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Not a Language; But a Mentality Barrier!

pic courtesy: wabisabilearning.com

You must have often heard, “English language is a ladder to success.” But, honestly I am not in the support of this statement. I would rather rectify it as, “English language, besides success is a ladder towards building status.” India, being connected from its roots, has its official mother tongue, Hindi language. So, why it also cannot be a ladder to success?

When a person speaks Hindi in an interview or in any official work, he/she is judged as what a shame they are to the society, as ironically, education level in India is measured on the scale of language being spoken. Moreover, many times promotions or high incentives are not given by seeing the talent; rather it is given by seeing the status, i.e. how well and fluent you are as an English Speaker? Furthermore, I would like to add up a bitter truth of our country and i.e. in reality, many schools or colleges, instead of other methods, has found a way to make the students fluent in English by forcing them to speak the language all the time, or else they would be punished with a fine or so. Imagine speaking our mother tongue will lead us to some silly punishments or towards paying a fine.  But this is the harsh reality of India. Yes, it is!

And from here, the mentality of the child and the mentality of their parents through westernization, changes. And this change is not towards language but the mentality.

Have you ever seen a French, European or German, or any other foreign country boycotting their mother tongue? Probably, you would say NO!

Then why India?

Maybe, the answer as I have already given is the country’s rapid shift towards westernization with every passing year. Respecting other language is good, speaking other language is extremely fine, but forgetting one’s own among these, is definitely not. The status building idea with English speaking is a mentality barrier indeed. It is a barrier to a logical mind.

As the country originated Sanskrit and the language has now almost lost its position in the society. Will this be the same position of Hindi in India too in far future? That’s definitely a matter of debate.

So, in my opinion, language shaming is associated with the person who is unable to speak a fluent Hindi and not to the ones who are poor in English, because if you are not good in your roots i.e. in your mother tongue, c’mon you cannot be called a person with high status!

That’s completely my views on language shaming in India. What’s yours? Do comment below.