ENGLISH: Our new mother tongue?

 

Before I say anything further, What do you call ‘Mobile’ in Hindi? To be honest, even I don’t know.

The Title of this write up may sound a bit offending to some, but I believe it’s becoming a fact for a large segment of our society. Tell me how many of us say ‘Namaste’ instead of ‘Hi’ when we meet our friends or loved ones?

What has forced me to write this,  is not one instance but a thousands of them which I have observed since childhood and felt ashamed to know that being Indians, we have started giving  a lot more credence to a language (English) other than our own mother tongue.

Forget about others, I am myself trying to teach my two-year old child (who loves to speak Hindi) to start conversing in English. This is out of desperation coz she was not really following what half the world around her was speaking about. On being asked ‘what’s your name?’, my daughter would smile and look at me with a mystifying expression as if ’ Mom! What exactly does that mean?’ And though she is trying hard to learn her second language, English but I know if someone still asks her “How are you?” her spontaneous answer always is ‘ Main thik hoon.” And then she corrects herself to say  “ I am fine”

Actually despite everyone’s repeated advice, I consciously taught her Hindi first. I had always thought my child must speak her first word or sentence in her mother tongue. And yes, like a brilliant girl as she is, she picked up this language beautifully. But then came the schools and our educational systems and the trouble  started.

Unfortunately, English has sub-consciously taken a superior place in our vocabulary and more significantly  in our minds. I remember my parents being so worried during my childhood that I did not speak fluent English and that they felt was a serious glitch. Did THEY feel it or the whole gang of relatives made them feel it; I have no clue.

I still can’t get over how a salesman spoke so disrespectfully to my mom only because she was trying to explain him what she required in Hindi. When I noticed that, only to teach him a lesson for his impudence, I had to use the right device - THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. I am sorry to say, but it worked. He apologized.

I really respect people by their character and content of they say. The dialect does not matter.  Language as dictionary defines it is 'Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.' And as long as one makes himself understood it serves the purpose.

People would argue that I am trying to criticize the global language. I am not. Let’s put it this way, had I been against this amazing language, I would not be writing this up in English. But yes, I want all of us to just take a minute and think that we have started shoving- off our own cultured language as if it’s a shame to speak in Hindi.  One must know English, as it is the most spoken language internationally, but please do not make the Hindi-speaking people left out of the crowd. Not following English is not a sin. One may not know it just like you may not know French or Japanese.