quick, think back to when you were small and misbehaving in public…how did your parents react? don’t even try to front like they reprimanded you in english– you know they busted out with the mother tongue for one brutal yet discreet verbal smackdown. that is one small privilege of being “different” in this western world; you may snark about others and they’ll be none the wiser, since the odds of someone understanding your native tongue are totally in your favor.

well, say you’re one of the 308 members of the Canadian House of Commons, and you want to vent about some MP who’s REALLY getting on your last Canadian nerve, but you want to preserve your chances for re-election. have no fear! curse them out in PUNJABI! those damned sons-of-owls!

TEN South Asian Canadians have won recent parliamentary elections, and of that number, eight speak Punjabi, making it the fourth most popular language that is spoken by MPs. basically, this article details how MPs speak english (no, really?), french (ditto), italian (no witty parenthetical remark for this one) and now Punjabi (kiddan?). i think i was just excited that our neighbors to the north are cool enough to have brown legislators in the DOUBLE-DIGITS. now if you’ll excuse me, i’m going to go make a jack-ass out of myself to some Malkit Singh while i fantasize about ONE brown person in congress. oh balle balle!

via Livin’ Simply