English- It shrunk the world!
Yes, it has. And no one can question this. English as a language has not only shrunk the world into a smaller place,but it has also brought about multitudinous options and varieties to an individual's life.
Let us, for a moment in life imagine that we were never exposed to English language and had nothing to do with it. Where would we be?! What would we be doing now?! How different would our lives be today?!
Of course I am not saying that we would be living in jungles and would be confined to ethnically dominated life styles......but we would definitely have not made it this far.. being socially acceptable everywhere , being capable of understanding other human beings from the different cultures, backgrounds and belief systems. Whether we are open minded enough to attribute our gratitude to this language for "bonding of human race" or not, English reserves this credit for itself of being the only language that still works for all purposes, in all places and for all reasons.
I am here to only talk about the enormous contribution English language has given to each and every one of us today and not to compare it with any native languages and argue about its superiority. In the first place, it hurts me to compare anything to anything else at all!
Languages are a medium of expressing human thoughts and emotions to others. May it be any language, it does the same. Then why fight and make the hell of an issue out of which is the best language, oldest language and the most favored language! I find it very funny when people fight about their native languages and territorial identifications associated with it. Definitely you need to respect and love your language and nativity, but that doesn't ever mean you have to hate any other language or culture just because it is not yours or similar to yours! Why can't we be so little enlightened as "rational animals" as they call it....to the fact that....Languages develop on their own in a social set up for a necessity and interdependence of expressing thoughts and feelings? If some language does the same job across multi -cultural scenario....so be it! Respect it.
More often we find people are blind folded to believe and forced to agree to some one's fanaticism about identifying their language and culture as the only loveable and respectable thing and hence, you should not love or respect others! How mean and self centered this is.
I love my mother tongue too and respect its specialties...but I find it hard to accept when people use English for earning their livelihood and yet complain about the language being used by others for communicating on a day today basis.
Why can't we come out of the shell that the fantasists have created around us and be thankful to this wonderful language which has brought people from different geographical, ethical, cultural philosophical , social backgrounds to be open minded and accept their virtues and values as they are? I , personally know and feel that I would be a totally different kind of person today if I didn't learn English with all the love it deserves.
I wouldn't have moved into a city to pursue my studies, wouldn't have been confident enough to communicate with people from various states and cities, never would go and apply for jobs and try to make a career in different places which has brought me to where I am today....if it was not for English.
I wouldn't have gained all the knowledge that science and social studies had offered me to learn about all that is so wonderful, amazing , helpful and soul satisfying. I would probably less appreciate GOD's powers if I never had got a chance to know that there were so many things hidden in his creations .....and the details of those weren't brought to me by English language through computers and internet. I can't refuse the amount of self confidence and self identity it has brought unto my personality while talking about this language too.
I would probably never understand the concepts of universal approach and international identification of human perceptions of rights, values, beliefs, peace, love or their opposites hate, war, greed, crime, fanaticism blind faith, terrorism etc......if they weren't explained to me from a language that many expressed their thoughts in.
So here I am , suddenly out of the blue.....just for the sake of it.....expressing all my love and respect to this one wonderful language in the world...which has changed many lives and many souls for it has brought open mindedness in human beings across this planet and will keep continuing to shrink the world to much smaller place.......ENGLISH......I LOVE YOU!
Kusuma Prathap
