Actress Linda Mtoba has joined many other young parents who prioritise ensuring their children primarily learn to speak in their home languages, and she's taken to social media to slam anyone who wants to imply her daughter Bean should be treated differently.

The mommy of one-year-old Bean asked people to stop referring to her speaking to her child in isiZulu or isiXhosa as her “teaching” Bean the languages because both vernacular languages are part of her identity.

“People often refer to me speaking to my child in isiZulu or isiXhosa (my language/home language) as 'teaching her', as if it’s not who she is too,” she said.

Linda said while she understood that communicating with Bean in isiZulu or isiXhosa was in fact her teaching her daughter the languages, she despised the undertone she detected from  commentators who implied it is out of the ordinary for her and Bean because Bean's father is white.

She also slammed the people who often flood her Instagram stories  — in which she speaks to Bean in vernac — with the unwelcome “Does she understand you?” question.

“In as much as efunda yes, but when you speak to your child in isiZulu or any vernac it is not 'teaching', it’s a means of communication (niyakhuluma), not out of the ordinary, it’s the same with me and us.”

Linda made it clear it was important that her daughter not understands but becomes  fluent in her mother's and her father's languages.

The actress slammed people who insist on their children only learning English while they were not as eloquent in their native languages. She said she even went as far as telling people not to talk to Bean in English when it was applicable.

“One thing I’ve made sure of is my child speaking and understanding her language.

“Each to his own yes, but I don't want this thing of only communicating with a child in English,” Linda said.