#CMCOpinions

To Speak Or Not To Speak, Why Is That The Question?

You’re seated in a seminar, with an eminent personality in front of you, gearing up for the question and answer segment. You have a million questions you could shoot, but they all remain unuttered in the quiet and safe zone of your mind. Why? What stops most people from shaping out words and sentences?

I have personally asked many of my students and friends this, and while some are shy by nature, most tend to feel scared about ‘going wrong with their question.’ Apparently, the Generation Y has still not addressed the possibility that a person’s command over language, especially English, has got nothing to do with their impression. Language is a means of communication and attempts to improve in any given ‘bhasha’ is solely to communicate effectively.

The stigma attached to making mistakes in English is observed right from school, where conversing in this ‘foreign language’ is considered as an elitist habit. There exists a lack of encouragement to master this language, not because it is fancy or scholarly, but to possess a tool of communication relevant at a global level. In fact, the more number of languages a person has in his arsenal, the better he is armed, and English is no different.

The problem lies in introducing English as a subject, and not as a language! Parts of speech, pronunciation, literature…everything is a topic to be scored in, irrespective of how and why it is relevant. And this alienation from the language is furthered when one is ridiculed for trying to speak in English-or rather, “English kyu jhaad raha hai?”

This idea, that a given language is a clique, needs to be deconstructed and its process begins in the classrooms. Forcing a comfort level on any student just instills a fear of being wrong, and ultimately results in total silence. The kid’s head may be brimming with untold stories, intelligent doubts, and so on, but how will he voice it? He fears a scolding for speaking a flawed language and the mocking that follows. These kids grow up to be those individuals fearing a jumble of words and judgment in the above-mentioned seminar.

Instead, why don’t we introduce literature that strikes a chord with the student, despite being in English. How about works of R.K. Narayan, Ruskin Bond, or Nissim Ezekiel or countless stories that a student can relate to and identify with, in the immediate context of place and culture. Isn’t that the goal of communication? To enable a person to connect to his or her surrounding and people?

Everyone has a story to tell, but to tell yours, you need language. So, the next time someone mocks you for trying to speak in a language you’re trying to learn, you mind your language and tell them to mind their business. Good luck!