Technology is changing very fast and traslation takes long time. Also, Since lot of people who work in advanced technologies needs to have access to latest technologies to be competetive. Private industry will continue to use English language so that it will atrract the best talents from all the states and they dont want provide translotors for the employees those came from diff states. So people who studied in local languages primarily serve the local economy. People who want opportunities in outside state have to learn English skills.
We need more people studying geography, history, public administration, sociology, civics, marketing, journalism, communications, other arts subjects, etc in local languages so that they can interact with the local society better. If local administration uses native language for its day to day use and all computer web sites use local language extensively, job opportunities for people who study in native medium will improve. We need to maintain this delicate balance. Students who study in native language medium, who want to study Math/Sciences in native medium should learn all the technical terms in English. So that it would be easy for them to communicate with people from other states. They can manage with limited English skills.
Re: Math and sciences in English. other subjects in local languag
by Shankar D on Jun 27, 2014 09:29 PM
Agree, but with some modification -- math and sciences in English medium from 5th or 6th grade on. Previous initiatives have failed because of rigid posture of the language soldiers. They should learn to compromise for the sake of moving forward.
Re: Re: Math and sciences in English. other subjects in local lan
by Ram Online on Jun 27, 2014 10:14 PM
Our challenge is Local people continue to use local language. we need to serve them. We want local people to continue to use local language. We want encourage who study in local language. Its easy for a student to study in local language. Studnet can apply what he studied in class to his/her local environment. Global opportunities will be available for English. We need to prepare students for opportunities and to work with out of state work force and global work force. How do we take care of this issue. We should continue to allow students to pick and choose their medium of instruction. We should give remedial courses if anybody want to switch from native medium to English in later stages of their schooling. No matter what the language of instruction, every student should learn local/native language and English Language. Native language students can have additional English optional courses. English language students can have additional native/local language optional cources.
Re: Re: Math and sciences in English. other subjects in local lan
by Indraneel Mandal on Jun 29, 2014 10:46 AM
I would disagree with this notion of English only from the fifth or sixth. This has been done in West Bengal during the rule of the Left Front, and it has failed miserably. It has created a generation of young people who have very low confidence in their English language skills and naturally suffer professionally for it. I would recommend an all-or-none approach, i.e., either have English classes along with those of the mother tongue right from the beginning (to me this appears the more realistic choice, considering the current scenario), or do away with it altogether. A 50-50 approach will help nobody.
All this hue and cry points out to imposition of Hindi . So according to author if all languages are learnt professionally and we take out English from India how will we communicate with each other. How will a Marathi communicate with gujju? Again you want a link language which probably you will make it Hindi. And then there will becall of unity of iIndia and having a one language policy which will then be called as Hindi by Hindi fanatics. !
Re: internal promotion
by SamirPalsuledesai on Jun 27, 2014 11:30 PM
In India, Local languages are simply crushed. Even on this discussion board of Rediff Dot Com also, posting Unicode message in Hindi or local language is NOT ALLOWED !!! Communication turnover in India is not as high as that of Europe. That's why possibility of persons --- using one local language --- coming together on one single discussion board is very low. Local language discussion boards reduce down to rarefied atmosphere…
China , Belgium are still bounded by similar culture. Here in India as author itself put it has 29 different cultures and as much diversity. Your second phase that English language did not bring progress. Wrong. You can see much progress all across India where English is learnt and keeping their Indian languages intact. The most woefully backward regions on all parameters is the Hindi belt which has just Hindi instead of 3 language formula. This inspite centre spending eons of tax payers money To promote Hindi !!
This will create an upper hand for the people of Hindi speaking areas over others. If the Govt. really wants to do away with English, they should ban all English Medium Schools where the children of Ministers and Bureaucrats and senior Officers of Corporates. Can they do it ? It is easier said than done. Mulayam Singh gave education to his son in English medium School and was making a hue and cry to use only Hindi. English is the main ladder for getting employment all over. Let these Ministers, Bureaucrats and CEOs set an example by putting their children in Hindi medium Schools and advice others to follow.
The article makes basic sense:Indians must not neglect their own languages. The question is: can they become medium of instruction in all the subjects? In Philosophy, history-may be yes,because of the Sanskrit base.But in other ,modern subjects? Latest fields? . We sure have to distinguish between leaning English , and learning through English medium. We studied in Tamil medium up to SSLC in the 50s.But when it came to science,many original words were retained. And some times whole sentences. One sample:'High frequency alternating current in a wire sends out radio waves in the surrounding space" Let Mr. Sanu translate this now and let's see what sense it makes. Today, Indian languages cannot be used as medium of instruction in even social sciences, leave alone hard sciences.Unless the original jargon and special expressions are retained, and the whole effort Sanskritised. this will end almost in transliteration.I remember Gujarati doctors used to write out their prescription of English medicines in Gujarati letters it worked. But it was English through Gujarati letters, not Gujarati! This is a difficult subject. As a challenge, let Mr.Sanu take up a book of Feynman or Keynes's General Theory and produce his translation in any Indian language of his choice. We are caught in a historical situation,there is no easy way out. We need not fear Macaulay. We can write better English and hoist him with his own petard, as shown by Vivekananda,Dr.Radhakrishnan,Sri Aurobindo, Tagor
It is a common fact that the man on the street remains more pragmatic than self obsessed intellectuals. Why does even the lowliest of labourer, though affectionate towards his language, sends his kid to an English medium school and swells with pride when the kid speaks or writes a few words? Deep inside he understands that the highest ideals, greatest ideas and the noblest values that permeated across the rigid borders of culture, religion & language and liberated millions like him from the clutches of a forced past had been in English.
