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I’ll always speak in English!

The recent views in the local media in Fiji regarding proficiency in one’s mother tongue and learning a new language or languages have prompted me to share my language learning experiences.

Recalling my childhood school days, l attended a school that had an extremely rigid language policy; my mother tongue was despised in that institution. Speaking in my mother tongue meant losing my dignity and self-respect! A group of us were caught communicating with one another in our mother tongue in the school’s playground during a lunch break and the teacher on duty put us all on detention. We were made to run around the school’s playground for 30 minutes in the mid-day heat. We suffered very badly from extreme heat exhaustion and while doing our punishment we slowed down but the teacher kept on yelling, “You still have fifteen more minutes to go... run!

Run! Run! Fast! Fast! Fast! Don’t slow down! Keep running... keep running till l say STOP!”

My other friends at the school were also trapped in a similar situation, and by ‘desecrating the institution’s sacred language code’ they were made to scrub the school’s corridors, clean the toilets, dig the gardens, and some even had to wear a label around their necks throughout school hours with very large and bold printed message, “I’LL ALWAYS SPEAK IN ENGLISH!”

The school’s snobbish approach and rejection of my mother tongue generated a lot of anxiety in my small village community in Fiji. My parents too were deeply alarmed and so we were sent to another school.

I had five brothers and sisters and every morning we travelled daily by bus from our village to Lautoka Muslim Primary School, a multicultural school which had very effective language learning programmes during my time, where all languages were respected and treated equally.

My head teacher during that time was Mr Mohammed Ishaque, a very inspiring gentleman who was widely respected in the local community. I felt very proud going to that school; l was very happy and comfortable in my new school and l spent eight years there learning languages and other subjects, and was exposed to the community’s values and virtues of self- discipline, devotion to oneself, respect, civic pride, honesty, hard work, love, compassion, humility and success! The environment was very friendly and motivating and l gained proficiency in Hindi, Urdu, English, and Fijian. At home my parents played a vital role in my education, proficiency in languages and character building. We were exposed to a huge variety of reading materials in Hindi literature and other literacy materials in English and Urdu. By the age of ten l accumulated proficiency in my mother tongue and had read all my community’s literature. The local media in Fiji, which is, Radio Fiji, Fiji Times and Shanti Dut, also had an influential role in my communicative skills. My parents encouraged us to write for the local media too.

There was no shortage of jobs for me when l completed my primary and secondary education. l was approached by the principal of a prominent school in Lautoka to design a remedial reading programme in the school to promote literacy and proficiency in students who were slow learners and had great difficulty in reading, writing and were lacking in other communicative skills.

For me, learning is an ongoing continuous process in life; we learn and acquire new skills everyday and after completing my tertiary education l later enrolled in the adult learning class at University of the South Pacific and studied French and Japanese language too!

I have very liberal views about learning and acquiring proficiency in a new language. The nature and complexity of the human brain are such that we can learn new things at any stage in life. Effective learning and acquiring knowledge and skills in life depend on our own inner potentials too, our determination, and our perception about life. My day-to-day exposure to different social situations and interaction with diverse cultural groups in Fiji have given me a new and brighter perception about my immediate environment; a deep understanding of diverse groups and how their lives operate, their values, virtues, principles, social norms and love for humanity.

Shah Melbourne, VIC