If we feel inferior while speaking our native language, then how will we emerge as a free nation?
On the day of my orientation at the university, I experienced a quite painful thing. All the students were in the auditorium and the faculty members too. First, we had a short video on the projector about the department’s progress. Then, one by one, every teacher introduced himself/herself to the students. One of the teachers came on the dais. She was asked to introduce herself in English because everyone present there was introducing himself in English. But she couldn’t do that properly(fluently). How pathetic it is! She didn’t have the liberty to introduce herself in Urdu even in Pakistan.
The matter is not the language whether it’s English or Urdu. The problem is in our minds. Aren’t we depriving our language of its right? Chinese don’t feel uncomfortable while speaking their native language. Turkish people don’t feel inferior while speaking Turkish, their mother tongue. Then why do we make our people feel inferior when they speak their native language i.e. Urdu?
Our educational institutions should work to aggrandize the national language. If educational institutions feel inferior while speaking Urdu instead of English, then who will promote the Language? Once you start feeling proud while speaking Urdu, then it’s not a problem at all whether you speak English or any other language.
ALEENA MUJAHID
LAHORE
