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Speaking in tongues
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CULTURE Why do we prefer to speak in English, pushing our own language to the background, NEETI SARKARasks on Mother Tongue Day
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Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
In touch Mother tongue is a way of preserving one’s roots
Today is Mother Tongue Day and we do a check on the importance given by youngsters in the city to their mother tongue. Although a whopping majority of teenagers think that knowing one’s mother tongue is vital, most confess that they don’t
converse in their mother tongue.
Ishan Verma, a business management student says: “I know my mother tongue but speak in the language only at home. This is mainly because this isn’t my hometown, so there aren’t many people I can converse with in my language.”
Medical student Hemanth Balakrishnan has no qualms about communicating in his mother tongue. Unfortunately, these youngsters are a part of the small minority that is all out to keep one’s mother tongue current.
There are others like 19-year-old student Ritesh Pereira who while acknowledging the importance of knowing one’s mother tongue, does not know any other language apart from English! Considering we study in English-medium schools and live in a cosmopolitan set up, do youngsters today think it is “uncool” to talk in their mother tongue?
Says Deepthi Desai, a fine arts student: “It’s not that I am ashamed of identifying with my native place or speaking in my mother tongue. It’s just that English is a universal language. One doesn’t become cool if he uses words like catharsis or anthropology!”
Out of place
With Bangalore being the hottest destination for students from across the country, does the trend give rise to situations wherein newcomers feel left out when others in the group are conversing in the local language?
Jibin Jose, a student of law says: “I feel left out sometimes as I am a non- local. However, when I meet somebody else from my place in a similar situation, mother tongue is the common factor that forms the basis of a new friendship.” Leading to more isolation!
However, Gurpreet Singh, a sound engineer begs to differ. “I have been living in this city for over six years now and there was never a time when I felt left out.”
Linguist and principal of a well-known school, Santosh Kanavalli expresses his disappointment over the undermining of one’s mother tongue, that too in a culturally and linguistically diverse land like India.
He comments: “English has come to be the lingua franca. Most youngsters in the city do not recognise the necessity of knowing one’s mother tongue. Ultimately, although English is the universal language, it does not serve as a passport, especially in organisations and professions that require one to know the local language.” Ask him who is to be blamed for this state of affairs and he feels that the problem often lies with parents who don’t make the effort to teach their child the language.
Psychologist Krupa Nayak feels that “for all practical purposes people give more importance to speaking in English than in one’s mother tongue”.
She goes on to give the example of “cross cultural marriages wherein it is more convenient to communicate in English than in two different regional languages”. According to her, “It is this phase during which a teenager has identity problems and makes desperate efforts to impress his peers. Speaking only in English and not in one’s own mother tongue is a way of exhibiting superiority.”
“Preservation of one’s roots is of extreme importance. If one cannot take pride in speaking his mother tongue, a part of his identity is already lost,” opines Malathy V.R. a sociology lecturer. Nobody is expected to abandon English and speak only in one’s mother tongue. But by equating the use of English with modernism and progress, we have demoted the importance of learning one’s mother tongue.
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