Last September, on World Translation Day, I was invited to a Web discussion on language transfers. No one on the panel was below the age of 50, and there was not a single argument. Only agreements on the value of language, and the notional loss when literature is not shared by linguists.
A topic not discussed was the training of future wordsmiths. There appears to be plans for every kind of skill except writing. It left me worried about the fate of emotions left unexpressed and the gradual erosion of the skill humans have for imaginative thinking and the power of expression.
It need not all culminate in saleable or readable literature (bilingual crossovers or otherwise), but what about mankind’s voyage of feeling, thinking and articulation? Where are we storing experiences of things that cannot be photographed and uploaded for the world to see and hear?
School time
Are we doing enough in our schools where the foundations of language skills and confidence are developed? Are students being encouraged to write clearly and simply, paying attention to their own thoughts and emotions and the world around them? Reading and writing form the taproot of the Humanities, which help the student develop the capacity to analyse and absorb the history and sociology of mankind through the medium of language. Not so long ago, a certain prestige attended those who wrote or spoke well. But today, our technology-oriented education driven by a market economy, which ignores the overall development of the personality of its trainees, has led to a decline in interest in not just literature but also in any kind of quality creative writing among the young.
Why is language not seen as something that empowers a person’s confidence, personality and even character? Can an inarticulate man or woman be confident? It has all shrunk to the preparation of reports or PowerPoint compilations. Any corporate group will, if pressed, admit that very few of its department heads can write 300 words in half an hour articulating a point of view on a subject not connected with their work.
Is it because these persons have not informed themselves or thought things through or because they are unable to express their opinions? Surely everyone has views of their own! Perhaps, their training neglected their own powers of imaginative and assimilative thinking.
Why? Probably because some years ago, there began a strong shift towards teaching only the most immediately applicable skills that promised quick benefits (employment). These courses failed to address what happens to the trainee when she is abruptly shown the door — not because of poor performance but because the economy throws the employer out of business. The ability to improvise or walk alternative paths are shut off because the trainee is incapable of anything other than what she is trained to do and think. In short, language training did not receive any attention.
What many undergraduates do not know is how valuable a close attention to language skills and wide reading can turn out to be. That reward — a lifelong engagement with ideas — brings with it the ability to think and write clearly and feel passionately about anything at all, leave alone something greater than the self.
The sort of growth which helps the young person to adapt to unpredictable changes can only be developed from within and cannot be conferred like a degree. Though reading the literature of our country alone cannot bring about a sudden social change, it can illuminate aspects of our times and help the reader mature as a moral person capable of quiet reflection.
minioup@gmail.com
