I can't begin to explain how deeply this resonated with me. Thank you for articulating this struggle, my struggle, so beautifully. As a third culture kid, and a Canadian currently visiting Pakistan, this is exactly what I'm feeling these days.
Thank you for writing this Sumayya! This is exactly how I feel! Your drive to relearn it makes inspires me to bring Urdu back into my life as well. I’ve been struggling with sharing it with my kids and teaching them. Urdu was always so horribly looked down upon in school and I want it to be an enjoyable experience for my own children. It’s very hard though with the lack of resources.
Thank you for sharing your story with such honesty. I felt every bit of the heartache in your words—the grief of being othered from your own language is so real. I’m ever grateful to my parents for giving me a bilingual Arabic/French education through high school before sending me to the U.S., where I learned English. Now, as a mother of two third-culture kids fluent in French, English, and Spanish, I struggle to keep Arabic alive at home. It's frustrating, especially knowing how grounding language is—how it carries our humor, our culture, our sense of self. But I hold onto the hope that one day, they’ll understand its worth and feel at home in it too. Your post reminds me why this effort matters—thank you.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful upbringing and comments. It’s not that I can’t speak Urdu. I can. I just think now I realise how deeply I wish I had given the reading and writing side more time. Same goes for my daughter. So interesting she to can speak French and Spanish but doesn’t know enough Urdu. I’m happy this post helped remind you of the importance that we must do more to hold on to our heritage languages.
Thanks, Sumayya. From your post, I gathered that you do speak Urdu, but wish you'd given more time to reading and writing it. It’s both amazing and frustrating, as a mom, to see how quickly kids absorb foreign languages while struggling to connect with their own. Indeed, we must make a greater effort to hold on to our languages.
I can't begin to explain how deeply this resonated with me. Thank you for articulating this struggle, my struggle, so beautifully. As a third culture kid, and a Canadian currently visiting Pakistan, this is exactly what I'm feeling these days.
Thank you for writing this Sumayya! This is exactly how I feel! Your drive to relearn it makes inspires me to bring Urdu back into my life as well. I’ve been struggling with sharing it with my kids and teaching them. Urdu was always so horribly looked down upon in school and I want it to be an enjoyable experience for my own children. It’s very hard though with the lack of resources.
Thank you for sharing your story with such honesty. I felt every bit of the heartache in your words—the grief of being othered from your own language is so real. I’m ever grateful to my parents for giving me a bilingual Arabic/French education through high school before sending me to the U.S., where I learned English. Now, as a mother of two third-culture kids fluent in French, English, and Spanish, I struggle to keep Arabic alive at home. It's frustrating, especially knowing how grounding language is—how it carries our humor, our culture, our sense of self. But I hold onto the hope that one day, they’ll understand its worth and feel at home in it too. Your post reminds me why this effort matters—thank you.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful upbringing and comments. It’s not that I can’t speak Urdu. I can. I just think now I realise how deeply I wish I had given the reading and writing side more time. Same goes for my daughter. So interesting she to can speak French and Spanish but doesn’t know enough Urdu. I’m happy this post helped remind you of the importance that we must do more to hold on to our heritage languages.
Thanks, Sumayya. From your post, I gathered that you do speak Urdu, but wish you'd given more time to reading and writing it. It’s both amazing and frustrating, as a mom, to see how quickly kids absorb foreign languages while struggling to connect with their own. Indeed, we must make a greater effort to hold on to our languages.
Khoda Hafez.