In a multilingual country like India the warmth between the two, even, neighbouring languages is fast eroding. So peaceful co-existence of more than 4 languages in Switzerland and Singapore was music to the ears. The elderly guide in Switzerland, with lilting mother like voice, was changing the languages with ease of chameleon changing the colours. She was speaking in French, German, Italian and local Swiss language effortlessly and of course English with due perfection. I just could not think of a similar scenario in India, where now, Hindi speaking North Indian does not see even English in the eye, forget about other Indian languages. Recently Central government has to bow down to these Hindi speaking zealots coming from the cow belt to dilute Service examination format omitting international language like English. All the students in non-Hindi speaking states have to learn at least 3 languages but these from Hindi belt do not want to go beyond their own domain. I don't see any harm if they learn some other language from the south, In fact, anybody declaring his mother tongue to be Hindi must be made to learn any Dravidian south Indian language of his/her choice as a second language, a step that will definitely bring India together!
Tamil has a different stance altogether. They see any Hindi favouring move as an encroachment on their being and culture. To a certain extent, it is true also. Tamil is original and only Indian language that can be spoken without any Sanskrit word so-called language of Aryans. Rest from the south, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam have borrowed many words from Sanskrit. Tamil has the least number of symbols for alphabets so it is difficult to incorporate Sanskrit oriented words in her lingo. To accommodate different consonants from Devanagari, they have to use same symbols for different alphabets, [thus Symbol for 'P' also stands for 'Ph' 'B' 'Bh' etc], making it difficult to differentiate one from the other. That's why written Tamil has to be read with reference to the context, otherwise, it plays havoc. So the frequent use of unnecessary 'H' while writing Sanskrit based words. As the grammar, alphabets, structure of language is totally different from any of the Anglo sax-en languages from the North, for any Tamilian to learn Hindi is as difficult/ easy as learning any alien language, including modern European language. But they should also come a step forward and try to learn Hindi which Malayalis had to do, due to vast scale migration from the state to the Middle East, which has definitely helped them in a broader sense while communicating with other Co Indians.
The brain is capable of having a thought process which is independent of words or language. At times it's so abstract that it can not be expressed in any words. Even sign language fails.[ For that matter sign language, supposed to be the last frontier to overcome a lingual barrier, too changes from place to place or country to country. Rolling the index finger on thumb says 'Zero' but if you stretch out remaining fingers it becomes 'Excellent ' while in Japan same sign connotes ' Money'. Another one commonly used by today's cool gen-next is showing outstretched middle finger with rest closed into a fist to THE enemy, meaning 'Shove.....' I mean whatever! A sign clearly not in vogue when We were young and happening generation, definitely imported from the west as off now ! ] Then why our feelings, thoughts, the very being should be restricted to the confines of a single language. Be open and give space to others' expressions and language too, though that's not your own!
Languages are going to vary because a lot of culture goes into it. Not only culture but the emotions and the bond makes it difficult to take the bow. When we start respecting each other and their language, their window to the world, going beyond only commercial propositions and pseudo sense of freedom, these type of unruly, uncalled for, fracases would be fewer.
I don't understand what's the problem in learning more languages. More the merrier. I regret not getting a chance to learn any of the Modern European languages along with any south Indian language though at present I am proficient in 4 languages. Language should be used as a bridge rather than a barrier and not only a mode of communication!
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