Why is English given so much importance in the subcontinent ??

[naveen mishra]

actually it is very conservative question ...........today every buddy must know English..............strongly required ......i am dealing with japani (hitachi),SMS German, VAI Austria, henkle Germany ,quaker holand ,many more ,if i don't know English,than it will be very difficult for me to deal with world ,

another hand by profession i am engineer ,worked in various place ,

i work in Bangladesh in Chittagong city,my job is to get work from lay man ,Chittagonian doesn't speak English, so i force to learn bangla "chittagonian "
to day working in Indonesia, in Indonesia, lover level no buddy speak English, so you have to learn Indonesian,other wise you will not survive

it is relative ,depends on your job profile entire Indian doesn't speak English, only % of people speak 2 or three language ,out of that one is English ,

and fact is every buddy is more comfortable with mother tongue

 

[Aka123]

Don't know about Sub continent, but yes in India it's given and it should be given, because of the diversity of India. No harm in that, rather it helps people from different regions to connect and also it helps when someone is going abroad. There's no need to connect this to pride. We have learnt English along with Vernacular from childhood, so it has added to our skills. Knowing more language adds to one's skill, so one should learn a language rather than crying, 'why we need to learn more language'. And if one doesn't want to learn, don't learn, but please spare others.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

But why didn't India choose a native dialect as their National language instead? Like Sanskrit.

Sun Yat-sen was a Cantonese Hakka himself, yet he chose Mandarin as the National Language of China.

People still speak their home dialects of course (Shanghainese, Hokkien, etc.), but it's useful to have a native language as your Lingua Franca.

 

[Cherokee]

Languages are like tools, more you have mastered, better leverage you have in communication... there is no need to bring in national pride into it.... that is childish!

Quoted for truth .

 

[bronxbull]

Languages are means of communication.Pride and ego are secondary. English being a widely accepted language,is good that you know it.
1.I know english.
2.Eniku malayalam ariyam.
3.Mujhko hindi dhoda dhoda malu
4.Enaku tamil konjam teriyum.

cheta,hindiyil samsarikka muyarchi seyya venda

 

[KAL-EL]

And I actually quite admire the Japanese attitude towards English. If you take a vacation to Japan, and try to talk to them in English, they'll say: "Why should we learn English? YOU should learn Japanese!"

I agree with that as well. if I were take a vacation to Japan, I would do everything I could to learn at least some Japanese. I would do this for any country I might visit where English isn't the language. Of course, depending on how much time there is to learn before going on the trip will also determine just how much Japanese I would actually be able to speak and understand.

 

[Cherokee]

But why didn't India choose a native dialect as their National language instead? Like Sanskrit.

Sun Yat-sen was a Cantonese Hakka himself, yet he chose Mandarin as the National Language of China.

People still speak their home dialects of course (Shanghainese, Hokkien, etc.), but it's useful to have a native language as your Lingua Franca.

National Language is not possible in India . As there is no language that covers "most " of the population .
Even if we enforce a "Native dialect" what would be the point ??

Basic Indian Education system is like you study both in your Native Language and English and after reaching matriculation level you choose .

 

[halupridol]

self delete

 

[FaujHistorian]

Indian subcontinent is perhaps unique in the whole world that millions upon millions of people can speak 2 or more languages as if each one of those is their mother language.

This is so a unique a quality at this scale of population numbers that one should simply admire it.

Anyone making fun of this admirable quality should go get his head examined by a competent shrink.


peace

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I agree with that as well. if I were take a vacation to Japan, I would do everything I could to learn at least some Japanese. I would do this for any country I might visit where English isn't the language. Of course, depending on how much time there is to learn before going on the trip will also determine just how much Japanese I would actually be able to speak and understand.

Absolutely. It is the effort that counts.

I wouldn't visit Germany and expect everyone to speak Chinese just for my benefit.

I'd learn some important phrases, and remember to load up my Android translation apps, in case I need to say something that I haven't learned.

 

[Indischer]

But why didn't India choose a native dialect as their National language instead? Like Sanskrit.

Sun Yat-sen was a Cantonese Hakka himself, yet he chose Mandarin as the National Language of China.

People still speak their home dialects of course (Shanghainese, Hokkien, etc.), but it's useful to have a native language as your Lingua Franca.

No Indian language has a speaker-base of more than 15%. Given this circumstance, no language has been declared as a National Language. However GoI does promote Hindi(largest language) and English(language with widest reach, ironically) as Official Languages.

Sanskrit today survives only as the liturgical language of Hinduism and Jainism. It's akin to Latin in this regard. Native speakers of Sanskrit number only about 15,000.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Absolutely. It is the effort that counts.

I wouldn't visit Germany and expect everyone to speak Chinese just for my benefit.

I'd learn some important phrases, and remember to load up my Android translation apps, in case I need to say something that I haven't learned.

Most tourist destinations in Europe are moving to be bilingual or even trilingual.

Learning the language of your host country is a great quality.

But

so is the ability to cater to your guest's language.

I hope you see both sides of the coin.

Thank you

No Indian language has a speaker-base of more than 15%. Given this circumstance, no language has been declared as a National Language. However GoI does promote Hindi(largest language) and English(language with widest reach, ironically) as Official Languages.

Sanskrit today survives only as the liturgical language of Hinduism and Jainism. It's akin to Latin in this regard. Native speakers of Sanskrit number only about 15,000.

Many Indians may not know (or perhaps know)

that before the Brits, official language in most of the settled parts of the subcontinent was????


????


????

drum roll



it was ??????


Persian.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Indian subcontinent is perhaps unique in the whole world that millions upon millions of people can speak 2 or more languages as if each one of those is their mother language.

In China as well, most people will grow up speaking their home dialect (Cantonese for me), and then learn the National dialect (Mandarin) as they progress through the education system.

I'm not very good at languages, it's one of my weakest areas. However I can still speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and even English with a fairly decent level of competency.

Though I really want to learn other Chinese dialects more seriously. For dialects like Hakka, Hokkien, Shanghainese I only know some slang terms but will have to do a lot of guessing for the rest.

I would not mind learning some other foreign languages as well. I can say a "few phrases" in Hebrew (one of my friends is Israeli), Russian, French, German and Japanese. But for all the above my competency is VERY limited.

 

[halupridol]

Many Indians may not know (or perhaps know)
that before the Brits, official language in most of the settled parts of the subcontinent was????...persian

most not all......

 

[naveen mishra]

In China as well, most people will grow up speaking their home dialect (Cantonese for me), and then learn the National dialect (Mandarin) as they progress through the education system.

I'm not very good at languages, it's one of my weakest areas. However I can still speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and even English with a fairly decent level of competency.

Though I really want to learn other Chinese dialects more seriously. For dialects like Hakka, Hokkien, Shanghainese I only know some slang terms but will have to do a lot of guessing for the rest.

I would not mind learning some other foreign languages as well. I can say a "few phrases" in Hebrew (one of my friends is Israeli), Russian, French, German and Japanese. But for all the above my competency is VERY limited.

i am pretty experience dealing with chines and Japanis client ,communication is one of the major barrier.........some time highly irritating too,

i am not talking about lower level ,even high official can't communicate properly in English , even small thing ,took so much time to explain