It’s a known fact that we all relate to each other either by culture, or religion, or origin, or language. In current circumstances, wouldn’t it help if Pakistanis took it upon themselves to start an exchange program within the country to learn at least one other provincial dialect? It would bring people closer, would reduce distrust, and shrink the gap that has been widened by opportunistic minded politicians and other persons who benefit from a divided Pakistani society.
I can only speak for myself when I say that if I could, I would love to learn all major sub-languages of Pakistan because it’s how my people talk, and I would want to relate to them all in one more way.
What are your thoughts? Should it become mandatory in schools to learn at least one provincial language? Barring the language of the province, because local body would obviously be familiar with the local language.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
Urdu should, and would have sufficed but the problem that is unique to Pakistan is that some of us have found a way to even exploit the national language and built careers on that exploitation; whether in the garb of fighting for Urdu Speaking populace or at other times making their representative exploiters the national enemy. In theory and in practice we're all Urdu Speakers because it is the national language of Pakistan; so shouldn't we all have united representation? But we don't.
And that's the reason why I felt to float the idea that maybe we need to have an exchange of dialects. Let a Punjabi learn Sindhi, Balochi, and/or Pashtu fluently, and vise versa. If nothing else, we'll all be able to communicate with each other better at inter-country level. Sometimes when the ego gets the best of us, a Pashto speaker saying something in Punjabi is enough to break the ice and dissolve the rising tensions. So why not own that process and use it to come together and form a somewhat common ground to rebuild from?
My suggestion may be full of assumptions, but I'm just thinking aloud.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
In current circumstances, wouldn't it help if Pakistanis took it upon themselves to start an exchange program within the country to learn at least one other provincial dialect?
I agree that all regional languages (at least Sindhi, Punjabi, Siraiki, Pushto and Balochi) should be made compulsory all over related provinces of Pakistan.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
Urdu should, and would have sufficed but the problem that is unique to Pakistan is that some of us have found a way to even exploit the national language and built careers on that exploitation; whether in the garb of fighting for Urdu Speaking populace or at other times making their representative exploiters the national enemy. In theory and in practice we're all Urdu Speakers because it is the national language of Pakistan; so shouldn't we all have united representation? But we don't.
And that's the reason why I felt to float the idea that maybe we need to have an exchange of dialects. Let a Punjabi learn Sindhi, Balochi, and/or Pashtu fluently, and vise versa. If nothing else, we'll all be able to communicate with each other better at inter-country level. Sometimes when the ego gets the best of us, a Pashto speaker saying something in Punjabi is enough to break the ice and dissolve the rising tensions. So why not own that process and use it to come together and form a somewhat common ground to rebuild from?
My suggestion may be full of assumptions, but I'm just thinking aloud.
i think Pakistan should have Urdu as the national language, English as official language and a regional language for each province.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
Electives yes but not mandatory. Don’t we already have to learn chinese in sindh or was that just a stunt?
I’d rather have smaller provinces and devaluation of power to local bodies, something that musharraf did but demoratsy pretty much abolished, than such gimmicks that would produce nothing. Arts are a luxury of the well-fed and generally wealthy society when Pakistan needs engineers and scientists etc to get the economy moving. Scratch that, we need to fix the taliban and other problems so investment can happen in pakistan. If people have money then they would move about and intermingle with each other.
One thing that we could do is take some good local stories / folklore and promote it by translating it in urdu so people have an appreciation and attachment to Pakistan.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
Not a good idea. People don't learn languages in schools.
If one wants to learn a language then the resources should be there. But why make it mandatory?
Just learning a language does not guarantee harmony, if that is the purpose. A lot of Pakistanis know English, and yet most of us hate English and Americans.
Besides, this is not Pakistan's major problem. People need to concentrate on economy which is one of the worst in the world.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
I voiced my reason for why. What are your thoughts?
Non-Urdu speaking kids already have hard time learning Urdu and English and taking exams in those languages. You could have several electives and encourage students to learn other languages, but not force them please.
If it has to be, then it should be at primary level. Younger kids learn languages quickly.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
I don't think so. It would add an additional burden on the education system. We should first work on gainful employment and economic stability before we make changes to the education framework for the country.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
AsSalaamo Alaikum,
It's a known fact that we all relate to each other either by culture, or religion, or origin, or language. In current circumstances, wouldn't it help if Pakistanis took it upon themselves to start an exchange program within the country to learn at least one other provincial dialect? It would bring people closer, would reduce distrust, and shrink the gap that has been widened by opportunistic minded politicians and other persons who benefit from a divided Pakistani society.
I can only speak for myself when I say that if I could, I would love to learn all major sub-languages of Pakistan because it's how my people talk, and I would want to relate to them all in one more way.
What are your thoughts? Should it become mandatory in schools to learn at least one provincial language? Barring the language of the province, because local body would obviously be familiar with the local language.
Isn't that the case already? I remember in Karachi Sindhi was mandatory for the matriculation examination so obviously it was taught as a subject in lower grades along with Urdu and English.
Even at university level we used to debate what's the reason of giving Urdu and English language examination for graduation levels specially for technical education like B.E and M.B.B.S when there is no practical implementation of either of that. Like I have never faced a single instance in my life where I had to provide tashreeh of a Ghalib stanza with complete Seeaq-o-Sabaq. IMO that was totally waste of time when we had other difficult subjects to concentrate on.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
And I also remember an year may be it was Zia-ul-haq where all the subjects were mandated to be taught in Urdu. Can you ever imagine how heard it is to learn physics or biological terms in Urdu
We should just leave education alone and don’t politicize it. If any body is interested in languages they have separate degrees for that, just don’t torture students. And as far as my experience goes you learn a language by interacting not by ratafication.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
I'm not suggesting conversion of curriculum into Urdu, or other dialects. I'm saying other dialects should be a part of the syllabus. At any level, pre-high school, high school, or whatever other level suits best.
What some of you have said may be closer to truth that what I suggested, please keep it coming.
Re: Should it be mandatory to learn at least 1 provincial dialect?
Before making it mandatory for non native speakers to learn other provincial languages, I'd be useful if native speakers can learn to read and write their own language properly first. For example, most Pashto or Punjabi speakers can fluently speak their mother tongue, but unfortunately they can neither read nor write in that language. As a big advocate of preserving and promoting regional languages and dialects, I personally find that quite worrying because this is how languages eventually die. To ensure that we as a nation achieve maximum intellectual fulfilment, knowledge and long term benefits from learning a language, young children must be formally taught to read and write their mother tongue or any other tongue for that matter. I mean its relatively easy to learn enough language to be able make small everyday conversations if you are around people who speak that the language and you are genuinely interested in learning, however, the real revelation and empowerment occurs when you learn to read and write a language.
Learning another language can be such a fun experience, especially if you are young and you are getting taught by someone who has the right knowledge, passion and genuine interest in teaching the language simply out of love for the language than teaching it out of compulsion and as a chore. I absolutely loved my French teacher because of how immensely enjoyable and easy she made our French lessons, and in five years I picked up enough French to reach the advance stage, but it's different thing I'm such a typical Brit at heart that whenever I go to Paris, I still order my food in English.
