Will English kill off India's languages?

[true_indian]

I am trilingual as is most of the educated Keralites with a little bit of Arabic thrown in.

Then I am penta-lingual.

 

[Polemos]

Evolution, the fittest will survive.

 

[RezRoll]

Rizwaan Bhai !!!indian society is very-very complex for you to understand , no hard feelings but most of the indian languages like Hindi, Bangla ,Tamil , Telegu, Kannad , Malyaalam ect are spoken as every day language & is mother tounge of vaugely 20-400 million people depending on many complex factors & just because of trade & computers there relevence is not going to finnish at least in recent future 50-100 odd years , Thanks .

Perhaps your situation is abit more complex, like what Roy said, it'll probably be bilingual.

I can speak on behalf of Malaysia though, in about 50 years, only two languages will be spoken by Malaysians. Malay and English, and probably the mastery of Malay language will be low in priority among people.

Even today, almost every middle/upper-class Malaysian speaks English at home, including all my friends.

Anyway, to the rest, which country do you think speaks the best English in Asia?

I reckon, on an average, it's the Filipinos or Singaporeans.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

That's the reality of globalization.

Other language might still exist, but everyone will know how to speak English one day.

English is after all, the language of the internet and computers.

In Korea, there are billions of dollars invested into English education, yet English skill is very low.

In China, English is introduced in middle school, is a test subject in high school, and is a widely used requirement (though not by all universities, including famous ones like Zhejiang University) as a graduate requirement. English skill is still extremely low, with 0.2% of people being even considered "speakers".

Same for Japan.

East Asian countries have very low English rates and I'm proud of that. It shows that we are not being brainwashed by the Anglo Saxon fascist regimes.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Indians are for the most part multilingual. Every educated Indian speaks at least 2-3 languages.

Is there something special about that?

In China, people will know their local dialect (Shanghainese for example), the national dialect (Mandarin), and often a non-Chinese language like English as well.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with standardizing one language, most countries do it anyway.

In America/Britain/Canada/Australia etc.... if you want to participate in the educational system, you will have to speak English.

But I wonder why India chose a Western language, as their official language of Government, instead of an Indian one.

 

[Subramanian]

I am trilingual too unlike most Tams and unlike most Trilingual tams too.

 

[RezRoll]

In Korea, there are billions of dollars invested into English education, yet English skill is very low.

In China, English is introduced in middle school, is a test subject in high school, and is a widely used requirement (though not by all universities, including famous ones like Zhejiang University) as a graduate requirement. English skill is still extremely low, with 0.2% of people being even considered "speakers".

Same for Japan.

East Asian countries have very low English rates and I'm proud of that. It shows that we are not being brainwashed by the Anglo Saxon fascist regimes.

Agreed, this has probably something to do with most East-Asian countries never being part of the British colony.

Singapore though, has adapted English as it's official language. It's not about being brainwashed by western powers, it's more due to the fact we need a language that enables us to communicate with the most amount of people.

After all isn't that the purpose of a language?

 

[53fd]

Credit has to go to India here. It is not uncommon for Indians to be multilingual (three or four languages). Most Indians are at least bilingual. Indians in most parts of the country learn Hindi & English at school, they also learn their mother tongue at home, then they also learn the regional language of the state they are living in. Hence, an ethnic Gujarati kid born & raised in Mumbai will in most probability know Gujarati (from his home), Marathi from growing up in the state, as well as Hindi & English in school. It is truly remarkable, & Indians have to be given a lot of credit for that. Ethnic identity is very important in India, in Pakistan, it isn't as important as national identity is. In Pakistan, most people are bilingual or 'trilingual' as well; but speaking four languages isn't as common.

But I have observed that once someone learns a new language, it has some affect on that person's proficiency in another language(s). For example: while Hindi is the official language of India (& in most parts of India), most Indians are not as fluent at speaking it, & a similar case can be made about English. My point being: while it is good to learn as many languages as you can (I am a fluent speaker of English, Urdu-Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, & to an extent, Gujarati); if you know Hindi in India, you can get your way around using it in most parts of India. However, if you are not fluent in Hindi (or English) at all, & only know Gujarati; then you will have a hard time getting around in most parts of India outside Gujarat. Which explains why Gujjus like to stick around with one another wherever they go. Some languages hold more 'weight' than others, & it is better to be fluent in a few 'important' languages than not being very fluent in a lot of 'less important' languages. My personal opinion.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Is there something special about that?

In China, people will know their local dialect (Shanghainese for example), the national dialect (Mandarin), and often a non-Chinese language like English as well.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with standardizing one language, most countries do it anyway.

In America/Britain/Canada/Australia etc.... if you want to participate in the educational system, you will have to speak English.

But I wonder why India chose a Western language, as their official language of Government, instead of an Indian one.

In northern China, people mostly just speak Mandarin, or their dialects are very close to standard Mandarin. In most of the rest of China (Sichuan, Hubei/Hunan, etc) the local dialect is just accented Mandarin. Only when you get to Shanghai, Guangdong and Fujian is there high linguistic variety. No one really knows English that well except for those who have strong experience in English environments. More and more universities are dropping it as a graduation requirement every year. There are more and more ways to be exempt from taking English classes.

We have to break out of the English colonial slave mentality, because English in the developing world is useful for 2 things alone: reading scientific papers, and saying "yes sir Master!"

 

[ChinaToday]

Is there something special about that?

In China, people will know their local dialect (Shanghainese for example), the national dialect (Mandarin), and often a non-Chinese language like English as well.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with standardizing one language, most countries do it anyway.

In America/Britain/Canada/Australia etc.... if you want to participate in the educational system, you will have to speak English.

But I wonder why India chose a Western language, as their official language of Government, instead of an Indian one.

Exactly right a truely great nation only had their own official languages

 

[karan.1970]

But I wonder why India chose a Western language, as their official language of Government, instead of an Indian one.

Isnt Hindi an Indian language ??

 

[Polemos]

Singapore though, has adapted English as it's official language. It's not about being brainwashed by western powers, it's more due to the fact we need a language that enables us to communicate with the most amount of people.

Exactly the case in India. Like Singapore, India too has a varied ethnic mix. English may have been a colonial hangover at one time, but it is now the language of choice for us. One more reason for the adoption of English is that there could could be no allegation of regional bias in preference for a particular native language.

 

[Subramanian]

Credit has to go to India here. It is not uncommon for Indians to be multilingual (three or four languages). Most Indians are at least bilingual. Indians in most parts of the country learn Hindi & English at school, they also learn their mother tongue at home, then they also learn the regional language of the state they are living in. Hence, an ethnic Gujarati kid born & raised in Mumbai will in most probability know Gujarati (from his home), Marathi from growing up in the state, as well as Hindi & English in school. It is truly remarkable, & Indians have to be given a lot of credit for that. Ethnic identity is very important in India, in Pakistan, it isn't as important as national identity is. In Pakistan, most people are bilingual or 'trilingual' as well; but speaking four languages isn't as common.

But I have observed that once someone learns a new language, it has some affect on that person's proficiency in another language(s). For example: while Hindi is the official language of India (& in most parts of India), most Indians are not as fluent at speaking it, & a similar case can be made about English. My point being: while it is good to learn as many languages as you can (I am a fluent speaker of English, Urdu-Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, & to an extent, Gujarati); if you know Hindi in India, you can get your way around using it in most parts of India. However, if you are not fluent in Hindi (or English) at all, & only know Gujarati; then you will have a hard time getting around in most parts of India outside Gujarat. Which explains why Gujjus like to stick around with one another wherever they go. Some languages hold more 'weight' than others, & it is better to be fluent in a few 'important' languages than not being very fluent in a lot of 'less important' languages. My personal opinion.

well,thats how it works man.

I would say apart from English/Hindi

Learn One language from each place.

Marathi-must learn serves well,even thouhg only in mumbai.

Learn Tamil/Telugu

Bengali

Try Punjabi but not so easy and forget about Haryanvi,even the Jats forget it and re-invent it often.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

Agreed, this has probably something to do with most East-Asian countries never being part of the British colony.

Singapore though, has adapted English as it's official language. It's not about being brainwashed by western powers, it's more due to the fact we need a language that enables us to communicate with the most amount of people.

After all isn't that the purpose of a language?

Then Mandarin Chinese gets you access to the most people. Only 700 million people speak English. 1.3 billion speak Mandarin Chinese.

Exactly the case in India. Like Singapore, India too has a varied ethnic mix. English may have been a colonial hangover at one time, but it is now the language of choice for us. One more reason for the adoption of English is that there could could be no allegation of regional bias in preference for a particular native language.

What's the problem with regional bias? Dr. Sun Yatsen was Cantonese and he picked Mandarin, the language of Beijing in the north, to be the standard dialect. You pick the one that has the most existing speakers, duh.

 

[Subramanian]

Exactly right a truely great nation only had their own official languages

It is very useful though and Hindi is almost quasi,