I’ve seen Gujarati families from India where the kids do not know Hindi and only know their mother tongue. I’ve seen some South Indians like that too.
In Pakistani families is their an avoidance of teaching Urdu at home when the mother tongue is different. Are their some communities that refuse to use Urdu at home?
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No. Most middleclass/uperclass Punjabies are ashamed of Punjabi. Even inside Pakistan.
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Really ?
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The Pakhtoons and Balochs I happen to know, do not speak Urdu at home, at all. Some of their women are unable to converse in Urdu but whatever broken Urdu they speak sounds absolutely beautiful! Always brings a sweet smile on my face.
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I agree with Jolie. I have a Pakistani Pashtun friend whose family is from Peshawar and he and his family don’t speak Urdu. They only speak Pashto (and Dari, to some extent) at home. From my understanding though, it wasn't a matter of his parents "refusing" to teach him and his siblings Urdu. In a conversation about languages once, his father commented that he never learned Urdu himself because he never saw the need as most matters in Peshawar can be sorted out in Pashto and that he never suggested his children learn it because he doesn't see a use for it here in the UK.
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only people from major cities in pakistan speak fluent urdu. people from rural areas speak their local languages, like sindhi, punjabi, siraiki, pashto, balochi.
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Not learning the language (by choice or otherwise) that is most commonly spoken in that domain puts you at disadvantage and you become less useful to society. you cant just contribute at the level you could if you know the language.
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'that domain' define pliz.
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I agree with Jolie. I have a Pakistani Pashtun friend whose family is from Peshawar and he and his family don’t speak Urdu. They only speak Pashto (and Dari, to some extent) at home. From my understanding though, it wasn't a matter of his parents "refusing" to teach him and his siblings Urdu. In a conversation about languages once, his father commented that he never learned Urdu himself because he never saw the need as most matters in Peshawar can be sorted out in Pashto and that he never suggested his children learn it because he doesn't see a use for it here in the UK.
In Peshawar schools, they teach Urdu though
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Has that always been the case though or is it possible that is a more recent development? The gentleman immigrated to Britain and has been living here for the past 30+ years and my friend and his siblings are born and raised here, so they wouldn't have gone to school in Peshawar.
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Yes. Most middleclass/uperclass Punjabies are ashamed of Urdu. Even inside Pakistan.
I'd disagree with this. I didn't grow up in pakistan but all my cousins in Pakistan (punjabis living in lahore) were encouraged to speak urdu over punjabi because the impression was punjabi was considered pendu. Its kind of sad actually I see sikh people of my generation speaking fluent punjabi whereas I find that it's not so common with Pakistani punjabis from my generation.
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I'd disagree with this. I didn't grow up in pakistan but all my cousins in Pakistan (punjabis living in lahore) were encouraged to speak urdu over punjabi because the impression was punjabi was considered pendu. Its kind of sad actually I see sikh people of my generation speaking fluent punjabi whereas I find that it's not so common with Pakistani punjabis from my generation.
hahahah.......i think i was high or something :/ I wanted to say exactly opposite of what I wrote :!
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I figured Urdu gets taught in all schools in Pakistan as the primary language regardless of regional language, and regional language can be taken as a second language. Ex. in Karachi, you can take sindhi as a second language, but Urdu is mandatory, and I heard you can't get in good schools and good positions if you didn't ace it.
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English acing gets u to good places. not urdu.
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In Peshawar schools, they teach Urdu though
Yeah, it is probably as useful as teaching Sindhi in Karachi schools. Not very useful at all!
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I heard somewhere that oak government wants to make chinese language a mandatory part of curriculum
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I figured Urdu gets taught in all schools in Pakistan as the primary language regardless of regional language, and regional language can be taken as a second language. Ex. in Karachi, you can take sindhi as a second language, but Urdu is mandatory, and I heard you can't get in good schools and good positions if you didn't ace it.
even if urdu is taught, kids still talk to each other in their native language. it's like how we learn Spanish in US. secondly, pakistan has a literacy rate of below 30%.. so how many people even go to schools??
peshawar is still a major city, so maybe school going children there might be able to understand urdu, I was talking about rural areas.
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In Pakistan, it is absolutely essential that people can, read, write and fluently speak standard Urdu for official purposes. Other than that, I have no problem whatsoever with people conversing in their Mother Tongues at home, in fact I encourage such practices. There are sixty nine languages spoken in Pakistan and I for one fully and completely support preservation and promotion of regional languages and dialects. I am an absolute fan of Punjabi language, I think it's a shame that Prime Minister of Pakistan and Chief Minister of Punjab can proudly choose to communicate in Punjabi with their cabinet Ministers, staff and close friends yet have done nothing to give Punjabi language the honour and appreciation it deserves. It's about time Punjabis own their language and cogently dismiss all the snobbery and cast off all stereotypes associated with speaking the language.
I probably made myself sound like a member of Thakt e Lahore gang, now let's just hope that insecure, victimised and ethnicity obsessed boys and supporters of Super Saeen from Pakistan Affairs don't read this.
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It varies. I really doubt that most middle and upper class speak only punjabi. Most punjabis speak urdu now. If you go to the motherland, children talk to their parents in urdu. The parents might speak in punjabi. And in the US, it is similar as well... Punjabis and urdu speaking ppl interact that urdu has to be spoken. If anything, it's looked down upon more if you speak punjabi.
And about Pathans... It depends. I have Pathan friends who come from Peshawar and don't know a word of urdu and there are others who don't know a word of pushto. The ones that don't know urdu- their parents weren't highly educated, did not complete grade school, speak broken Urdu.
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What's wrong with Punjabi though? I for one am not ashamed to be Punjabi at all. Although i was not born or bred in Pakistan, i still know both Punjabi and Urdu fluently and speak them both at home. Thankfully.