Inner Thought

Advantages and disadvantages of the English language in India

This blog try to analyze each important and interesting point and develop an explanation of the Advantages and Disadvantages of English Language in India.

     Table of contents

1. Advantages of English Language in India
2. Disadvantages of English Language in India
3. Conclusion

 

Advantages of English Language in India

 

 

1) Exploring the outer world

• According to Dr. S. Radha Krishnan Commission on Education “English is the only means of preventing our isolation from the world and we will act unwisely if we allow ourselves to be enveloped in the folds of a dark curtain of ignorance”.

2) Language of  business

• English is the most important language of  business  throughout the world. Most international business activities, including emails, memos, reports and contracts, are written in English .

3) English language make travels easier

• The English language is mainly spoken all over the world so speaking English make travels easier.
• Most hotel , restaurant employees, store merchants, vendors, transporter  prefer to speak English to some extent.

4) Increase career prospects 

• A large amount of research conducted, written and presented in English so it is the main language of academics all around.
• Knowing English can helpful for experts who wish to communicate their ideas and research findings with others.

5) English language used for many software programs

• In computers most software programs are written in English. Mostly computers game, video games are written in English language.
• Those seeking to expand their computer knowledge, need to read and understand the English language first. 

6) Increase employment opportunities 

• In today’s global economy, knowing English language gives a competitive supremacy when applying for a job. 
• Those who have the ability to speak English are more likely to be able to find a good job.

7) Commonly spoken by academics worldwide

• We have the most outsourced jobs in the world. All of the MNCs require English speaking employees.  
• Those who are able to become proficient at it, they will be rewarded with knowing a universal language. so it is taught as a first language in the maximum schools in the country. 

8) Communicate comfortably

• India is a country of cultural and semantic variety. People from southern states and Northern states of India, prefer communicating through English rather than regional languages. It solves two major purpose, one is increasing your base of English and second is to communicate comfortably with your country mate through a common linguistic platform.
• The ability to speak English provides more direct and accurate access to information on the web and enhances communication with other English speaking people on social networking sites.
• Availability of educational contents in English is enormous. Majority of books, research papers etc are either written in English or get translated into English. There are countless literature in English for technical subjects like Medicine, Engineering.

9) English is global language

• If we want to communicate with the rest of part of the world then we need a global language and English is that language. Indians have been giving more weight to Royal Languages because these languages have been job providers at one point.
• English is the most widely spoken language across the world, therefore for international correspondence one uses English. It is a matter of convenience and necessity, not pride. One can get better employment opportunities with good communication skills (English).

 

Disadvantages of English Language in India

 

1) English is Difficult to Learn

• The main disadvantage of studying English is the difficulty often associated with learning it. Spelling in English is a matter of memorization because various words that sound one way are spelled differently. 
• Many English words have the same or almost the same meaning, making it difficult at times to know which word to use. Words in a sentence can receive different stresses to change the meaning of the sentence, which is not something that occurs commonly in other languages. 
• Thomas Heywood said English itself is broken because it has so many pieces and parts from other languages.
• A much more serious disadvantage for learners of English is the extent of the vocabulary. we have to pay a lot of attention to its vocabulary, pronunciation and spellings.
• Conjugations are not easy as well.
• Since English draws from many different sources for vocabulary words (Latin, Greek, French, German, Sanskrit, etc.) we often have many words for the same concept.

 

2) English Language are highlighted in such a way that not knowing English is driving people in to a backward status 

• Not knowing English is driving people in to a backward status. They are dependent on other citizens, agents for their tasks.
• I will give an example : One of my friends, is not so good at English. and have a course on “Behaviour Sciences”, which deals with the human behavior development. The friend failed in the course inspite of excellent knowledge of the subject, just because the professor would not give marks due to his poor writing skills in English. So he still feels inferior in terms of his knowledge of the English language.
• There are many more examples from our day to day lives where you would find this inferiority in terms of language. 

3) In India we focused mainly on English Languages thus students from ‘non – English speaking’ backgrounds lost and left out

• Today the professional world around us also responsible to some extent because different companies that come to the colleges focus on English languages for their selection process. So the students from ‘non – English speaking’ backgrounds feel overlooked .
• Most of our college and university education in India is in English, which signifies that for higher education , knowledge of English is must. It is the only means or mode for growth in India as our laws are in English and most offices and workplaces uses English for their work area. Tv stars, movie stars ,politicians, newspapers, ads  everything ıs in English. 
• There is no government or private Engineering or medical college teaching in Indian languages . Even, literature for technical subjects is very less in Indian languages.
• Actually in India we focused  approx. 100 percent on English thus a person who speaks broken English facing lots of  difficulty to survive in English made world around them.

 

4) Kids taught English before learning mother tongue because people thinks that talking in English would give a good status in the society 

• One needs to study in ones mother tongue for the better understanding of subjects. English language only should used for survive in this competitive world. If you learn English as tools I think that not give you any disadvantages. But if anyone from the childhood learn only English and avoid own mother tongue that’s really one of major disadvantages of learning English.

• In India whose official language is Hindi , people being ashamed and embarrassed while speaking Hindi. Nowadays parents conversing with their small kids in English and they taught English before learning mother tongue and the parents feels pride for the same.
• We are forcing our kids to speak in English while they are in school , to show off or just not to be humiliated  children are speaking English while in college, again in workplaces they are bound to speak in English to survive themselves in that circumstances , we are actually trained our young one from the beginning of their life as English speakers because in our society not speaking English is sign of  uneducated or illiterate or unsuccessful person , who has no right to stand by the side of English speaking person. Therefore uneducated parents who wants to provide decent education to their children are also get influenced by the potential of English.

5) People adopt western culture and forget original culture

• People who have learnt English try to adopt western culture and forget their original culture and tend to think that their culture is inferior than the west and distress from it.
• our Indian education system supports “Westernization” instead of “Modernization” .

6) Development of people seems to be difficult as English is the medium for official purposes in India.

• Not knowing English limited our areas of knowledge, awareness and mindset as  English speakers have become the guard of information and research. By keeping ourselves unknown , we’re missing out enormous outlook.
• advertisements, notices, bus numbers, names of cities, trains, places, tags, accounts in bank are all communicating in English and people of India are not able to understand .
• without English language not be able to work for a large international company or project. 
• In Delhi, there is a market which has a lot of English bookshops, but does not have a single bookshop selling books in Hindi. In fact, it is quite difficult to find a bookshop selling books in Hindi in Delhi.
• The Times of India group publishes an English daily newspaper and a Hindi daily newspaper. The circulation of the Hindi is far greater than the circulation of the English one, but its advertising rates are very lower. This simply describe the inferior position of Hindi and topmost position of English in India. 

7) Great impact of English educational system made English, a standard of intelligence

• In India we have made English, a standard of intelligence and everyone wants to become fluent in English and to be marked as intelligent , smart and knowledgeable.
• People tend to show off their speaking skills at the places like movie ticketing counters, shops, restaurants , fast food chains and in fact speak in English with vegetable vendors, security guards without even thinking that they are not quite literate.
• In recently held book fair in Delhi, five halls occupied by publishers like Penguin, Oxford University Press, Macmillan, and many others, including Indian publishers in English whereas only one hall was for Indian languages.
• We are in the era, where we are greatly impacted with western education. From Army to bureaucracy, from our house to society, offices, tourist places , entertainment everywhere there is a great impact of English educational system.

In India Lord William Bentick made English the medium of higher education after the recommendations of Macaulay. English was used by the Britishers as a medium to instruct. They educated Indians in the English language so that Indians could communicate well and serve Britishers well in various departments. Till the time our country got freedom English language was incorporated into various fields and hence it was not possible to take this language out but to use it well because of its growing need and influence. Advantages and disadvantages of English language in India may be the topic of debate but no doubt every non speaking English person has its own experiences and thought regarding this.

Conclusion

• Other countries such as China, Japan, South American or other European countries education system is usually in their own native languages, including higher education. They learn English as a second language. The language in the workplace is also largely their native tongue. Thus a person may be well off and highly educated, but not be very comfortable in English, and this would not be unusual.
• Being an Indian when you go abroad you see people talking to others in their native tongue but you’ll rarely see an Indian talking to another Indian in their own languages. Its sad. Today you may try talking to your friends or anyone in other language and they will look down on you as if you have just committed the biggest blunder.  
• Knowledge should not be restricted by languages. We should regard every individual for what they are, and not judge them on account of their pronounced incapability. The English language should be an ‘addition’, and not the ‘foundation’ of education in India. It is good to learn a foreign language like English which is of great importance but do not dishonour  native languages and don’t be shy to speak in it.

 

Reference articles

Why learning English is important in India

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