You Are Your Language

If you are reading this you have studied enough English to break into an international network and get in touch with millions who use the same language and the meanings that lie hidden in it. By the time you finish high-school you will be part of a world population that functions smoothly and painlessly in English, the power-language of the world. You will read about, listen to, and absorb global events and trends through this language. You will certainly use it at work ; you will grow because of it.

But there is something you need to remember before it is too late; and for you, (assuming you are about ten or 12 or even 15 years old) it is not too late as it is for people of an older generation. And that something is the following truth: in many ways English will set you apart in your own country. You might get down from a train or bus in rural India and feel completely out of place because you do not know the local language. Yet you can arrive in a foreign country where the signboards are all in English (or also in English) and experience no difficulty at all. Isn’t that strange? Do you think there is something wrong in this or is it all right according to you ?

Some people laugh at those who do not know how to speak or write correct English. Actually it is not shameful to not know English. It is a visitor-language to India which we invited into our classrooms and absorbed after our encounter with Europe showed us the necessity of communicating with the rest of the world.

English in India is only a few hundred years old. But our Indian languages are thousands of years old and have a rich and complex tradition locked up in them. What would be really sad is if you forgot your own language and could not speak or read it. If you let that happen it would be like breaking down or neglecting our wonderful monuments. Can the value of those buildings be calculated ? Your language is like the Taj Mahal. If you lose your grip on your mother-tongue you might even take it that you put a part of yourself somewhere and forgot exactly where! Because language is exactly that ...it is a person’s identity.

Ours is the only country in the world that has five language families. Imagine that! Each of the 22 recognised languages of Indian origin belongs to one of these language families. As does your language. If you are good at surfing the net, find out to which ancient family your language belongs.

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