English in India
Necessary evil. This is what I can say about the present day English education for school students. Yeah, you may find the word ‘evil’ a bit too much. But the colonial invasion and the real reason the language was imposed on us, ‘evil’ isn’t too much.
Table of Contents
Strength in ‘Papers’
Almost all the textbooks for higher education are being printed in the ‘universal language’. Documentations are also no different. We built an ecosystem that is so much in the language that it became almost impossible to do higher education without it. When even the smaller linguistic populations are making their own technical scripts, we are still stuck in the aura of English.
Only Necessary Importance be There
Even under these circumstances, I don’t think teaching the language should be given any importance beyond its necessity. Especially since our younger population are capable of migrating to non-English speaking European countries and survive among other linguistic communities. So, learning language from childhood isn’t necessary to settle in a place where people use an alien language.
Still, we can’t Speak English Properly
Just for argument’s sake, even if I agree with any of the claims against, the amount of offline and online English speaking courses tells us a different story. The popularity of these institutions in the country, especially in the state, is telling that the English we have is not enough.
‘Seriously!’ may be your expression after seeing the above statement. Let me make it clear. Even after studying the language for a full 19 years, keeping almost all the textbooks in English medium and too much English around us, if you are not qualified to work in an English-speaking country, it is bad. You are definitely fumbling somewhere.
The Approach Need a Revival
I think the problem lies in the approach. We have a society who sees the language as a subject more than a language. They just want some checklist to be ticked off of which speaking the language is not one and, ‘when someone tries to speak, perfect language should be there’ is one.
So, see the language as a necessity. Along with that, consider communication as the major function of a language, especially since artificial intelligence is growing stronger. Since the language is so rooted in ‘papers’, we can’t ignore it as such. Think and proceed.
