Extinction of languages

Letter August 26, 2020
This will also, by the same token, ensure that the richness of our language is not lost in the years to come

Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”. Every language is a blessing of God since it keeps mankind connected. However, the modern age has ushered the rise of a universal language, English, due to which several other languages are slowly fading away. According to the latest report by Unesco, there are currently 7,000 languages spoken around the world. The threat that by the next century around 3,000 languages will perish because local communities have replaced them with English is very real.

A survey conducted in Africa as part of the World Education Global Monitoring report included a test in which African students were asked to comprehend a sentence in their native language. The outcome was that 79% of the students were able to answer correctly. On the other hand, when students were told to comprehend the same sentence in another known language, the comprehension ratio dropped to 41%. This analysis indicates that students can understand things better when they are taught in their mother tongue.

In Pakistan, successive governments have constantly had shifting opinions on whether English or Urdu should be the medium of instruction in schools. Regardless, one cannot ignore the fact that regional languages such as Sindhi, Punjabi and Balochi have never been taken into consideration.

It is therefore requested that the current government make it mandatory for students to learn the basics of our regional languages in order to promote tolerance and diversity. This will also, by the same token, ensure that the richness of our language is not lost in the years to come.

Syed Badshah
Peshawar

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2020.

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