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Everybody is appreciative with the current status of English language in today’s times. With its wide influence in various fields, it is not surprising that people from all ages and walks of life choose to learn English language. It actually makes the world smaller and lives the life in an easier and more comfortable manner.
However, the compensation for this easier and comfortable life that you and I are enjoying is actually the dangerous dominance of English in our society today— and in our own culture as well. I would assume that you are a person who identifies his own culture and civilization that happens to be fluent with English language. I myself too am a person who has a distinct cultural identity. I cannot frankly deny that English has dominated me and my nation as well.
I know this experience is not new to you. Do you ever encounter parents who encourage their children to speak English even within their houses? You are probably enrolled in an institution with a rule to speak English inside the classrooms at all times. Does your nature of employment require you to constantly speak, write, and listen to English language? Well, you better get ready with this fact because you are definitely embracing English’s dangerous dominance in your own lifestyle.
This very same dilemma was addressed in one of the articles posted by News24, writing an editorial that English has colonized our languages. The writer addressed how English colonizers in the past contributed the current status of English today. However, they still continued to inhabit by colonizing our tongues. It made me think how irrefutably true that “the colonizers haven’t left, they just changed complexion.” Do you also agree with this?
It is sad how English seem to gradually eradicate a person’s knowledge of his own native language in these times already. I myself am guilty of the fact that I am more proficient with English compared to my native language. There was even a time when I joined an impromptu speech at school using my native idiom. My presentation did not end well because I ended up faltering and hesitant. I had a hard time expressing my speech using my native language because I am not completely fluent with it. Is it surprising? I was honestly not, but it sure was threatening.
I know there are lots of you out there who are more fluent and knowledgeable in English compared to your own native language. Though I am not against people who choose to learn English language for their personal or employment purposes, let us also be open to accept our own language far above any foreign language we wish to learn. Learning languages is an opportunity to explore the greatness of the world; but it is even greater to master our own mother tongue first before proceeding to learn another foreign language.
