Today, I came across a random celebrity personality on social media speaking English with a good accent, despite being a non-native English speaker. As I scrolled through the comment section, I encountered some negative comments. Everyone criticized her for supposedly faking her accent. I couldn’t comprehend what’s wrong with attempting to speak English like native speakers. Is this a serious issue to receive that much hatred? what a sick-mindset, I thought!
We usually admire skills from people that we lack. I puzzled, why can’t people just admire their accent as a skill? Is speaking English like natives such a bad thing that it shouldn’t be considered a skill to be admired? I don’t understand their point of view. But I respect others perspectives and agree that not everyone has similar perspectives. There are still some people like me who admire the English accent of non-native speakers amidst others trolling them for speaking English with an accent. How strange the world is!
Suddenly, I recollected some of my childhood behaviours reflecting the same issue during school days. In school, collectively, we made the same mistake unknowingly. If any of our classmates excelled beyond the rest of us, then maintaining a healthy distance from them was a common habit. Also, If anyone outshone the rest in something peculiar, we’d make fun of them with our close friends. If anyone was the teacher’s favorite, then we’d despise them. Likewise, collectively, we were molded in all the wrong shapes unknowingly. So, this behavior of despising someone for being out of the norm is ingrained within us even without our concern. But now, it’s time to weed it out from our thoughts. Because we are parents now. All our wrong perspectives, attitude, way of looking at things are going to cost us much, as it’s going to influence our kids.
As parents ourselves, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our children do not make fun of their classmates for being extraordinary or indifferent. So, next time you notice your kid despising or trolling their classmates for being super talented or indifferent in something, teach them to learn from them instead of making fun of them. Tell your kid, “If you can’t do what they excel at, it’s shameful to make fun of them. It’s like making fun of your own inability. So avoid it like you avoid creepy worms and deadly snakes”
Raising extraordinary personalities doesn’t require any extraordinary things to be taught. It starts with teaching simple mindset etiquettes, just like teaching table etiquettes. All it takes are these small behavioral changes that we have to teach to help them grow into better personalities. Little by little, making small changes in a child’s perspective is like joining the little pieces of jigsaw puzzles that are going to make a good picture of their personalities.
So, let’s teach what’s good and bad by observing and identifying the wrong perspectives and notions we have cultivated throughout our life. Lets make the world a better place where talents and uniqueness are appreciated by raising our kids as an admirer. Let’s raise an admirer in the world full of despisers!
Happy parenting!