And if you tolerate this, then your children will be next.

Hello Everyone,

After a couple of months training adults in the corporate sector, Smart Talkers India is back, blogging to you all about the state of play with the English language, here in India.  And there are no surprises that YOUNGISTAN (the term coined for India being the land with the largest youth population) were still making mistakes in basic English, even those with MBAs and Post grads.

The Hindu newspaper tells us, "The readers for whom English is a second language, or a foreign language, will never acquire the skills or the finesse of the ‘elite' (first-language learners) if they never strive to learn the correct language. The gap will never be bridged".  

Does the problem begin at school level?  Yes, I believe it does, having experienced this with my 6 year old and his education of English in India.  Another issue is, parents do not use English early enough with the child.  Do not mistake my intentions - I have a strong belief in also using the mother tongue and speak Bengali, too, to my child, but he had an advantage from the start, in that he was surrounded by 3 languages, namely Hindi, English and Bengali.  He continues to be a good speaker and this has been noted in his school reports.  And this is an important criteria of language - that it is to be spoken first, before it is read.  However, spoken English is not uniform throughout India, and virtually obsolete in government schools.

It seems, that those who had a convent education had fantastic use of grammar.  My own father had a Jesuit education before he set off for the UK almost 50 years ago.  His English is impeccable, as are many people who have had this education in India.  Some people feel it is because the foundations of the English language were carefully and correctly laid to the young students.  Nowadays, there is so much available on line such as grammar checks, spell checks and talking dictionaries, such as Cambridge on line (no excuses please for mispronunciation either in UK or US English).

Take a look at the following articles  from The Hindu newspaper, and former BBC correspondent, Mark Tully which have much to say on this subject:

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article1155559.ece

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15635553

The wonderful Manic Street Preachers (band of UK fame), clearly express the "sins of the father" in the song, "And if you tolerate this, then your children will be next" ; that is, that those of you who persistently, misuse or ignore that which is the correct path or method, will pass this on to your children.  In the case of the English Language in India, I continue to lament at its abuse, even at school level.