​Mother of all Languages

With the government allowing civil services aspirants to take their UPSC exam in any regional language, Education Times finds out the importance of multi-lingual skills.
Even a few years ago, English language skills gave one an edge over others in the job market. No longer. As David Graddol, applied linguist, and author of English Next (2006), points out, the advantage which English has historically provided will ebb away as English becomes a near-universal basic skill.The need to maintain the advantage by moving beyond English will be felt more acutely, he says in the study commissioned by British Council.
In one of his earlier interviews to Education Times, Graddol had said that while English may be the future language of a corporate India, with everybody knowing English, there will be a demand for people who are multi-linguists . According to him, employers are looking for employees with communication skills in regional languages. Unless and until they are proficient in their mother tongue or a regional language, they won’t be able to understand how the domestic market works and help MNCs gain an insight into the dynamics of the larger market.
In fact, Monica Das, fellow, Developing Countries Research Centre, DU, and the managing trustee of Fakir Mohan Foundation, points out that India’s demographic dividend can be optimised only when the youth can reach out to as many people , which can be best done if there is no language barrier between the vast magnitude of rural population and a relatively less number of English-speaking population.
On the other hand, Keerti Ramachandra , winner of the AK Ramanujan award for translation (1995), feels that her multi-lingualism has enabled her to become a translator and editor. “My understanding of the ethos expressed by writers in the regional languages and my proficiency in English gave me the confidence to take on these two activities.” While Ramachandra believes that one must be in-sync with the ethos of the source language , and have a command over the target language to do justice to the original work, Das concludes that language skill is a soft skill that has potential of complementing one’s hard skills, thus, enhancing one’s weighting as a professional.
Eshown mpirical that evidence children has who begin their education in their mother-tongue have higher cognitive skills. According to Ajit K Mohanty, former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), there is a misconception about mothertongue based education. “It is perceived that it will isolate children from the mainstream. On the contrary, studies have shown that these children have better linguistic skills. Also, they perform better in maths and science.” He adds that the ‘craze for English language’ in India is more a social than a linguistic reason