Tuesday, February 22, 2011

So what do YOU speak?

Communication as we know it is an essential ability in this world. Lack of this in our life will mean that ideas are diminished even before they start to take shape and relationships between people broken without even a reason. In the ancient times, people might have spoken in a single dialect or a single language across the world. Today, one will be astounded at the number of languages existing in this modern era. Some languages have a natural flair of attracting people and some are inbred into everyone such that they gain expertise in it subconsciously as they speak. There's a curious thing about languages though: one word can mean a compliment in one whereas the same word might even turn out to be an insult in another! Each language is unique in its own way and some of them share the same script for reading and writing their alphabets. And we come to the prized question: So what do YOU speak?

Technological advances have brought the world closer than before. And they have also created attractive options for the soul yearning to learn the language he/she desires. Looking at the internet, there’s a wealth of resources which can aid you in your quest to mastering a particular language and you don't even have to take classes! Of course if you are planning to take up a career in that language, then certifications from a reputed institution would prove to be your best friend forever. Pursuing studies at official institutions like The Alliance Francaise or the German Embassy would give a great boost to start off your career as well as serve to improve your skills in the language. What better a place to study a language than the representative’s place from the language's homeland? Speaking of homeland, over here in India (I suppose this might hold true for other places in the world as well) we have a concept known as "The Mother Tongue". This is possibly derived from the family language of the mother before her marriage to a man. Their offspring have a natural ability to speak fluently in that particular language since it also happens to be the first ever language they are exposed to. As a result, they also learn to write and read the script of that language at an early age. That’s one language down and many more to go. There’s work to be done here!

In the current era, English is often used as the common language for communication across many countries. While English serves to attract people as the common medium, there are other languages as well which prove to be irresistible for their artistic impact they have on people. I don’t know about you guys but over here in India, there are a lot of languages spoken which are spread across all states. You might be interested to learn Hindi, which is considered as the national language or perhaps you might be more inclined towards Gujarati or Marathi or Oriya along with a taste of the South Indian flavors of Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu to finish it off! The possibilities are endless as the ones I have mentioned barely scratch the surface of the rich culture that is present in India! And then we have what are termed as the foreign languages: French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian etc. Of these, each language mentioned has its own base of followers solely dedicated to achieving ultimate nirvana in literature. And there are people who love to learn a language not for making a career out of it but for the love of the language and sometimes a bare necessity for those who wish to travel to the home of that language one day. It’s a literal feast for those who love a language and get to travel to the place where it originated from!

I’ll conclude with a personal profile of my own. As I told you about the concept of The Mother Tongue, mine is Telugu. Other languages which I speak are Hindi, Tamil and English. I’m impressed by the French language but unfortunately I’m as good as an infant since I probably know barely two to three words in it. Will have to learn it someday! My favorite language (no prizes for guessing) is English. I do have some fascination for the language and hence I always strive to improve my grammar and vocabulary in it. I doubt that I’m making much progress though! The forms of English known to me are the original British English, the Americanized version and the mixture of both which is spoken here in India. The best of both worlds you could say!

And so I bid adieu to all for now. Bonne chance for those in French and Good luck for everyone else! Have a great time! ^_^