ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮಕ್ಕಳು and English Parents

Story 1:

After many years, was delighted to see a friend in a mall. He was there for shopping with his spouse and kid. I was speaking to him in our mother tongue “Kannada” on career, classmates, etc., and understood he had settled well in life, just when his son came running with some toys.

ಅಪ್ಪಾ , ಇದು ಬೇಕೂ (Dad, I want this …!) And was pleading his father. My friend replied in English, No!! I have told you not to get all those things. The conversation went for some time and I was surprised to see his son speaking in Kannada and this guy was enforcing his artificial English accent while replying.

I was curious to know why he was speaking in English when his son had interest to speak in his mother tongue and his reply was off-putting.

According to him, there was need for English in daily life and he wishes his son to inculcate that practice and not Kannada which has no usage in business life. It made me wonder, if this guy knows that, even he grew up and well settled in life and for which he didn’t depend only on English for his growth. What happened in 10 -15 yrs later, for him to think, by speaking in mother tongue, children will not get educated and also language is not only about business life, it’s more of connecting with people and society ?

As per some of the studies done by psychologists, whenever we learn , hear something in any language, our brain will be transforming the words, pictures in our mother tongue for us to grasp the meaning. Trying to enforce other language artificially will only strain our system and also leads to inefficient learning’s. Hope our modern parents remember this and stop punishing and start encouraging them to speak in their mother tongue.

Story 2:

Few years ago, I was returning from library. Hey have you read the latest Harry Potter series? Asked my friend, and my answer was No. Not that I am against English novels, but my interest is on various forms of Kannada literature. I told him the same and suggested he read Poornachandra Tejasvi kind of books instead of asking me on some magic broom and stick English stories.

Even though friend was a Kannadiga, he was surprised at my reply. He was wondering if I still read Tejasvi  books and I was surprised at his ignorance and maturity. People like him feel any books written by foreign authors are all time grate and forget that our Indian authors write much more closely to our heart and nativity. Even today when I read any of Tejasvi or Byrappa’s novels, the characters of the stories will haunt for some days, because of the connectivity we can do with such stories, even if we know it may not be in real.

We are becoming slaves of foreign languages, be it English, German or Japanese. Of course there is no harm in learning new skills but not in cost of our Indianness. We feel great that Germans don’t speak in other language but back at home we forget our own language. We feel gratitude while adding Japanese "san"  for  names, but inferior to address any one as Shri or Shrimati. We learn hard to pronounce French words to wish people, but don’t feel proud to wish as Namaste. Isn’t it irony of our present day India!!?

We spend thousands of rupees for unwarranted things, cant we subscribe for Kannada News paper and magazines which is just some hundred rupees. Remember, what we sow is what we reap. What we are today is because of the culture and moderation our parents did on us. If we don’t follow it and let go our children on their own, we will repent in future.

My English is not fluent, however, I am not remorse about it, as it is not and will never be my language, its only used as medium of communication and not language of heart. You might feel, why I have not written this in Kannada? Well, I know if I had written it in Kannada, many Kannadigas themselves would have not read and moved on…!!

This blog is not about propagating Kannada vs. other language, but the intention is to introspect our attitude towards our mother tongue in the race of learning foreign languages. You can replace Kannada with any other Indian language and most of the languages will be in similar situation as above.

By the way it’s November!! Time to celebrate Karnataka formation in Indian republic. A celebration not only for those who are born with Kannada mother tongue but for all such people who have made Karnataka their home for livelihood. Join the celebrations and continue to grow, both – state and yourself.

ಕನ್ನಡ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು  - Happy Kannada Rajyotsava..!!