English vs the mother tongue

“Mom, can you please buy me that G.I Joe toy?? Mom, please! Says a five-year-old boy to this mother. “No, beta. Not right now. I’ll buy it for you some other time,” says the mother to her son in the toy store of a mall and the conversation continues.

You walk into any store, mall or toyshop; this is the conversation that will normally greet you. Even when you walk down roads or streets, you will get to hear similar conversations. This conversation sounds perfectly normal, except for the fact that the parent is conversing with their child in English and not in their mother tongue.

Indian parents, nowadays, prefer to teach their children English rather than their mother tongue. In fact, the parents also prefer to speak to their children in English in their homes rather than in their mother tongues.

Soma Dutta, a housewife and the mother of a 6-year-old girl said, “I started talking to my daughter in English when she was one-year-old and now we only talk with her in English all the time. We decided to do this mainly because nowadays English is essential for studies as well as for jobs. If a person doesn’t know English properly then they won’t be able to get a good job and will fall behind others.” She added, “Besides if my child doesn’t know how to speak English properly, what will people think about us.”

In this respect, Soma Dutta is not the only one. There are many parents, like Soma who fear that if their children can’t speak English properly then they would not be considered as educated people. They also fear that if they don’t talk to their son or daughter in English in public then they wouldn’t be considered as ‘hep’ people too.

On the subject of the child learning their respective mother tongue, Soma Dutta said, “Milly [her daughter] can always learn bengali later. For now, she needs to know English so that she will not fall behind other children.”

This trend, however, is having adverse effects on some of the languages of India. There are many languages in India, like Konkani, Sanketi etc. that do not have a script of their own and are solely dependant on the speakers to carry it forward. Hence, when the children do not learn these script less languages, who will carry these languages forward to the next generation? These languages just might die out. It is not only the script-less languages, but also other Indian languages that are in danger of dying out. For instance, women invented the ancient Chinese language Nushu, so that they could have their own private linguistic space in a male-dominated chauvinistic China. Now, this particular language is on the verge of dying out as a 95-year-old may be the last alive in this world to know Nushu.

Ms. Neureen Aziz, English Proffessor of Jyoti Nivas College, Bangalore, said, “Parents emphasize more on the English language because they fear that if children do not know English then people would think that they illiterate. This particular way of thinking will definitely have adverse effects on mother tongues. Many of the languages just might die out. Another reason why this trend is growing is because of the growing number of nuclear families. Children do not have their grandparents around or any of their relatives from whom they can learn their mother tongue. Earlier, even if the parents would speak to their children in English, they would pick up their mother tongue from their grandparents and relatives.”

She also added, “What the parents don’t understand is that children in their infancy are like sponges. They can absorb anything even languages like a sponge. You don’t have to sit and teach languages to the children, they can easily learn the language by spending time with the person and listening to that person speak. It is for this reason that when a child spends a lot of time with neighbours who speak a different language, he or she easily picks it up.”

Ms. Neureen added that parents should just not teach their child English. They should teach them their respective mother tongue too. She also suggested that the Indian education system should start making it compulsory for students to learn and read writings in Indian literature, especially in the graduation level. She added that this would help to increase the awareness among the youth and also will help to preserve the language.

Anushree Ulpe, a 15-year-old student of Cambridge Public Bangalore, who has grown up speaking English at home said, “Its not that I don’t know my mother tongue. I just don’t have enough practice. I used to speak Konkani when my grand parents were around, but when they moved out, I lost touch with it.” on the subject of Konkani dying out, she said, “I am sure it will not die out. I know the language; I am not just fluent with it. When it is necessary I can speak in Konkani.”Anushree also said, “English is definitely more important to me. As it is I don’t speak to many of my relatives so I don’t need to know Konkani that much.”