Be Indian, learn English

One of the foremost authorities in English language today and a distinguished linguist, David Crystal of the UK was at the British Council in the Capital recently. The visit formed a part of his tour to major cities of India, whereby he interacted with teachers, students and learners of English and delivered a series of lectures. His lecture entitled ''The Future of Englishes'' was attended by audiences from different walks of life including educators.
According to Crystal, it was difficult to estimate accurately the number of English-speakers across the world.This confusion, he said: "Stemmed from the very premise that there are no guiding standards as to who all can be counted among the speakers of English, as around the world, English speakers had different levels of understanding and ability in using the language."
Giving numerous fascinating examples interspersed with heavy doses of humour, Crystal went on to describe the different kinds of users of English. He elaborated, "All the speakers of English around the world can be grouped into three categories: those who speak English as their first language or mother tongue; those who speak English as the second language and those who speak English as a foreign language."
Making a conservative estimate of the number of people that can be included in these different categories, he said: "About 400 million people, more or less as the first category of users; about 400 million people, more or less speaking in English as the second language and foreign users of the language at around 600-700 million." He added that India came into the second category of users of English; even a marginal increase in population would increase the number to a new high, even higher than the first users.
Crystal cited many interesting reasons for English being a global language in the current world scenario. According to him, "Any language becomes a world language when it empowers different users in many different ways." He remarked that this power assumed different forms such as political, military, economic and cultural." Crystal pointed out that it was the industrial revolution in Britain that led to the growth of that nation and eventually this resulted in the spread of English - as the various inventions and discoveries were carried out by British or English-speaking scientists and inventors and their records were kept in English.
Similarly, speaking on cultural power he said the powerful media of audio, visual, print, cinema, among other forms again had its genesis in the UK and in other English-speaking nations and hence, the spread of the media into various parts of the world led to the spread of English. One of the interesting points that he referred to was that English differed from place to place and country to country, assimilating the culture and trends of that country. "In this regard, there is a need to evolve a standard of English and to strike a balance, with regard to different ''dialects'' of English spoken around the world today," Crystal emphatically remarked. About India, he said: "It is a hub of English-speakers and Indians are doing very many fascinating things in English in the field of information technology, which has put them at the forefront in the world today."