More than that, it is a sign of respect; respect of our ancestors, of their uniqueness, and their intelligence in developing a way to communicate that is both authentic and soulful.
Pabi Moloi recently responded to a Twitter user who claimed that "teaching one's child their mother tongue will not affect their intelligence, as some may believe."
She responded by saying that "instead of society shaming people learning an indigenous language, it should be celebrated and in fact be considered a marker of progress and intelligence...In fact it should increase intelligence and it gives them so much social cache. There’s no debating this really..."
Toya Delazey also took the social media mic when she said: "Speak your native language to your children or watch it die within the next 20 years. Looking down on your relatives who speak your native tongue because you speak perfect English is stupid. It’s like being proud of borrowed clothes."
We think that in the times we live in, it is so important to share our mother tongue and our indigenous languages with the next generation. It is our responsibility to make sure that there is a piece of our history that is maintained in the future and language is one way that we can do that...
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