Karthik's musings

No English for Pakis!

Bravo Pakistan! The Pak Cricket Board has asked their players to not speak in English in news conferences. I feel this is a right decision...although I feel itz unfortunate it should have come as a mandate. I see no reason why one should be apologetic about his poor English language skills.

Itz a fact that one of the reasons Indians (or South Asians in general) come across as having not great communication skills is because we are invariably forced to communicate in an alien language....a language that you invariably will not use outside your work environment. Itz said that one of the best way to learn a language is to start thinking in that language, and most of us do not think in English. Now, there are two ways to handle this lack of comfort in English language - either you make an effort and get comfy with the language, or you put your foot down and say I will communicate in the language I am most comfortable in. If you are an IT professionsal, or somebody who is planning to emigrate to a English-speaking country, you do not have a choice but to follow funda#1.

But why on earth should the captain of a cricket team be forced to learn an alien language? I do not intend to say that learning an alien language is not desirable. If you have the desire to learn a new language, by all means go ahead and do that. But you should not be forced to do that, and you definitely need not lose your captaincy of the cricket team because you are bad in English.

The discomfot that you get when communicating in an alien language also shows up in the lack of self-confidence. No wonder most of we Indians are so hesitant to speak up when dealing with westerners. Also, as I had blogged earlier, this might just be one of the reasons for our not progressing economically.

Our good and evil deeds follow us continually like shadows.
- Bhagavan Buddha