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Guest Column: A thought in any other language would be as potent
Many parents discourage their wards from speaking in their indigenous language and insist that they speak in English, however assorted studies have suggested that bilingual children show higher levels of social understanding and form better, long-lasting emotional connections
Of late, I have found myself competing in the perfect-parenting race. My contenders are young parents who know exactly what they want and do not want for their child, the overachievers trying to summit still more mountains through their progeny and the ones correcting their own perceived shortcomings through their kids.
Also in running is that rare variety: parents who are passive and dubitable. They are the ones learning parenting not from a textbook or the vast ocean of cyberspace resources, but through the eyes of their child and by stepping into their tiny boots.
One of the obstacles in this hurdle race is primary school admissions. While I was waiting in an interview room with the other contenders, I overheard one of them confidently say, “I want my child to think in English.”
In a different corner, a parent could be heard bemoaning that their child had picked up the Hindi language from the domestic help, while another commiserated saying that their son’s grandparents only spoke to him in their native language.
I, on the other hand, was having a hard time processing the notion of a child ‘thinking in English’, the need for ‘perfecting-the-English language’ classes for preschoolers or the benefit of limiting the influence of those who communicated effectively in their indigenous tongue.
I tried to remember what I thought and imagined as a child. Were the thoughts limited to a specific language? Did my thoughts even have a language? I was always encouraged to think freely, without being limited by societal bias or gender. I was told I could be anybody I imagined, provided I believed in myself.
What became of those concepts of freethinking? Is a thought or idea in the English language superior to those in a different language? Is a child mastering a particular language the ultimate criteria of supremacy? Are we creating an army of functionally identical mindsets? Do we correct the child at a pre-school level to revise the thought that was not in English? What effect does restricting a child’s thoughts to a single language have on him? All these questions called for in-depth study and research. After all, I was in a race, remember?
Popular books such as the Bilingual Edge and articles such as ‘The power of the bilingual brain’ (Time Magazine, Kluger 2013) have reiterated the advantages of early bilingualism in employment, travel, establishing and maintaining a connection with family members, their culture and history, and making friends from different backgrounds.
Assorted studies have also suggested that bilingual children show higher levels of social understanding and form better, long-lasting emotional connections. Most of these attributes are taken for granted. Bilingual children have demonstrated better skills than monolinguals in understanding thoughts, intentions, and perspectives. Thus, a relatively balanced exposure to multiple languages, people and thoughts, is likely to produce a generation of free thinkers, kind beings and approachable individuals.
With all this supplementary knowledge, I soon found myself in another waiting room at yet another sought-after school, overhearing another conversation between my fellow contenders, contemplating on the role parents play in creating a beautiful mind without boundaries.
shazuks@gmail.com
( The writer is an advocate at Punjab and Haryana high court, Chandigarh)
