The article opened my eyes vis-a-vis the use of English as the only option internationally. Following the example of Israel and the other countries we can definitely consider promoting local languages more strongly. However the author seems to be taking extreme views in some matters, notably the 'coolie' work of our IT industry. It is well known that China and South East Asian countries are also working hard to improve the English language skills of the local population so as to break the 'monopoly' of India with regard to the outsourcing industry. More pertinent would be to work on developing a manufacturing base for this industry in our contry, something where China is streets ahead of us. Coming to the topic I would like to offer some comments. Promoting all the local languagees for all official work involves a huge amount of cost. It is doubtful whether a poor country like ours can afford that. Instead it may be more pragmatic to raise the English knowledge of people at least to basic levels, in addition to the local language. If somebody is interested in learning more, he or she is free to do so. Another problem in going for local languages in India is that it will inevitably bring forth the Hindi-vs-other-languages debate. Witness the latest efforts by the Central Government to promote Hindi. This defies logic. However, the issue needs to be resolved at the earliest.
The author claims that European union uses its own language rather than a common language. I guess that is ok because each European country is also an independent state unlike India. We have 29 states and the only common language that hold us together as a country is at present English. We cannot have one Indian language as a common language because there is a problem called EGO. Every state ( I guess unfortunately we divided them on linguistic basis when we got independence)thinks their language is superior to others and we cannot blame anyone for that. No one wants a particular language to be imposed by others on them. A bilingual (mother tongue and and an international language) approach in schools and colleges may be a good idea because the future is dealing successfully with an even expanding global market.
Its a colonial mind set.I thought this english obsession was a south indian phenomena but I saw it was punjabi,marathi bengali assame,well all over india.No russian,geman,dutch and of allFrench speak english but still are much more better than our IT sector who 80% of them cater to low end IT solutions of large Department stores in Europe USA.India should think ahead and include our so called vernacular(look up a dictionary for its derogatory meaning)public.
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.
