English edges out mother tongue at home

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sage
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English edges out mother tongue at home

Postby sage » 2004-02-22, 15:27

This was a newspaper article that appeared in the Sunday Times of India, the largest English language newspaper in the world.

English edges out mother tongue at home

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2004 02:18:50 AM ]
MUMBAI: The only time Suman Chhabria-Addepali speaks to her child in Sindhi, her mother tongue, is while playing ‘Gil go ladi’, a game she learnt on her mother’s lap.

She considers English to be her first language. This 27-year-old Sindhi, who is married to a Telugu-speaking management consultant, says, “I can’t speak Telugu and my husband can’t speak Sindhi. So, by default, we speak English with our child and at home.’’

In urban settings where intercaste marriages are common and spouses are not conversant with each other’s mother tongues, this is obviously a common practice.

But there is another reason—a societal necessity as such—for the ‘English-at-home-too’ syndrome. “Exposing the child to English early gives her a headstart in life,’’ believes Ms Chhabria-Addepalli. Her views are echoed by many parents in the city.

Hence, last week, when the state decided to stop teaching seven optional Indian languages after March 2005, there were few voices of dissent. Only residents of Dharavi and the International Sindhi Forum( both Tamil and Sindhi will not be offered in English-medium schools from next year), spoke against it.

The protesters have a valid reason. Says Bharathi Shankar, principal of SIES school that offers Tamil, the overall score of Dharavi kids, who are largely Tamil speaking, improved because of their language paper.

The Sindhi Forum president R.T. Rohra laments that Sindhis do not have a separate homeland and now even the language will not be offered in schools.

The state government claims that there are not enough takers for mother tongues. English is an essential ingredient of “good parenting’’, or so believe New Age parents. They also believe that it is important for their children to be proficient in English to do well academically and later professionally.

“Children who do not speak English at home never catch up in school with other children from Englishspeaking households,’’ says a mother, who does not speak to her child in her mother tongue, Dogri, spoken in Kashmir.

Practices in several schools have contributed to this belief. Schools prefer giving admissions to children of Englishspeaking parents. “This is, in fact, an important criterion considered during admissions,’’ says Gool Ghadiali, principal of New Era High School at Gowalia Tank. Former veejay and actor Ruby Bhatia, who was brought up in Canada where her father insisted on speakingHindi at home, feels Indians should move with the world and should not have any aversion to English.

School principals admit that non-English speaking parents are under pressure to learn the language and many mothers have even joined Englishspeaking courses offered at the various institutes across the city.

Some middle-aged Gujarati grandmoms have also enrolled in these classes to speak with their grandchildren in English when they babysit them, says Govind Saraiya of the English Institute, that runs classes in Mahim and Vile Parle. But not all parents can afford such English-speaking courses.

Kantabai, a Marathi-speaking domestic servant, spends Rs 400 from her monthly earning of Rs 1,100 on her son’s English tuitions. Her son still performs poorly at school, but she has not gone to meet his class teacher to discuss the same. Her reason? She cannot speak in English.

To help such parents, the PTA United Forumalong with the Counsellors Association of India launched a move, ‘First Generation’, last month to encourage them to speak in their mother tongues when they meet teachers and principals to discuss their children’s progress.

Quite sad but it is reality to an extent.

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Postby Luís » 2004-02-22, 16:46

And you are included in this group too...
It'd be much nicer if you spoke Konkani :wink:
Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales

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Postby sage » 2004-02-22, 17:51

Luís wrote:And you are included in this group too...
It'd be much nicer if you spoke Konkani :wink:


:lol: Well, you can hardly blame me for that :P My Konkani speaking paternal grandparents and Portuguese speaking maternal grandparents both switched to speaking English with my parents.

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Postby Nayana » 2008-03-29, 12:22

yes...it is true to some extent in India. but not in my case.. :) my parents understand english but we speak marathi(my mothertongue) at home... english has become a global language and one has to learn it to get good jobs in India...

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Postby Tenebrarum » 2008-03-29, 14:48

If only Vietnam could be like that :(
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Postby culúrien » 2008-03-29, 15:44

Draven wrote:If only Vietnam could be like that :(


why?
استیسی

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Postby Presto » 2008-03-30, 9:03

Yes, to serve the monolingual Anglophones. Hong Kong Chinese don't lose their native languages (except the village talk of their senior relatives), but many people fail to lead a happy life just because their English isn't good enough. They can't enter a university, they can't serve the monolinguals, they can't earn more than their counterparts... learning English is a necessity, a must, a means of survival.

This naturally makes many people give up any hope of learning a second foreign language, since many are deemed USELESS, while their English is never good enough to be in any way fluent, either. And this makes many people give up any hope of learning tongues of their senior relatives, and hence the gradual decline of Minnan, Teochew, Hakka and so on.

English should have been abolished as an official language, but well, shall I get a life? Yes, I shall. A kid would forget his language once he learns the foreign tongue of a foreign country. Even before I have any chance of staying abroad, I shall be forgetting my native tongue to master English :lol:

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Postby Almar » 2008-03-30, 18:53

Draven wrote:If only Vietnam could be like that :(


/me slaps Draven with a dictionary!
asdf

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Postby Tenebrarum » 2008-03-31, 3:42

culúrien wrote:
Draven wrote:If only Vietnam could be like that :(

why?

I want English to 'edge out' Vietnamese a little bit. Right here where I live.

Oh don't worry. In Vietnam Vietnamese can never be weakened let alone die :roll: Trust me.

Almar wrote:/me slaps Draven with a dictionary!

Slap yourself a'reyt? Vietnamese is not as tiny as your Icelandic :lol:
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Postby JackFrost » 2008-03-31, 7:03

Draven wrote:Oh don't worry. In Vietnam Vietnamese can never be weakened let alone die :roll: Trust me.

I support Draven's statement. Vietnamese will only die with the last remaining Vietnamese on Earth.
Neferuj paħujkij!

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English in Vietnam

Postby 0stsee » 2008-03-31, 17:10

Draven wrote:
culúrien wrote:
Draven wrote:If only Vietnam could be like that :(

why?

I want English to 'edge out' Vietnamese a little bit. Right here where I live.

Oh don't worry. In Vietnam Vietnamese can never be weakened let alone die :roll: Trust me.

I know what you mean.

I doubt Indonesian could ever be weakened by English, either.
Although Indonesian's spread is due to the fact that it's the national language. Probably if we had taken Dutch or English as national language, things would be different.
Ini tandatanganku.

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Re: English edges out mother tongue at home

Postby Kasuya » 2008-12-28, 4:27

This is all going to backfire on the Indian elites when the masses realize that English is being used to oppress them.

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Re: English edges out mother tongue at home

Postby Zorba » 2008-12-30, 13:43

1. What is the difference between the elites and the masses? Where is the cut-off point to show who is a member of which?

2. How is English being used to oppress the masses?

3. How will it backfire?

4. What makes you think that you know something that the Indian "masses" don't?

5. When do you think they will realize that English is a tool of oppression?

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Re: English edges out mother tongue at home

Postby skye » 2008-12-30, 13:58

Zorba wrote: ... that English is a tool of oppression?


Maybe more like a means of exclusion - as someone already said it is a must to know English if you want to go to a good school or get a good job.

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Re: English edges out mother tongue at home

Postby Kasuya » 2008-12-30, 16:23

Zorba wrote:1. What is the difference between the elites and the masses? Where is the cut-off point to show who is a member of which?

2. How is English being used to oppress the masses?

3. How will it backfire?

4. What makes you think that you know something that the Indian "masses" don't?

5. When do you think they will realize that English is a tool of oppression?


That's too many questions so I'll just give you a general answer. Because it's mostly the elites who can afford to go to English medium schools, it is they who have a much easier time making it into universities which all use English. Both the elites and the masses spend enormous amounts of time and energy mastering English. Time and energy that could be spent studying vital subjects. Naturally this is more of a barrier to the masses in normal schools than for the elites in private schools. The British and later the elites were successful in setting up an education system that only allows those who master English (mostly the elites) to become successful. A very oppressive system. Notice how there is a much larger middle class in other developing countries such as China which allow their citizens to get a full education in their native language.


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