India moves to end primary teaching in English as Modi unveils major education reforms

[Shantanu_Left]

Oh man come on, I thought you got sarcasm. You got to learn from @Joe Shearer.
Wait till I come to Singapore for the 1,000 time, I’m bringing my gag book of dry humour. You’re going to love it.

Ah you didn't get me either. I have a great talent of acting angry/annoyed but that was semi-serious.

Anyway. f. that. It'll be my pleasure to have you, bhai. Hoping you are a Scotch-drinker (actually any whiskies are great with me). S'pore has a great nightlife but nothing on Shoreditch or SoHo. It's a squeaky clean place for my kind of fun. For partying, I usually take a short trip to Bangkok, Bali or nearby Johor. Let me know about your girl preferences in advance, hah hah

 

[Shantanu_Left]

They would have played whist, actually; a precursor of bridge.

That's actually true. Your pedantic self brings a lot of informed opinions.

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

Hindi speaker dominance of India continues unabated.

 

[Shantanu_Left]

Oh absolutely agreed.
I am still trying to figure out the motive behind this reform.
Ill reserve my opinion until I understand further, the justification and need for the same.
Could it be an easier medium to strengthen the fundamentals of a child in his/her early developmental years?
Perhaps we don't have enough qualified English speaking teachers with enough mastery of English, that might interpret or explain concepts wrongly in their broken English to students?

At the end of the day, education and understanding concepts to be used in practical scenarios is key and superceeds everything else. Language being irrelevant in that endeavor.

It's good for Indians of various regions to take pride in their language and educate their children in that. But if you forcefully raise a child in Marathi-medium, Bengali-medium etc. in India, they will never be able to adjust that well if they want to move overseas.

Considering India is likely to remain a basket-case for another 20-30 years and not solve any of its major problems (some are getting worse with a Hindutva government in charge), the children should have a choice to be educated in an English-medium school at a primary level. The country is nowhere near China when it comes to self-reliance.

 

[Shantanu_Left]

Zeal is जील. In Hindi, ज is pronounced as the English 'j' like in 'jar'. In Marathi, ज is pronounced like the 'z' in zeal.


Also, it's not tamizh but tameez.

Tameez will be written as तमीज.

Now, if even if you want to write tamizh, it will be तमीझ.

One important thing to note is that there are certain Devanagiri script letters which Hindi speakers don't use but Marathi speakers use. Some of them are झ (used in tameezh), ण, ळ, ष, etc.

Now, if you come up with words that don't originate in the subcontinent, in some cases Devanagiri script won't be suitable as the letters in those words will simply not be in the script. In that case, new alphabets will have to be added to the script.

But for the majority of the words in subcontinent, the Devanagiri script is perfect and as I mentioned you literally write what you speak and speak what you write without ambiguity. The Roman script has many words that are ambiguous with people having to second-guess the pronunciations.

I think that at the end of the day, it comes to trade-off. The Roman script has limited alphabets so learning it for new people is easier but it comes at the cost of ambivalence. The Devangiri script has a vast number of alphabets, velantis, etc to cater to every twist and turn of our tongue but it can be difficult for some people to learn quickly.

If the Roman script would have been near perfect like the Devanagiri there would hardly have been an Indian accent to English as Indians would have literally studied all the English in the original correct pronunciation. I hope you understood what I meant here.

STOP IT....Aata Majhi Satakli....Tu mala tras deta ahes with your Damned Devangari

 

[Figaro]

Actually this is a good move ... India should unify the nation with one language.

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

India need to learn from China. Impose standard Mandarin for all Chinese as the uniform language to unify all Chinese.

Same as India who need to impose Hindi as the standard national language for all indians be it Tamil or Punjabi. English is a foreign language. It does not belong from India.

India is a hodgepodge of differing nationalities, which even cannot get along. They are hammered into submission by the hereditary British-croneyist elite and the Hindu fanatic caste Brahmins.

It was only when foreign Muslim rule existed in the subcontinent (which I define as everything East of Pakistan/Kashmir and West of Burma) that equality, respect, and economic prosperity existed.

If Islamic empires like the Mughals and Durranis had more time to rule the subcontinental nations, they would be in a much better situation than now. Much of the caste racism, glaring injustices, and inhumanity/lack of order would have been squeezed out of them.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Zeal is जील. In Hindi, ज is pronounced as the English 'j' like in 'jar'. In Marathi, ज is pronounced like the 'z' in zeal.


Also, it's not tamizh but tameez.

Tameez will be written as तमीज.

Now, if even if you want to write tamizh, it will be तमीझ.

One important thing to note is that there are certain Devanagiri script letters which Hindi speakers don't use but Marathi speakers use. Some of them are झ (used in tameezh), ण, ळ, ष, etc.

Now, if you come up with words that don't originate in the subcontinent, in some cases Devanagiri script won't be suitable as the letters in those words will simply not be in the script. In that case, new alphabets will have to be added to the script.

But for the majority of the words in subcontinent, the Devanagiri script is perfect and as I mentioned you literally write what you speak and speak what you write without ambiguity. The Roman script has many words that are ambiguous with people having to second-guess the pronunciations.

I think that at the end of the day, it comes to trade-off. The Roman script has limited alphabets so learning it for new people is easier but it comes at the cost of ambivalence. The Devangiri script has a vast number of alphabets, velantis, etc to cater to every twist and turn of our tongue but it can be difficult for some people to learn quickly.

If the Roman script would have been near perfect like the Devanagiri there would hardly have been an Indian accent to English as Indians would have literally studied all the English in the original correct pronunciation. I hope you understood what I meant here.

I understood that you have no idea what you are talking about.

I offered you two examples to see for yourself that Nagari cannot cope, and you totally failed to understand.

It was downright funny to see you mistake one of the most venerable Indian languages for a word that means cultivated and engrained courtesy.

The experiment at least had entertainment value.

 

[RPK]

Not going to happen. May be for Hindi belt. but not in TN or KA or KL or AP or TG. Most education obsession state

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

Actually this is a good move ... India should unify the nation with one language.

It will re-energize South Indian, Sikh, Muslim, Dalit, Tribal independence aspirations.

Yes, in this sense, very good for us.

You have to remember that whole states have been carved out based on language, it is quite a touchy subject.

 

[Joe Shearer]

But if you forcefully raise a child in Marathi-medium, Bengali-medium etc. in India, they will never be able to adjust that well if they want to move overseas.

Nobody did it forcefully, but I was a Bengali medium student until Class VIII.

Never be able to adjust that well.....? Really? Because of my vocabulary, or my accent, or the miasma of curry that I carry around? Disclaimer - my accent does change between the way I speak in India and the way I speak elsewhere, and my vocabulary is a trifle Edwardian. @jbgt90 objects to the language I use and the way I use it, so I have been sludging my way downwards into a more demotic speech.

I have to deal with the likes of those who don't know the difference between Tamizh, or Thamizh, sometimes spelt Tamil, and tameez, as akin to tehzeeb.

Och aye, the sorrow of it a'. We maun dree our ain weird.

 

[TheGreatMaratha]

I understood that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Or maybe you couldn't comprehend what I wanted to say.

I offered you two examples to see for yourself that Nagari cannot cope, and you totally failed to understand.

Either you are blind or you can't read Devanagiri. And yeah, I can easily guess your incorrect pronunciation when you write words like 'tamizh' instead of 'tameez'. Now, if it's some South Indian word, you should have let me know that. I've written a word in that script even for that btw but again you seemed to be blind or too lazy?

It was downright funny to see you mistake one of the most venerable Indian languages for a word that means cultivated and engrained courtesy.

Answered above.

The experiment at least had entertainment value.

Yeah I gave you literal examples and you just beat about the bush without any facts to counter. Any Hindi or Marathi speaker can easily check and see whether what I've written is correct or wrong. Didn't expect this from you though, I'll concede that.

It's almost like acting deaf to what others say in a debate lol.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Muslim, Dalit, Tribal

I oppose Hindi imposition, but sometimes it gives me a strange turn to hear people talking about it.

WHY should the Muslim, the Dalit, and the Tribal turn against anything because of Hindi?

Something to occupy your mind with (it's quite a small factoid, won't hurt after the initial painful entry): I've heard a Pathan migrated from Guntur into Chennai speak to a Malayali Muslim in Bengaluru and to another associate in Chittoor in the most beautiful Tamil.

One thing I learnt in my (nearly) seventy years' sojourn is to keep my mouth tight shut when I don't know a subject. I share that finding with all members free of cost and without prejudice.

 

[SQ8]

Would be lovely to see the chaos in translation when these disparate groups have to coalesce in higher education and then abroad.

Being raised in a Household where English was nearly a first language along with Urdu is why I can shame the gora on his own turf.
Being multilingual was an advantage for Indian Children - it actually helped their natural learning processes.

Since Hindi hasn’t been enforced throughout anyway and now the other common lingua franca is being shown the door, one wonders when the language wars will begin?

Milosz had a point “Language is the only homeland” .. remove a common denominator and see how the chasms form.

 

[Joe Shearer]

And yeah, I can easily guess your incorrect pronunciation when you write words like 'tamizh' instead of 'tameez'. Now, if it's some South Indian word, you should have let me know that. I've written a word in that script even for that btw but again you seemed to be blind or too lazy?

LOL.

If you have any south Indian friend, ask him. This is the standard form, and contains a letter that cannot be reproduced in any variation of Brahmi.

Please don't ask for the connection.