{"id":15242,"date":"2025-07-30T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T09:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15242"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T09:04:11","slug":"i-think-in-english-but-i-pay-the-price-juggun-kazim-on-losing-touch-with-urdu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=15242","title":{"rendered":"I think in English, but I pay the price: Juggun Kazim on losing touch with Urdu"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Actor and television host Juggun Kazim recently opened up about her \u2018English-medium\u2019 upbringing, her inability to read Urdu, and the humbling lessons she learnt while working with Pakistan Television (PTV). Appearing on an episode of the Ahmed Fozan Podcast, Kazim candidly discussed the challenges of not learning one\u2019s national language.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have this problem where I think in English,\u201d she shared, admitting that it affects her ability to consume Urdu-language content. \u201cWhen I was young, everyone in my house only spoke English. My nanny was from Sri Lanka, so we conversed in English, and I studied at Lahore Grammar School, which was also an English-medium school.\u201d<br \/>\nCritiquing the obsession with English in private schools, Kazim recalled, \u201cWhen I was in school, we weren\u2019t allowed to speak any other language except during the Urdu period. I\u2019m glad that schools no longer enforce this \u2018English-only\u2019 rule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on her upbringing, Kazim said she often questions her mother\u2019s choices: \u201cI ask my mother, \u2018What gora complex did you have?\u2019 It comes from such a regressive mindset that I\u2019m living in my own country and yet can\u2019t read my mother tongue. Shame on me for that.\u201d<br \/>\nKazim credited her time at PTV for improving her Urdu and grounding her as a professional. \u201cWhen I returned from Canada, I was a bit of a snob and couldn\u2019t host Independence Day or Defence Day shows because those required fluent Urdu commentary,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n<p>She recalled her first boss at PTV warning her about the importance of the language: \u201cHe told me, \u2018You look down upon Urdu and this channel, but in the end, it will be Urdu that helps you.\u2019 He was right. I was professionally groomed during that time, and working with PTV truly grounded me.\u201d<br \/>\nThe morning show host stressed that being unable to speak or read one&#8217;s national language is nothing to take pride in. \u201cAll of this is really unfortunate. I\u2019ve suffered a lot because of it. Even today, I read my scripts in Roman Urdu because I can\u2019t read the actual script. It\u2019s sad, and I\u2019m not proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added that this shortcoming has affected her children as well. \u201cMy kids face the same issue. I try to make them read an Urdu storybook every night before bed, so I\u2019m still trying in that way.\u201d<br \/>\nKazim concluded with a message for parents across the country: \u201cI talk about this often because I want to urge parents not to send their children to English-only schools. It\u2019s wrong. Please make sure they receive an Urdu education\u00a0as\u00a0well.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actor and television host Juggun Kazim recently opened up about her \u2018English-medium\u2019 upbringing, her inability to read Urdu, and the humbling lessons she learnt while working with Pakistan Television (PTV). Appearing on an episode of the Ahmed Fozan Podcast, Kazim candidly discussed the challenges of not learning one\u2019s national language. \u201cI have this problem where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}