Does our national language and mother tongue are loosing their respective status due to alien languages?

Question

Whatever it may be we must respect our national language irrespective of our mother tongue.Then as a secondary our mother tongue comes into action and if necessary we may use foreign languages.

We can't allow an alien language to domiante our country in all aspects.Nowadays people deliver their speech only in english and not in any other language irrespective of the state they survive.

Western culture has dominated us in all aspects, whatever the work and where ever the work may be, the person who looks for a job or a graduation must have learnt English and must know to speak english well.

If a student doesn't know to do a conversation in English he would be rejected from the selection process of companies irrespective of his working talents and his ideas.
Is this attitude right?

Thanks for your support Mr.Roshan,
I am really honoured by your answer.

Dear friends so far many of them have not understood my question,
I have no hard feelings with English.
Offcourse its a good language it enables us to easily communicate with the world.
But what i say is that dont allow a foriegn language to dump our assets locally.

Any how thanks for your answers people, its a pleasure to take answers from you guys.

Answer 1

Kausik,

I think you have a valid point there. (Guys he's made a really valid point here, and instead of using harsh words/heckling, guess we should have a good debate on the gentleman's views)

However the problem is not serious as you think it is. Languages have been around for hundreds of years. Remember Sanskrit, was once the language used by the creame of the society, and now its all but dead. (Ofcourse academically it still going strong in India). So languages undergo phases. Most adapt, some die out, but they never get 'replaced' by foreign (or alien) languages.

Languages tend to adapt well to new situations. Its not a good idea to force people to study a specific language etc. Fearing other (esp foreign) languages is not a good idea either.

English is not going to wipe out languages local to the Indian subcontinent. If anything it will aid the development of them. The dominance of English is but a temporary phase in the state of the country and we should use English as our strength and not as our weakness.

Regards,
Roshan Pai
Editor: GSB Konkani Language Dictionary Project
http://www.savemylanguage.org

Answer 2

I think you should look closely the Philippines as a comparison. We speak around 170 languages/dialects across the archipelago. Our government declared a national language however it is not commonly used. People would rather use English especially in commercial and government transactions. School instruction is in English from the first grade to Graduate school. All books are in English. In fact when you go around the Philippines most signs are in English. It is becoming a problem as English and the local dialects are merging with strange results. If you do not know English in the Philippines, you can never get a good job.

Philippines used to be an American colony until 1946.

Answer 3

Stop being such a fanatic. Look at the muslims. Now they are hunted like rats by the Americans and Soviets. Use any language you like. It does not matter.

We use languages for Communication. It does not matter if you and I talk and communicate in English. The only thing important is that if we understand the language we shall both use.

You are insulting the west? Would you like to live in the dark ages of the Medieval and Mughal periods on India where there was torture from the higher castes and killing of innocent women?

The computer you are using is a gift of the west and so is the internet!

Answer 4

Its not the fact that we are not respecting our mother tongue. The thing is that in this globalised environment, where we are trading & working with the other countries, we need a single language to interact with each other. For that reason we are using english as that common language. And if the process of selection is taken into account, we have to pace up with the changing environment.

Answer 5

Our mother tongue and national language is very important and so is English. In business and politic English is a must. Just look at the ministers who doesn't speak English go for meeting in a English speakin nation, they need translator. To me its very ambarassing when a minister in a high post doesn't even understand the international language. So in order to survive in today's world, English is a must.

Answer 6

If u don't like english then start teaching in ur national language in the primer educational institutes of ur country and see how ur country enteres in a dark age. Blame it to the globalisation and ur country's leader who lead it there. Simply blaming a language will do nothing.

Answer 7

Yes it does .English language has dominated our country to that extent with out English Knowledge no person will get a decent job in our Country. Even for a security guard job companies are asking English Knowledge.

Answer 8

well national languages n mother toungues r for use widin the State or country........u can't xpect ppl all over d world to understand ur language.......English being known by all helps to converse better......employers want to have ppl who know english cos foreign opportunities wait n u can't stay bak jus cos u have a handicap in the language.....Every country speaks English 4 business reasons.....if each one posts a question in deir native language how r we 2 understand......spaek in ur language wid ur relatives n friends ..no one's stoppin g u.......but it's better to speak english wid them too cos it makes u familiar wid the language........y else do u think dey have english-medium schools ...dey can have schools wid thier native language like tamil,telugu,hindi...etc.....i can agree ddat Hindi shd b known by all cos it helps u wen u travel thruout the country.......but the state language.i don't hink so...dats y French is taken as 2nd language in school so dat it helps in adapting urself in countries around the globe........we do need to preserve our culture......but doesn't mean we can reamin a developing country wid no international business affairs....move on .........dude jus being a true Indian is not enough ......try to make the country well established in the world

Answer 9

no just like in a balanced diet it is imp for each type of ingredient to b present but one is not less imp than the other so is the case of languages. each has its own imp and need.
nobody is rejected because of a language unless it is required as part of the job.

Answer 10

Here in Houston, Spanish is the national language.