In a bid to reach greater heights in life, people have certain values they wish to attain. Over here, it’s a given that if you want to succeed in life then you’d better have a good grasp of the English language. However, as in all things that happen in this country, getting the shortcut to success is also the way to succeed when trying to learn English.

For many households it’s not that big a deal. English is the second language so it’s part of the domestic lingo. At times it’s the first language. But there are many others who want to enter this sphere of ‘success’. And so the only way for desperate parents is to send their children to so-called English-medium schools so that education there can help them get a grasp of the dominant language. They are also made to attend tooshan of the highest calibre. Many of these children are also placed in O- and A-levels sections, with the sole hope that they will not only learn English but also excel in their studies.

The problem that many of these well-intending parents don’t realise is that language is not forced onto someone, especially in our rote-learning system. It can be learnt properly only when the environment is conducive. Children spend only a limited time of their day with a teacher who helps them learn the base of the language. After that, the child is left to the rigours of life, which include Indian movies, songs and TV shows. Also, at home the family is conversing in either Urdu or other national languages such as Pashto, Sindhi, Punjabi, or Gujarati. Thought-processes, too, are made of these languages.

Another way of improving the language is by reading books or better newspapers. But even this little task seems too cumbersome. Parents will be willing to take their children out for fast food and pay thousands of rupees, but will hesitate when it comes to taking the kids to a book shop or a book fair. Newspapers are deemed a waste of money.

Providing the right environment for the children to learn something — the English language in this case — is the right way to go about it. Encouraging them to learn a language with the help of tools like various reading materials should be cheered.

And if they are more interested in watching TV or cinema, take them out to see English-language movies, instead of the stuff that we receive from across the border, which, though meant for adults, is actually deemed fit for family consumption in our part of the world. But that’s another story for another time.

Just sending the child off to the tuition centre to learn English thinking that you’ve done your duty as a responsible parent is quite irresponsible. Would you do the same with your business, hand it over to someone to run and not keep a check and balance of what exactly is going on? At the end of the day, it’s all about giving attention and creating the right environment. —Atifuddin Khan