English Vinglish: Mind your language
Conversational English has always been a challenge for us because as Indians, we tend to think in our mother tongues and translate that into English.
A few years back, I was on my way to a friend’s house when I saw a notice stuck to the main gate of a local college. It read: “Please tie your fees in front of 15th September.” I thought that perhaps my eyes had tricked me, or my eyesight needed a checkup, or that I had read the sentence wrong. So I backed up and read the notice again. Yes, I had read correctly, after all. The college was indeed requesting the students to tie their..er…fees, not shoelaces.
Let us agree on one point…English is one of the most important languages in the world now, a universal requirement for everyone. Still, all said and done, it is a foreign language for us. In our country, there have always been categories like spoken English and communicative English and written English. We don’t say spoken Telugu or written Bengali or communicative Hindi. To add to the confusion, now we have American English and British English too!
The present scenario has thrown new challenges for educators in every aspect. The days of blackboard and charts, expressive artwork on school walls and boisterous recess have turned into the days of doc boards, ppts and a recess song on YouTube.
In the face of such a change, the efficient teaching of English needs an innovative and creative boost. How can we teach our children that we can’t say, “Morning morning what are you doing?” How can we teach our young readers and future citizens that effective communication is a combination of right words and expression?
Conversational English has always been a challenge for us because as Indians, we tend to think in our mother tongues and translate that into English. Hence, Hindi + English (Hinglish) Telugu + English ( Tinglish?) Many of the common mistakes we all make while speaking, mostly occur because we tend to translate entire sentences from our mother tongue into English. No wonder then, that whenever Raju came to our hostel to iron our clothes, the following announcement was made: “Girls, the Iron Man has come…please give your clothes to him.”
Our long-suffering English professor would say, ” Has Sardar Vallabhai Patel come? Girls, really! Maybe the Avengers have arrived!” So, teach the children to think in English before communicating in English.
Facilitate reading… don’t just tell them to read something. Buy or get from a library, age-appropriate books, inculcate the habit of reading at a young age. Leave the books lying around. In the present context, invest in an e-reader. Download good literature. It will not only give them something productive to do but also improve their writing skills. They will learn to form correct sentences, slowly but surely. Once the habit of reading is inculcated in them, their progress is assured.
We need to teach our young learners that learning any language is more a combination of instinct and application than a set formula. The more they read, the more they grow. This holds good for every language, not just English. The good old habit of reading a newspaper every morning is now almost extinct. It was a rule for the children of our generation. It’s a rule which can work wonders even now, with the twin benefits of reading practice and obtaining knowledge of current affairs.
It’s just a language like any other, and it lends itself to so many changes. It’s beautiful and funny, weird yet amazing. At the end of the day, as we all say, it’s English only!
Sudha Yadavalli
Gitanjali Primary School
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