Language- a Reflection of our Attitudes

In our house, we speak six languages. And more often than not, we speak a language that is a mix of a few, if not all of them. To us, its perfectly normal, but imagine the plight of the outsider! Even if they know half the languages, chances are they won’t understand the conversation. Now, imagine the confusion if this happened across the country- or worse- across the world!

Language today, I believe, is an honest reflection of our complacent attitudes. We like short-cuts, we don’t care a tuppence for perfection. We learn a language to communicate with those who speak it, but we rarely strive to know every bit of it. Our easy fall-back excuse is that Hinglish is hip, its cool. Just how universal it is, we don’t care! You don’t need to step out of India to realize that, just go a little south of this very peninsula, or into the heartlands of our country: the villages- and you’ll find lesser takers for your new-found ‘cool’ language.

Another favourite fact that people harp endlessly about is the inclusion of Hindi words into the English dictionary. Now, if you enter an English speaking country and start using those words and nobody understands, are they at fault for not having read every word in the English dictionary, or are you the stupid one for expecting them to?

According to me, there are few better ways of exercising one’s intellect than learning a new language. And there are few things more beautiful than listening to someone who has mastered a language speak. Today, there are so many things lost in translation. And the only cure is to know the different languages as well as we can. For different as they are, they- quite ironically- help in breaking all barriers!