Originally posted by: krystal_watz
And its not just the question of "disrespect" towards our native tongues. With the growing propensity of English-medium schools and the overwhelming projection of English being "kewwwler" than indigenous languages in the popular media, the latter are in the danger of getting wiped off the face of the Earth. Already more than 600 languages are declared extinct.
Nobody's objecting to the use of English anywhere, we all converse in English over the Net in international forums like IF. But giving it precedence over your native tongue (unless you've been brought up abroad) sets a bad model to follow.
There may be a slice of population that thinks English is cooler.
Many native speakers prefer English not because English is cooler or their native tongue is not good enough, but simply because it is more convenient. Many native speakers who use English as a first language do still have fluency and pride in their native language or languages. Even abroad native language communities are vibrant and active.
Take a native language speaking child in Bombay. They go to English medium school. They have mandatory Hindi and Marathi. The native parents speak to their child in the native language but they simply cannot teach their children to read and write in their native language. Many native language speakers in Bombay even from my grandparents generation know only to speak their native language, not to read or write it. The numbers have increased each day.
English is not the only rival to the native language that is dying out. Hindi and state languages are cannibalizing on indigenous languages too. Maharashtra has aggressively pushed Marathi over native languages. The Thackeray era saw violence against people who refused to embrace Marathi with equity. Since Maharashtra was given reins for the Goa state board, Maharashtra eliminated Konkani education and replaced it with Marathi. Thackeray viewed Goa as an extension of Malwan and not culturally, linguistically or socially separate or distinct from Marathi. Maharashtra strongly influences Belgaum a border town in Karnataka which used to be Kannadiga a while back. To many Goan Konkanis and border Kannadigas - Marathi is the evil that is cannibalizing native language and causing it to die.
If we want to preserve native language in written form then, it is not English we need to attack. We need a different solution
- End mandatory Hindi and State language education
- Allow families to choose second and third language options
- Find ways to incorporate more native language options into curriculum because families don't have the time to formally educate their children to read and write
It is virtually impossible because the push back in the day to make Hindi a national language made states even more aggressive with their language and ultimately smaller native dialects and people of diaspora paid the price. English is not the villain really. English actually rose to prominence because of this linguistic conflict.
Udne Ki Aasha
Hollywood
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