We insanely teased Monica when she said this years ago in Bangalore. This was her response to my question ‘Why dont you learn Kannada (local language in Bangalore)?’ . I was genuinely amused at her statement and classified it as ‘angrez’ snob statement.
We all grow up, dont we? After so many years, her statement doesnt amuse me any more but infact seems like a prophesy to me. I took up a job in Pune (Maharashtra State) where they speak Marathi and by the virtue of the same job moved to Taipei. I stayed more time in Pune than in Taipei but know more Chinese than Marathi. I enrolled for Chinese course and worked hard at it. I can read basic Chinese but I hardly understand a word in Marathi – the language of my neighbouring province because I didnt put any effort to learn it.
After years Monica’s (apparently) silly statement looks so profound today! India is a land of many langauges and you will live all your life not understanding what your neighbours speak. With such accelerated movement people across the state (province) borders due to the booming economy and with English & Hindi emerging as the lingua franca, there is little motivation to learn the language of the local province. I can manage with hindi in Pune, you can speak to the vegetable sellers in English in Bangalore. Given a choice if I move to Madras (they speak Tamil) I would rather learn Spanish for my career advancement than learn Tamil. What is one’s motivation to learn the local language?
While that is a good news for a virbrant economy because it eases movement of people from place to place it spells a doom to the local languages. I realise that only the Kannadigas (ethnic Karnataka people) would learn Kannada and NO ONE else would ever learn it. What is one’s motivation to learn the language. A neighbouring Tamilian would rather learn French – language of the land thousands of miles away than Kannada which is the neighbouring tongue. I dont blame him, this is purely market-driven.
People ask me in Taipei, ‘When did you learn English?’. Some are surprised when they find out that I learnt English right from my kinder garten. I have learnt all those ‘Baa Baa black sheep…’ like the American kids (native English speakers) learn. So much so, I ‘think’ in English, conduct business in English, speak with my friends in hindi and to my parents in Kannada. I use my mother tongue only for less than 5% of my communication!!!
So my conjecture is, if ONLY kannadigas learn Kannada and only 5% of the time they use their language and thanks to the ‘Monica syndrome’, are we all gonna lose our languages? This is a question that many Indian languages would have no answers. Kannada movies are giving way to Bollywood and subsequently Holly wood. How do we save our languages without compromising on the globalisation (English) and our national identity ( Hindi).?
Your guess is as good as mine!!
P.S. Irony is not lost on the fact that I can superflously talk about ’saving my language’ in English than in my OWN language.
Hiren said
Though we are Gujaratis, me and my wife speak in Hindi or English and also with our child but with our parents we speak in Gujarati. We insisted that My son take up Gujarati in school.
That is one way but generally, one should communicate in a language one is comfortable in.