Hosting recipes since September 2008, I'm not new to such comments and in-fact became accustomed to similar comments. At Tea when I open the newspaper, I find the following article depicting how two school children were humiliated & punished by their teacher for speaking in Telugu.

Both the above instances put a stream of thoughts in my mind. While some thoughts remained as questions, some got answers and a few were rationalization of these thoughts. I thought of sharing them here with you.

Unlike Japanese, Germans, Chinese, Russians etc. who have their own national languages, in India we don’t have a national language. Hindi is our Official Language for the Union of India while in States we have different official languages. I’m given to understand that children who pursue higher studies in Japan, Germany, China, Russia etc. have sufficient relevant reading material in their respective languages. In India barring to some extent in Hindi (because of official patronage) all other languages fall short of the requisite material for pursuing higher studies. The problem is acute in science streams where one has to necessarily depend on English originals for higher exposures. Thus in Indian context, English is an important language, provided a child desires to reach the upper echelons of scientific enlightenment. In fact that may be true for all other countries also, because its in English we have the largest collection of material for scientific advancement and its English that is spoken and written in most of the conferences and journals.

In India, who doesn’t want his child to be the budding Nobel laureate? Thus every parent in India would like to see his child to be proficient in English so that his pursuit of success is not hindered by lack of English knowledge. This must be the root cause for the proliferation of “English Medium” Schools and gradual closure of “Vernacular Medium Schools” in India. Nowadays “English Medium” and “Convent” words are synonyms. People, even from the lowest economic strata prefer to send their children to “Convents”, run by private sector!!! Two of the municipal schools which my husband attended in 1970s have been merged or closed.

My father is from a remote village of “Anantharam” in Guntur district while my father-in-law is from “Choragudi” village in Krishna district. They did their entire schooling in vernacular medium and had English as one of the subjects. They read Shakespeare while in high school and college, which we haven’t yet. They both did their Masters in Physics and Mathematics respectively from Osmania and Banares Hindu University. Later they taught in the Colleges of Hyderabad and Cuttack for more than 35 years. Their parents, i.e. our grandparents didn’t know English nor did they speak English at home. Yet this deficiency, if any, didn’t stop them from bagging Gold Medals in academics. Till date they find many mistakes to correct their children and grand-children's English who are from the so called English Medium schools!!! These elders are good at Telugu and Sanskrit too. The reason behind narrating the elder’s story is to appreciate that speaking English at home and school is not essential for mastering that language and succeed.

Probably it is we, the parents who over emphasize on English speaking, which the schools are cashing-in under the banners of “English Medium”/ “Convent”. Instead we need to emphasize on coherent and logical thinking, languages can be mastered in due-course. We need to encourage our children to write answers in own sentences and in the process shouldn’t be unhappy if he/she didn’t come first in the class. Recently my son narrated that in one of his classroom sessions, Professor Ramanujam from Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT-Kharagpur asked weak and shy students to come on to the dais and speak impromptu for five minutes each.

Similarly for Students from non-English speaking countries at Texas A& M University (where my son is presently pursuing his PhD), there were a few sessions on English. The English professor asked the Chinese and Indians not to twist their mouths to ape American accent, instead they should speak slowly by which many Americans can easily follow what they speak!

What's essential is that our children should be able to think instead of parroting their lessons. Their thoughts should be coherent and rational. The medium of expression can be in any language of our choice. Isn’t it a fact that non-English speaking students outside US take only a few months to clear TOFEL and thereafter pursue higher studies in prestigious US and British Universities? Do Chinese, Germans, French, Russians etc. over emphasize on English from Lower Kindergarten as we do in India?

To inculcate proficiency in English, we can provide story books in English - Chandamana etc. My son’s English teacher Smt Guha Madam of Campion School Bhopal adopted a practice of asking weak students to read out passages from the English Text book and thereafter explained these English lessons. This school regularly conducted elocution and debate competitions for the students in English also.

One should be clear in thoughts and be proud about his mother tongue and should be open to promote English with due diligence where required!!! Children should love English but not fear it.