Friday, February 08, 2008

Why this pretense?

[This is in continuation of the previous topic English will emancipate the downtrodden in India,]

During my brief stint at an Indian software services company, one clear thinking business grad asked a simple question. ‘Why do we keep going to IITs every year to recruit? When we know that most of them want a very high salary which we do not provide, when we know that most of them do not turn up on joining day even after receiving offer letters, and when we know that most of them leave within the first year even if they do join?’

It was a very simple question, but based in ground reality.

All the senior folks who were getting ready for the yearly ritual of visiting various IIT campuses for recruitment suddenly got confused and started blabbering away- giving reasons like why our company has a brand name, why we take pride in premier institutes and excellence, and blah blah. Basically they were talking bullshit.

By asking that simple question this young man just called the whole charade a pretense. He opened our eyes to see the emperor naked.

We were kidding ourselves into thinking that IITians would join us and add value to the company when ground realities suggested that none of them stick beyond the first year and it was a waste of time and money to send huge delegations of senior management to these institutes every year for recruitment. We were putting our money in the wrong place chasing an elusive goal.

In the previous topic, English will emancipate the downtrodden in India, a lady wanted to rebut my argument and gave an example of her kid who goes to a Spanish school living in Mexico City.

I think hers is a VERY BAD EXAMPLE. Let me explain.

Since I have never been to Mexico, I cannot comment about that country. But I am familiar with few European nations where they promote their own language (instead of English). I am familiar with education system in France and Germany. So, let me take example of France.

In France, a kid goes to school to learn his subjects in French, and then goes to college and studies it in French- Sciences, Engineering and Economics are all in French. The professors teach in French and the text books are in French. The articles in major journals are in French or translated into French. If he wants to get information from Internet, it is in French. He can go onto do his PhD in Metallurgy in French. When he goes for a job interview, most probably, he will be interviewed in French. If he joins the government, the business is conducted in French, the circulars, memos and letters are in French. [Many of them study English but as another language].

In India, a kid in Telangana goes to a school for twelve years to learn his subjects in Telugu. But then he goes to a college- to study Engineering, Medicine, Physics or Economics in English. The text books are in English. The professors teach in English. The journals are in English. If the information is to be taken from Internet, it is in English. The PhD thesis is written in English. If he goes for a job interview, most probably, the interview will be in English. If he joins the government, the letters, memos and circulars are in English.

So who are we bullshitting here? When we know that the game is eventually played in English, why are we kidding ourselves here? Why can’t we call it what it is – a pretense. Why are we pretending? And to impress who?

When all our future is going to be in English, why can’t we just get started in English? Why should the downtrodden that have no choice but attend government schools be taught in regional languages, while all the well-off who have a choice send their kids to English-medium private schools?

The downtrodden in India already have so many handicaps to deal with, why force another handicap?

Related Topics: English will emancipate the downtrodden in India.

12 comments:

  1. I really appreciate that you dedicated this post to my comment. It shows your sincerity.

    You know the ground realities in Telangana better than me. I have never been to Telangana before, in fact, I did not even know before this post that a place called Telanga exists in India. I have no knowledge whatsoever about primary education. I do not have any authority to write about kids in Telangana.

    You seem to know a great deal about Telangana and the education system. I will leave it up to you to reform the primary education system there the way you and other experts think is right.

    I again apologize for bullshiting. I did not know what I was saying. I am sorry if I have hurt your feelings or if I have created any inconvenience.

    I am sorry Sujai. I am sorry that I was pretending. I promise to not pretend anymore. I will not try to impress anyone else anymore by my bullshit. I agree with every word that you wrote. I am deeply and sincerely sorry. Please acknowledge by accepting this apology.

    Good luck (from the deepest portions of my heart) with all your good efforts to bring a positive change in our country and in this world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nishtha:
    I again apologize for bullshiting. I did not know what I was saying. I am sorry if I have hurt your feelings or if I have created any inconvenience.

    Your point taken.

    It was not directed at you. You took it personal. May be, I didn't write it right.

    It was directed at all of us - who continue to pretend in spite of all hard evidences.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sujai: It was directed at all of us - who continue to pretend in spite of all hard evidences.

    Well said. I see all of these pseudo-secularists who keep pampering terrorism in spite of the reality and the hard evidence that most of the terrorism is coming from extreme hardline islamic terrorists.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Sujai,

    Whtz up, nice stuff ur writin on the blog. Since last couple of years I have got frustrated by the irrationality, bigotism, hypocrisy etc which I have experienced in Indian mentality.

    I couldnt discuss all this topics with my friends/collegues cause either they lacked knowledge or show least interest in social issues.

    So finally I am happy that I found a blogger with same view of points, now u can find me regularly commenting on ur blog.

    Regarding this topic I sincerly feel that there should be a common language that everybody in INDIA knows, may it be Hindi or English or Tamil whatever. But as majority of people in INDIA knows HIndi so I with Hindi.

    This I am saying due to my personal experience, I regularly visit Mills in Tamilnadu, and I face lot of problems communicating with common man there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. //This I am saying due to my personal experience, I regularly visit Mills in Tamilnadu, and I face lot of problems communicating with common man there.//

    The problem is very simple. Better start learning Tamil and you could improve your business.

    - Anand

    ReplyDelete
  6. To Satan:
    It is impossible to expect a common man (workers) in TamilNadu to talk in Hindi for the simple reason that many of them would not be educated and even if some did learn Hindi as a third language (which occurs in some private schools) it is highly improbable that they will be fluent in Hindi. Besides what the point? Learning English is more beneficial in all ways.
    Hindi doesn't exist here in the mainstream culture(Bollywood movies can be seen only in multiplexes).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey rags,

    Well my point isnt that why havent they learned hindi, I know because of sum political reasons they didnt have the privileage to learn hindi or english.

    Buts my point is step should be taken so as people all around INDIA can communicate through common language may be hindi or english.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Satan:

    Buts my point is step should be taken so as people all around INDIA can communicate through common language may be hindi or english.

    Why?

    I mean, if the whole world wanted to communicate with each other there should be only one language.

    Should it be imposed?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey sujai,

    Its not matter of imposing but matter of better comunnication. People can learn any language they want in their school/college. But there should be a common second language through out INDIA.

    I think you have been to GERMANY, well I have also visited that place. Most of people speak German there ,only few people know english. Ok what would have happened if nobody knew even basic English. Wont your existence there be irritating in that place?

    ReplyDelete
  10. satan:
    Ok what would have happened if nobody knew even basic English. Wont your existence there be irritating in that place?

    Its not that I don't prefer having a common language so that we can converse. But it is not something that we work towards - 'to enable visitors to converse with locals'.

    The problem is in finding that 'common language'.

    When French visit Germany, should the common language be French or German or English?

    If English, why should Germans and French concede? ;-) [They were all superpowers of Europe and are proud of their civilizations and histories].

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey sujai,

    If English, why should Germans and French concede? ;-) [They were all superpowers of Europe and are proud of their civilizations and histories].

    Why are you taking the matter of learning language as some matter of ego. Should Germans and French concede? Where there is matter of conceding? Can’t people learn more than one language? Will it hurt their ego if they learn more than one language for their own benefit? If they can’t learn any common language like English, sorry to say they wont able to compete in the age of globalization. Same for INDIA, if people from all states won’t able to learn a common language, then it will be very difficult for country to progress.

    P. S : I am not HINDI chauvinist, but I believe that there should be some common language which all INDIANS should know.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Germany and France were superpowers. Not now. The country which calls the shots right now is America and English is the language of the world. Learning Hindi is not wrong but it doesn't have to be mandatory either. As I said Hindi simply doesn't exist in the manistream culture here and most people are not interested in learning an extra language. People will probably be willing to learn another language if North Indians learn a South Indian language if only to promote tolerance :-)

    ReplyDelete

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