Re: [racchabanda] Re: Telugu in Schools? (was Impressions of a writer)
Krishna Rao Maddipati
<sreenadh@g...> wrote:
>
>> you speak Telugu but cannot express in it. If this is what you
> suggest be
>> imposed in Andhra Pradesh (by creating enclaves of 'English only
> spoken
>> here' areas) to be part of globalization, why bother teaching Telugu
> at all?
>
> Almost, but not quite; I'm suggesting that it is not unreasonable to
> ask this in the schools, where at least part of the purpose is to
> teach English.
>
I don't think English teaching is suffering in anyway. If your argument is
that the quality should be improved, Amen to that. But my point is to do
for both the languages, not for English alone just because it fetches a
better job.
>
>> them. If the burden on the school kids should be lessened, let them
> get rid
>> of the Sanskrit and/or Hindi from the curriculum. What useful
> purpose do
>> they serve anyway.
>
> I think this is the crux of the dilemna, and I've myself swung from
> one horn of it to the other over time (excuse my mixed metaphors!); As
> you eloquently put it in the case of Hindi, "what useful purpose does
> it serve anyway"? If we want our kids to learn Telugu, we need to be
> clear why; It certainly does not help them advance academically (other
> than in the narrow sense of getting higher marks in a Telugu paper),
> so I question the usefulness of enforcing it in school. I think one of
> the clearest reasons is that it will serve as a link to our culture;
> IMHO it is in this context that Telugu should be taught to second
> generation immigrants - as a fun way to appreciate and reinterpret
> what's going on around them at home, or when they go to a temple, or
> when they visit grandparents, or why dad listens to those funny
> sounding songs etc.,
>
If not for emotional reasons and to foster diversity, the world doesn't need
more than one language for survival. We all know that emotional needs are as
important for survival as the physical ones. Teaching Telugu to the second
generation immigrants is almost a lost cause already. Until they feel the
identity crisis and want to keep their heritage alive, the Telugu teachings
that are going on at the temples will serve little purpose. For now, the
constant flow of Telugu immigrants is keeping the membership in the Telugu
associations (as well as spoken Telugu) alive among the immigrant
populations. If the fresh immigrants themselves are trained (or forced) not
to speak Telugu back home, the future for the language is very bleak indeed.
Krishna Rao
Courtesy: http://www.kanneganti.com/
viplavreddy <viplavreddy@y...>
education or even highschoolers (6-10) using Telugu in class (if
they went to a Urdu or English Medium schools) can be deferred
atleast to the point of someone coming up with reasoning for the
primary schools enforcing a policy of 'no-use' of any other language
including Telugu in class.
We are not talking about instruction here - the instruction is
understood to be in the language of choice by parents for children
(URDU/TELUGU/ENGLISH). What next (if not already happening) would
you do? You would ask parents to speak in English only at home so
that the child would not confuse; you would ask a baby sitter after
hours to speak english only; and not interact with children who
spoke some alien language called Telugu. All these seem reasonable
once you accept the hypothesis that children (again, in 0-5 grades)
can not learn two or three languages at the same time; that children
in order to perform better in higher education must learn to 'think'
in english only; and that children will become experts in using
english by enforcing such a policy. I seek to reject all these
three parts to this theory. You need only a sample controlled for
high achievements to see the point.
A couple of other things that might help us understand this a little
more. Only a hundred years ago someone decided to 'educate' native
american tribes so for the convenience sake they put them in
internment camps (only they did not use the word), built hostels for
boys and girls and picked up kids once they are six or seven from
parents - forcibly, if I may remind you under the threat of
prosecution and possible enslavement - having decimated several of
these cultures already by the late 19th century, it was an
acceptable practice to do all that. They taught female children in
these hostels how to sew, how to cook and how to behave among other
things like reading and writing in english. They did enforce a
strict policy of not speaking their native language with punishments
ranging from scrubbing the floor for four hours, doing pots and pans
for everyone etc.,
A long time ago, like in 1990, a Houston developer wanted to build a
bunch of high price homes on a prime piece of land. They got the
survey done, plans made, got permits, secured loans and went to
dig. On the first day of digging, they found a 'houston toad' on
that piece of land. Unfortunately for this developor houston toad
happens to be on the U.S. endangered species list, you can guess
what happened to his dream of adding another piece to the sprawling
suburban civilization.
The result?
We have few Creeks or Cherokees or Seminoles who can write poetry
and/or prose in their native tongue or read their own constitution
written in their original language unless an english translation is
provided to them. Infact I just happen to see a Creek constitution
in their native language at a museum a few days ago.
But we have a happily reproducing Houston Toads by the ton which
still speak their mother toungue. Arcane policies seem to have done
better with Toads than with People.
What they might be doing is turning the entire 75 million people of
A.P., into a huge internment camp in future. But I still enjoy a
telugu saameta once in a while: కందకు లేని దురద కత్తి పీటకు
ఎందుకు? since I do not think it is perceived as such a huge problem
in A.P., Now try to translate that saameta into English and convey
the same meaning, as your homework for the day:) or one easy way out
is to agree that English is limiting.
regards,
-viplav-
From viplavreddy@y... Thu Dec 12 08:52:21 2002
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Subject: Language studies scholarship
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someone in the us might be intersted in this, studying telugu in
vizag for a few months sounds like fun, especially when all expenses
are taken care of!
http://www.indiastudies.org/aiislang/AIIS_flyer_2001_02.htm
Courtesy: http://www.kanneganti.com/