A forced language.

When I was in 3rd standard I got admitted to a new school, Vardhaman Vidya Vihar secondary school. Like it is for every newcomer my new school was a total fascinating thing for me, a new dress, a new bag, new stationery, but the thing which fascinated me most was that everyone, literally everyone was speaking in English. 

Till that time, I could barely converse in English, but I was the most talkative girl when it came to speaking in marwadi or Hindi ( my mother tongues)!

In this new school we "have" had to speak in English "only", the two exceptional periods were that of Hindi and Sanskrit when we were "allowed" to speak in Hindi. 

On my first day, there was no teacher in class, I got up and asked the monitor....paani bharnn....(monitor)- speak in English.....I again tried to speak ..paani bhaaa...again I was ordered to speak in English only. I lowered my eyes and sit down. I asked the person sitting on the bench ahead of me...paani bharne jana h, English m kaise bolu? He (Siddharth Jain) was cooperative enough to tell me - may I go to fill my water bottle. He spoke these words at the speed of an express, I could barely understand any. I again asked....kya kha? He repeated- may I go to fill my water bottle?. Again it passed over my head. And one more thing "water bottle" as a word was completely new to me at that time. In my family, it was paani ki botl which was used and I was familiar with. 

I then gave up on this water bottle thing. I asked him again...agr bathroom jana h to kya bolu? He told me - may I go to the toilet? ....aahaa ...this came as a relief to me as I knew this previously as well. Then I made a scheme in my mind that in the Hindi/Sanskrit period I will go for filling the water bottle and in all others, I will go for toilet only. 

This English speaking thing didn't stop here. It was a hurdle for me every time I had to express myself. First I will think in Hindi and then translate whatever I can into English. If failed in this exercise I would be asked to shut up! The worst it could do to me was that often I chose remaining silent over speaking up. And I was not the only one, most of us were from families where no English existed. So most of us were sailing in the same boat.

The only reason I narrated this incident was that there is no need to push a child to speak in a particular language. At that age, the most important thing for a child is to learn and to express, in whichever language. 

Putting fines on speaking in mother tongues, punishing them for not speaking in English, not only discourages them from speaking up but also generates fear for English. 

Secondly, the problem of rote learning we witness in our children is precisely because of this. We expect them to understand and learn a subject in the language, which is the language they don't understand in the first place. Just imagine how traumatising it is for a child to learn that subject then. And thus we face all those padhai nahi krni, school nahi jana tantrums. 

The irony that I am writing this blog in English only is to tell that it's "just a language". We can learn it at any juncture of our life and can first learn it and then try to learn subjects in it. Simple !! 

Till that time let our mother tongue rock our brains. At least then a talkative girl would not be forced to shut up!!!