Dashkevich told how he raises his children to be Belarusian-speaking
Former political prisoner and leader of "Malady Front" Zmitser Dashkevich, in a TOK episode , explained his firm stance on raising children in the Belarusian language and the rules followed in his family.
The Dashkevich family. Photo: zmitser_dashkevich / Instagram
According to Dashkevich, even in Belarus, where he and his wife tried to create a completely Belarusian-speaking environment for their children, "it was good if the Belarusian language occupied half of a child's life." As Zmitser recalls, his children didn't know Russian until they went to a Belarusian-speaking school.
«A Belarusian-speaking school — whether in Belarus or here — everyone speaks Russian. And among Belarusian parents who send their children to a Belarusian-speaking school, many (I won't say all, but unfortunately, many) don't have the brains to even put on a cartoon for their child in Belarusian, to read a fairy tale in Belarusian, and so on,» Dashkevich sadly notes, recalling his own children's experience.
While in his son David's study group there were friends from five Belarusian-speaking families who "ground down" all the Russian speakers, his daughter Mara's situation was different. She was the only Belarusian speaker in her group, and it was very difficult for her: the child constantly switched to Russian. The teacher noticed improvement only after holidays, when the girl had been home with relatives, because outside the home "everything is in Russian."
Dashkevich notes that many Belarusian-speaking families do not give proper attention to the language:
«They put on a cartoon in Russian, grandma took them somewhere — raises them in Russian. And a child grows up in a Belarusian-speaking family, but goes to a Belarusian-speaking institution and speaks Russian with a Belarusian-speaking teacher.»
Zmitser emphasizes that this is everyone's problem: even among representatives of the Belarusian elite, writers, and cultural figures — how to preserve the Belarusian identity of children.
Zmitser Dashkevich. Photo: Nasha Niva
«Here's all the radicalism for you. And it's a tragedy. (...) Therefore, in this world — in Belarus, and perhaps now in exile in many countries where there is no Belarusian identity — this is a daily struggle for Belarusianness.
In Belarus, we always fought and are now fighting to remain Christians, to remain Belarusian-speaking.
This is a daily struggle. You can't just snap your fingers — and that's it, we are Belarusian-speaking here. No. If you don't fight for faith and for language, this world will devour you. You will be destroyed. And for me, it's better not to live than to agree with the thought that my children will be destroyed by this world. What did I live for?» he argues.
Dashkevich declares that he is ready to sacrifice everything and give up everything to fulfill his main task — to pass on faith and language to his children:
«I will dedicate all my strength to this. And I renounce everything to dedicate myself to this main task: for my children to hold on to Jesus Christ and to their native language. And they will be better than me, and they will do what I could not do, and they will do more.»
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