News Input by Kamal Prabhakar UK Head Hello Mumbai News
I’m Safrina
A mother to 2 beautiful girls
I have been married to my wonderful husband, for 17 years next month 🥰
I have Bsc and Msc in Economics
Plus a Post Grad teaching Qualification from University of London and City University
What can I say .. I love Education
What you do?
I am Creator/ Writer of SMILE (Speak My Indian Language Easily) 4 Kids Language school
I have created a Fun and Unique way to teach Spoken Panjabi, Hindi and Gujarati to children
What’s your Passion ?
To keep our mother tongue alive through our children
I want Parents and Children to LOVE their Mother Tongue
Food for thought ?
Roots are not the way we dress, food we eat , it’s the language we Speak
This is what truly defines and identifies us
What drives you ?
The fear that our Mother Tongue will be wiped out with this generation, if we don’t embrace it
Why You started your Business ?
I took 10 years out of Teaching , to have my 2 beautiful girls 5 And 9 years. We faced lots of struggles to start a family
Once I was ready to go back to work, I wanted to do something really meaningful in life.
My inspiration, is one late beloved Mother, my best friend in life
Children were her life and Children are my life .
20 years ago, she set up a daily prayer in our temple, Monday to Friday 10.30am to 12pm .. where ladies come and pray same time each day and then cook together
It was her way of bringing
community together, each day
She is still revered for this and it fills my heart with joy when it’s mentioned to me
How I started ?
2 years ago, I was struggling to teach my own girls,then 3 and 7 years, to Speak Panjabi
So I took them to my local Gurudwara, to learn Panjabi
I was super excited,as I love Education and Learning
Much to my dismay, teaching lacked Structure, no focus on Speaking ( my main aim ), Large groups of children and classes were 3 hours long !!
Most of all,there was no Fun element!
So I visited 2/3 other local temples and found it was the same issues, across the board.
Teaching Indian languages, was stuck in the dark ages
That’s when I decided that things had to change
I used my skills as a Teacher and a Mother and started creating Fun ways to teach my own children Panjabi
I used my own Songs, made my own flashcards and resources and my girls loved learning and grew in confidence, very quickly
So much so, that other parents started asking me to teach their children Panjabi
As word spread, I was asked to offer Hindi then Gujarati
Any profit I made initially, I re invested on hiring a music producer to create original songs,
Designers to create my flashcards and a new admin portal for my website to share resources with my students
It’s been an amazing 2 years and I have taught the most wonderful children🙏
I adapted to Lockdown last April, by offering Zoom classes
After much resistance to Zoom( being a tech dinosaur ),
One parents words changed my whole outlook
‘But the children really miss the classes’
This tugged at my heart strings and I sat for 4 weeks and re wrote / adapted my lessons to suit Zoom
It was the single best decision, that I have made!!!
I was teaching Live classes to 40 children locally before lock down last March and now have 515 students on Zoom .
Your biggest achievement?
Becoming a mum to 2 children, despite being told that it’s impossible by medics, astrologists etc ( Long story but happy ending
Your biggest challenge?
Balancing my passion to Teach Spoken Hindi, Panjabi and Gujarati and grow my language school, whilst nurturing my own children
One piece of advice for any new start ups?
In the words of my dear late Father ‘Money makes money’
Re invest money to double your business.
Don’t be afraid to spend money ( wisely ) to grow your business.
But do Make informed business decisions.
I’m excited for the next chapter!