Int'l Mother Language Day '22: A time to reflect on the curious ways of humankind...

Earlier this week, on the 21st of February, I was returning home from school via Grab (a taxi service) and when I got in the car, the driver was saying something enthusiastically in Tamil over the phone. My having lived in Chennai for eight years allowed me to understand this incredible language, but when the man cut the call and confirmed the passenger details (my name, etc.) he seemed to have wanted to ask something.

After a few rounds of pinning my hometown (the beautiful coastal city of Vizag) he had almost stopped the car! Turns out his family was also from there and that he was a third-generation Malaysian Indian. (Hence, his fluency in Tamil.) The rest of the journey home was a wonderful exchange in Telugu, our native language. When I had reached home, he casually observed that this current generation is losing the pure connection to their native languages, which probably bothered him, but he took off with a polite smile.

This brief encounter with this total stranger whom I connected instantly with, made me reflect about how communication is a unifying bond amongst the entire humankind. Yet, the same has been an issue for countless people. Whether it is with different ethnic groups facing language barriers to people speaking the same language, we get disconnected with our fellow social creatures often. And during the pandemic, this peaked. Before I go on, an even more interesting observation was that 21 February is recognized as International Mother Language Day.

40% don’t access education in a language they understand.

— UNESCO

This. When the world is built on communications, and when the future minds of this world are not getting quality education just because of inaccessibility to their native language at schools, it makes me really want to hear all the other wise words the taxi driver has to part. And this is not just experienced by foreigners in developed countries, as one might think. This is increasingly becoming a symptom of globalisation in developing countries as well.

The English language has surely bound the world together, although the journey to reach this stage is a very sensitive topic, but one thing is for sure: imperialism had not ceased. Developing nations have popularised (maybe even fanaticised) this language to a great extent that if one spoke in their native language, it would be looked down upon... in their own country.

My mom often spoke about her schooling (in Vizag) and how it was drilled into the students' minds that English, and only English, must be the medium of communication in the school. The teachers even took measures such as giving fines to those who spoke Telugu or Hindi or Urdu or any other language. The point that it was a British school is irrelevant, honestly, because all schools (in India, at least) refer to non-English languages as "second languages". And don't get me started on "third languages", like Sanskrit. (Which should, ironically, be the first language of India.)

As a student, I have learnt several languages and have been exposed to many more. In India, I learnt English, Hindi and Sanskrit. In Malaysia, I studied Malay, Mandarin, Spanish and German! Studying in an international school, I learnt to respect other cultures and beliefs and learnt a great deal on the importance of languages in our history.

Linguistic nationalism has played a crucial factor in key historical events, from German expansionism during World War II to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, the division of languages, ethnic groups, religions and, tragically, humanity itself has made the world as it is today. Of course, English has also been playing a vital role in humanity for a long time. That is undeniable.

I admit that I had lost my touch with Telugu when I moved to Malaysia and only properly learnt this beautiful language from my brother. (Who is a language whiz, constantly broadening his capabilities.) And while I am only now slowly becoming more comfortable and confident in speaking Telugu (due to my consciousness of speaking with an accent), I certainly hope for more people to reconnect with their languages this year.

UNESCO set 2022's theme for International Mother Language Day as:

Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities.

The pandemic and the rise of the digital world are golden opportunities to reconnect with each other and ourselves. It would be amazing if we could change our mindsets towards our roots. They are nothing to be ashamed of, but something to be proud of. But with that pride, respect for others and their cultures must equally be nurtured. Change is yet to arrive, but it can only be brought about when you start to think about it. Acting on it comes later.

All this said, I also want to point out that a more human approach of saying Mother Language Day would be Native Language Day! After all, why should the language of your father be sidelined? Isn't it equally important? While maternal words do bring a positive connotation to mind, that doesn't mean that we should categorise languages as 'mother' tongues. (That, in my opinion, is gender bias.)

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