Learn English by all means but learn it well. It will not make you any superior but it will give you confidence. Do not forget, however, the most industrious, creative, proud and progressive people have studied in their mother tongue. Look around, they are Germans,French, Japanese, Chinese and Scandinavians. In spite of an envious life style of well spoken Indian English speakers, just ask yourself how many of them can fix a flat tire in their car or lay a brick to build their house. Also ask yourself, how many of these learned Gentlemen won an award for their creativity or originality. Any Noble prizes for India won by them? Learning a new language is growth as a person. But it is not the means to an end. That will have to be your competence through hard work in what you are doing.
made mandatory national language has killed English. In North India, many educated people just can't articulate well in English. Just atrocious. Pretty soon, the Chinese will be speaking in grammatically correct English than many Indians. Get rid of Hindi, things will be better.
Re: Hindi
by r murali on Dec 17, 2013 01:02 PM
Hindi has not only killed English, it has also killed native languages like Marathi, Tulu, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and languages of the Hindi belt like Bhojpuri, Maithili etc.
Re: Re: Hindi
by saurabh tiwari on Dec 22, 2013 01:48 PM
How ignorant can people be!! Hindi is the mother tongue of the majority of people of some north Indian states. How can you even suggest getting rid of one's mother tongue? Would you get rid of other languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi etc to become fluent in English? And last when I checked, Hindi is not our national language! Any person is unable to speak any language for one simple reason. There are no oral exams for testing knowledge of language in our schools. Students get away by writing in that language in the paper. So the confidence to speak and think in the language never builds up.
Re: Hindi
by dinesh jain on Jan 08, 2014 10:48 PM
Correction.. Constitution of India does not have a National Language. It recognizes 22 languages as official. Hindi being one of them. And spoken by larger population.
Re: Hindi
by lax yopr on Jan 08, 2014 10:59 PM
Hindi is the only language spoken & understood across North India & parts of South. All Northees consider Hindi to be their language even though they have their own mothertongue, whereas Southies (not all) hate Hindi for some weird reason.
No body is forcing Hindi on anyone.... its just where we are headed.
Re: Hindi
by prince saha on Jan 11, 2015 02:30 PM
dude i am a northie and i am living in bangalore for 10 years now. No offense but even people from the south don't know to speak English properly. My colleagues in office have a hard time communicating with people in onshore and he's a kannadiga so please dont discriminate like that. And coming to Chennai the way they talk, firstly they have so many grammatical mistakes as I was in Chennai for a year as well and the people from South have such a weird tone that countries in the US have a typical stereotype for us . Its all because of this waay of speaking.
One fact - many American students (specially the products of American public schools) cannot write proper English. Even in England there are plenty of students who do not know proper grammar. So this happening in India is not surprising. However the argument that education should be parcelled out in mother tongue is not strong and is seriously questionable. In a global world there is no path to success other than learning English very well. Even the French have made English compulsory in schools. Thousands of students from Arab countries now come to India to learn English with low costs. Please learn English properly otherwise in this global world you will have no chance.
Re: Many Americans cannot write proper English
by Pat Thakur on Dec 16, 2013 11:04 PM
With things like rediff around, well..... English can only become Englis in India.
India must opt for good governance and eliminate corruption to generate employment opportunities within the country. The nation is in the hands of real estate brokers and road contractors and there is no possibility of greater opportunities with in the country. The local politicians who kept one generation as illiterates are obstacles in keeping options open for job opportunities in India and abroad.
Re: Spoken English with mother tongue education
by alok on Dec 14, 2013 12:28 PM
I agree with u in toto. We can speak anything on this subject but fact is that perfection in spoken and written English cannot be achieved by a short cut i.e. a crash course or like...these institute can give u crude knowledge but good knowledge of grammar,vocabulary, phrases, appropriate usage of words, fluency, self confidence and riddance from shyness, fear of getting mocked or people making fun if something wrong is spoken or written and constant practice are the only ways to increase the ability and perfection.
Re: Spoken English with mother tongue education
by alok on Dec 14, 2013 12:28 PM
I agree with u in toto. We can speak anything on this subject but fact is that perfection in spoken and written English cannot be achieved by a short cut i.e. a crash course or like...these institute can give u crude knowledge but good knowledge of grammar,vocabulary, phrases, appropriate usage of words, fluency, self confidence and riddance from shyness, fear of getting mocked or people making fun if something wrong is spoken or written and constant practice are the only ways to increase the ability and perfection.
From my personal experience, i can say that it is never to late to learn a new language. I was frustrated as I could not get a job at any decent company. So, i took it up on me to hone my English speaking skills. Internet helped me a lot to improve my English. There are a number of online spoken English programs that one can join to get a grip of the language. Talk English, British Council and eAgeTutor are the few online tutors that provide practical online programs to improve spoken English. I went through their demos and could actually relate to them. The decision is yours, to take a step or to curse the Britishers of imposing English on us. Better luck with your learning.
I believe with practice and right kind of tutor one can improve his/her spoken English. In my school, our teachers never made it mandatory for us to speak in English and that is one of the reasons why most of us cannot converse in the language fluently. I guess, its time to change the way education is imparted in our country. A more practical approach is a progressive way to go ahead!
Re: Improving English needs practice...
by Alpasankhiknirodhi Rao on Dec 16, 2013 04:07 PM
A good way to improve your spoken English is by watching English serials on TV.
These serials are shown with sub titles which makes it easy to listen to the way English is supposed to be spoken while you read the words on the screen!
It is a little difficult at first but with time and practice, it is easy to follow this exercise.
Many online dictionaries host the sound bytes of the correct pronunciation of the words whose meaning you are looking for.
When in doubt, you can use this feature!
If it makes people who feel they don't speak English correctly, take comfort in the fact many English newscasters on India's third rate English news channels cannot pronounce many simple English words correctly either!
Even these Advance English speakers speak English by pronouncing words as they are written thereby making a mockery of their correct pronunciations!
It is needless to say that most of these Indian English newscasters are North Indians who should not open their mouths at all much less try to speak in English!
first of all we all know we love our indian languages much. But any form of spoken english is a must for all indians. It needs not be queens english . It does not matter it is not an indian language. Also learning english is not slavery to british (same as learning hindi is not slavery to hindipeople !! ) , as most new generation indians are born after 1947 and hardly have any british colonial hangover . If we need to develop learn english. Even chines now have realised this very late and we have a head start on them on this front.
