“I speak Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, and Arabic. I’m not that fluent in Arabic, but I’m learning it right now. With Hindi, I learned it during my time in India. I can read, write, and speak Hindi. With Gujarati, it just came because my family speaks Hindi and Gujarati at home. My mom’s side speaks Gujarati, my dad’s side speaks Urdu, and  I’m learning Arabic for my world language credit.

Hindi and Gujarati came over time. People around me, my mom’s side of the family, speak Gujarati, so I learned the language by just being around them. With Urdu and Hindi, it was pretty much the same thing. But with Arabic, I decided to learn it outside of school for my world language credits because it has a big significance in Islam, and I also think it’s a very unique language.

My dad doesn’t allow us to speak English at home. Even when I speak English, he tries to make us speak Hindi or Urdu. With Gujarati, sometimes my mom’s on call, I hear my family speaking Gujarati, and I understand what they’re saying. That helps me keep learning the language and making sure I don’t forget it. With Arabic, I go to my class Tuesdays and Saturdays, so it’s pretty much like learning Spanish at school.

Sometimes at school, words in Hindi or Gujarati just come out, and I realize people around me don’t know what that is. At home, since I grew up in Gujarat, my family has always mixed Urdu, Hindi, and Gujarati. Sometimes I don’t even know what language a word is from, but it just comes out. With Gujarati, it can be a little awkward because sometimes I mix it up with Hindi words, but my family is understanding and they get the context. With Arabic, it’s a struggle, but I try memorizing words and practicing for tests. Over time, my vocabulary expands, and I get better at it. Arabic is not my first language, and nobody in my family speaks it. To overcome it, I try to build my vocabulary and memorize words. It’s hard, but you have to push through. For Hindi, Urdu, and Gujarati, I learned them through my family, so whenever they talk in those languages, I just go with it to make sure I don’t forget. I really enjoy Urdu because the poetry in Urdu is beautiful. The words sound different, and the poetry has a strong impact when you listen to it. I think that’s my favorite language.

Knowing multiple languages is a flex, but it also helps me communicate with my family. My mom’s side only speaks Gujarati — they understand Hindi, but if I didn’t know Gujarati, I’d be sitting there clueless. Since I’m from India, it’s nice to know the national language Hindi, and also Urdu.

I think it’s a privilege to grow up around people who speak three different languages because you learn them at a young age. As you grow up and try to learn a new language, it’s a struggle. Learning languages is great, but it can be exhausting. The writing and reading are pretty easy because as Muslims, we grow up learning the letters. But the words, grammar, and everything else are really hard. Nonetheless, learning a new language is a great skill to have.”