What language is hot?
"Hey guys I have an interesting question for you all... it was hot debate for the day at class.. and i think it will be hot to discuss. Let us see what you have got!", challenged Mark, energizing the group with all that air for a discussion.
"Is it.. what where you compsci guys the great debating on?", asks Preethi in a ignorant tone to tease Mark.
Mark: "What language is hot in the world according to you? .. and Why? That is the topic. Let's hear. Hey Preethi what do you think is the hottest language".
Jas: "Arre yaar... obviously its Hindi. The intellectuals language. Isme puchne ki kya bath hai (what's there to ask)"
Raj: "I think its French. Its the only language I have known, which is spread over continents and countries, even if no french speaking people migrated into some countries. I mean, generally people take to a language only after people speaking that language migrate into their habitat and encourage interest".
"Take English for instance. The english ruled and lived in many parts of the world in the 19th century, then, people started learning english from them and speak the language in all these countries. Probably the language has not much penetration into places like Japan, Russia, France, because english didn't rule these countries."
Preeth: "haan Raj that reminds me... what's that butler english. I have heard people say things like "that guy speaks butler english".
Raj: "Butler english is just bad english.. real bad .. which doesnt make much of a complete sentence. Sometimes people like cab drivers in our cities, who dont know english, try to speak the language to try attract foreign travellers to take their cab. This english they speak will be very broken and is to only convey a message when the recipient doesn't understand any of our languages".
"But I don't know why they pulled a 'butler' for describing it.. making it look like all butlers speak bad english. Might have had something to do like that for that name 'butler english'"
Jas: "English may be popular yaar. But hindi is our national language.. how can you say something in favor of english or french without respecting our own languages".
Raj: "Jas, c'mon! language is a way to communicate.. Look at it this way. dont talk politics by saying i don't respect our languages.. and speaking english or french is unpatriotic".
Jas: "If we don't speak our language, who will.. and how do you think our languages will survive in the future. These days even mothers talk to their new born kids in english. Speaking english is considered the most educated thing to do, and sometimes a status symbol with our people".
"Whatever said, mother tongue is our language.. and not speaking it is kind of unpatriotic to me. Also, its scientifically researched and proved that one is at ease understanding things spoken in their mother tongue rather than a foreign language.. because the brain processes more to understand the foreign language, one has to concentrate more and be attentive when listening to a foreign language speaker, process the accent / style in the language etc., "
"I think the best way to communicate and deal with languages is to strictly use your national languages, and even commit businesses to use the national languages like in Japan, China, Russia, etc., "
Mark: "Yea, people in Japan, China and all have their national language as the business language, and even software operating systems like Microsoft Windows packages a special Japenese or Chinese version for these countries. Also, for studying in countries like Germany or Russia, you first will have to be through a course in German or Russian".
Raj: "True.. we can keep arguing.. but in my opinion the choice of a language should be left with the people rather than forcing it to keep the language alive. There should be many other interesting ways to make the language alive and interesting.. rather than forcing people to use it".
Manoj: "I also agree with Raj that languages are communication means and not to be made an issue to face. But Jas's argument is also correct in a way, that people take up to foreign languages more often for showing off or in expectation of career benefits that their knowledge with foreign languages can bring".
"But Jas isn't this number of people who take to foreign languages for a show or career benefits very low.. Why should a country try to be afraid of losing popularity to a foreign language and force the national language.. look at the efforts in customizing software for chinese, japanese, and then for english, and come to india we have almost 1800 languages. Forcing national languages for business would in turn deprive the businesses of practical advantages with using a more widespread language like english".
Preeth: "Yea, probably this is one of those things where you can't draw a line.. and have to leave it to people for sometime, and to the politicians for sometime to force national language importance against foreign languages. But, like Jas says I feel very very comfortable following my mother tongue rather than english, be it speaking, writing or listening".
"There are days I go for english films with friends, and once out of the theatre each one of us have a different version of the story in the movie. With some english films where you have to pay attention to the dialogues and screenplay, it gets confusing even if you miss something for a few seconds in the movie".
Mark: "Yea, otherwise Preethi would understand stories in movies. Ha ha ha"
Preeth: "Hey Mark I am better than you anyway with english okay."
Manoj: "Whatever said we have to give our exams in english only, and those old lecturers understand very little of our english.. pray god that they understand better... rather than us."
Everyone gets a tight laugh on that comment and disperse for the evening.
"Is it.. what where you compsci guys the great debating on?", asks Preethi in a ignorant tone to tease Mark.
Mark: "What language is hot in the world according to you? .. and Why? That is the topic. Let's hear. Hey Preethi what do you think is the hottest language".
Jas: "Arre yaar... obviously its Hindi. The intellectuals language. Isme puchne ki kya bath hai (what's there to ask)"
Raj: "I think its French. Its the only language I have known, which is spread over continents and countries, even if no french speaking people migrated into some countries. I mean, generally people take to a language only after people speaking that language migrate into their habitat and encourage interest".
"Take English for instance. The english ruled and lived in many parts of the world in the 19th century, then, people started learning english from them and speak the language in all these countries. Probably the language has not much penetration into places like Japan, Russia, France, because english didn't rule these countries."
Preeth: "haan Raj that reminds me... what's that butler english. I have heard people say things like "that guy speaks butler english".
Raj: "Butler english is just bad english.. real bad .. which doesnt make much of a complete sentence. Sometimes people like cab drivers in our cities, who dont know english, try to speak the language to try attract foreign travellers to take their cab. This english they speak will be very broken and is to only convey a message when the recipient doesn't understand any of our languages".
"But I don't know why they pulled a 'butler' for describing it.. making it look like all butlers speak bad english. Might have had something to do like that for that name 'butler english'"
Jas: "English may be popular yaar. But hindi is our national language.. how can you say something in favor of english or french without respecting our own languages".
Raj: "Jas, c'mon! language is a way to communicate.. Look at it this way. dont talk politics by saying i don't respect our languages.. and speaking english or french is unpatriotic".
Jas: "If we don't speak our language, who will.. and how do you think our languages will survive in the future. These days even mothers talk to their new born kids in english. Speaking english is considered the most educated thing to do, and sometimes a status symbol with our people".
"Whatever said, mother tongue is our language.. and not speaking it is kind of unpatriotic to me. Also, its scientifically researched and proved that one is at ease understanding things spoken in their mother tongue rather than a foreign language.. because the brain processes more to understand the foreign language, one has to concentrate more and be attentive when listening to a foreign language speaker, process the accent / style in the language etc., "
"I think the best way to communicate and deal with languages is to strictly use your national languages, and even commit businesses to use the national languages like in Japan, China, Russia, etc., "
Mark: "Yea, people in Japan, China and all have their national language as the business language, and even software operating systems like Microsoft Windows packages a special Japenese or Chinese version for these countries. Also, for studying in countries like Germany or Russia, you first will have to be through a course in German or Russian".
Raj: "True.. we can keep arguing.. but in my opinion the choice of a language should be left with the people rather than forcing it to keep the language alive. There should be many other interesting ways to make the language alive and interesting.. rather than forcing people to use it".
Manoj: "I also agree with Raj that languages are communication means and not to be made an issue to face. But Jas's argument is also correct in a way, that people take up to foreign languages more often for showing off or in expectation of career benefits that their knowledge with foreign languages can bring".
"But Jas isn't this number of people who take to foreign languages for a show or career benefits very low.. Why should a country try to be afraid of losing popularity to a foreign language and force the national language.. look at the efforts in customizing software for chinese, japanese, and then for english, and come to india we have almost 1800 languages. Forcing national languages for business would in turn deprive the businesses of practical advantages with using a more widespread language like english".
Preeth: "Yea, probably this is one of those things where you can't draw a line.. and have to leave it to people for sometime, and to the politicians for sometime to force national language importance against foreign languages. But, like Jas says I feel very very comfortable following my mother tongue rather than english, be it speaking, writing or listening".
"There are days I go for english films with friends, and once out of the theatre each one of us have a different version of the story in the movie. With some english films where you have to pay attention to the dialogues and screenplay, it gets confusing even if you miss something for a few seconds in the movie".
Mark: "Yea, otherwise Preethi would understand stories in movies. Ha ha ha"
Preeth: "Hey Mark I am better than you anyway with english okay."
Manoj: "Whatever said we have to give our exams in english only, and those old lecturers understand very little of our english.. pray god that they understand better... rather than us."
Everyone gets a tight laugh on that comment and disperse for the evening.
posted by Harish Palaniappan at 12:51 AM
9 Comments:
Hi Raj,
I was reading your discussions on the hottest language and thought I could share some of my thoughts also.
As opposed to today's connotation of the word "butler",(which immediately conjures up the image of a immaculately dressed server in a 5* hotel with a tray),
during british raj it was applied broadly to all man servants who are in charge of pantry in home,hotel and office.The word butler is
derived from the french word "boutellier" meaning "bottle bearer" or" cup bearer".
Those olden day "butlers" in India were basically illiterates and wanted to appease their English masters by talking in their language .
But more often they ended up saying wrong things and annoyed their masters.The funny conversations between the butler and the master have been narrated in some of the novels of Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell.
Apart from butler English,there were also other forms of Indian English like Baboo English,Chechee English,Box wallah English.This categorization was
again based on the people using it ,like,Baboo English - used by Indian clerks pressed on the service
in British offices,Box wallah english - spoken by Indian merchants who had trade contacts with
East India Company.Eventually all other forms got vanished but the "Butler English" survived.One more interesting thing is,
during those days it is not called just as Butler English but as "Butler English of Madras"(Maybe most of the servants are from the MADRAS province)
Secondly,regarding the popularity and spreading of a Language,I don't agree with the reason you afforded for your choice
of Freanch as the hottest.There are only two reasons for a language to cross its boundaries and reach the foreign lands,One
Invasion and the other Religion.During the imperialistic age,the nations which shared the avarice of British in colonising
foreign lands were French and Spanish ,which clearly explains the popularity of French and Spanish next to English.What I am trying to say is French also treaded the same path of
ENglish to reach the glorious position it is holdong now.And also,as I have previously said the English and French religious missionaries
played a vital role in spreading the language to African and Asian countries.
I would also accept French as the "hottest" language because of its richness and romanticism.I don't want to elaborate on
the romanticism of french because your creator(Harish Palaniappan) might sue me for spoiling your innocent young mind.
Any way ,I feel good to share some of my thoughts woth you guys.
Keep continuing the good work
-JP
That's what they call a comment. It looked well researched... if it was, then good.
About butler english: It just lives as a means to point to bad english in a branded way. So, all that history you mentioned were eye popping (i thought what happened to jp, so much overflow of knowledge :) ... but may be we keep our discussions on this for a future research paper on kinds of english.
About french: I never knew french colonizing any part of what is now 'Asia'... but if they did, as u said, that obviously is the reason for the language spreading.. but i am still sceptic, because there was a sudden spurt in french's popularity when i was in 10th std, and all of a sudden from the next year all schools brought in french as a second language option (i was confused at what was happening then.. i was a dumbo in geography then.. (u can say, still in portions of geography)... never knew that french was the language of people of france.
Here we go…
The list of French colonies in Asia.
In Far East:
-India (French East India company came even before English)
-China (Remember the Second Opium war fought by English and French
against Chinese empire)
-Annam,Paracel Islands,CochinChina,laos –wondering what they are?
Olden names of the territories which now constitute the countries Vietnam,Cambodia and Laos.
In Near East:
-Syria
-Lebanon
-Turkey
In Asia ,china and India were the main targets of Western Europe's imperialistic powers.At one point of time French held the major portion of Asia,but due to the outbreak of french revolution the government lost its control on most of its colonies.
You needn't feel like a real dumbo for not knowing french as the language spoken in France during your schooling.Just imagine you only knew Southern France ,where people don't speak French, but Occitan.
Huh ..Smart...?
-JP
you are way beyond my approval for your smartness .. gr8 you study so much. never give up that good habit jp. not many got it.
i started feeling motivated more than biographies now.
by the way, can you explain briefly whats meant by 'imperialistic powers'.. also 'rennaisance'.
...but JP, ..
honestly, is there a book near you when u type it.. or u used google.. dont tell me u have this in your brains, and still sitting on a dumb software job having so much interest in social science and literature.
also,
do you write any books.. you should have.. or blogs.. or something. lets share the secret.
Hi harish,
I am just rercollecting things from my 10th std History…that’s it (atleast I have to justify my image of school top scorer)
I am not a great pro in History and Literature as you think,but definitely in the process of becoming one.
Honestly,(With you I have always been honest) I rake my brain and try to recollect things first and then I refer a book or google to get the facts and confirm things.
So far I have been an aimless reader ,just swallowing everything which comes in papers. But now I feel it is high time to discipline myself and start developing my fortes.Currently,I am trying to master the history of Second World War…..I am reading a very interesting book called “IBM and Holocaust”
which sheds light on the malicious liasions between IBM and Nazi Germany.Really a stunning book.
Me writing books,blogs……if there is something like that ,do u think my “ootai vayee” could hold it?
Anyhow,One of my long term goal is to write a book,I am just laying the foundation now.There is still a long way to go.
So far I have written only religious literature(oops idhu konjam over nnu nenaikkeran) …so religious articles,in Tamil
about the evils of Casteism and how it flouts the fundamental dogma of Christ and few stuff like that and a personal diary(I don’t write it regularly).For the most part of my college days,I was reading theology and history of Christianity(just to reaffirm my faith).
okay..i stop here..this is not the place for writing my auto biography .We will discuss on Renaissance and Imperialism later.
Hi,
After a looong time you have requested, I have written a small paragraph about Renaissance...
Peter.F.Drucker in the very first line of his book “Post Capitalist Society” writes,”Every few hundred years in Western History , there occurs a sharp transformation” .One such transformation, which occurred during the middle ages is collectively termed as ‘Renaissance’ meaning “ a new growth of interest in something”.There was sudden spurt of interest and innovation in every field of Arts and Science.New forms of Music and Architecture emerged, the groundbreaking discovery of Copernicus proclaiming Earth is not the center of Universe ,acceptance of Arab Numerals by West, Discovery of America by Columbus and many reformation movements like Martin Luther’s Protestant reformation. These are few of the transformations happened during the time of Renaissance which changed the world . But how does these changes happen? , why at that particular period of time?,was everyone living in that period suddenly became innovative and intelligent?.The answers to all these questions would be the magnificient invention of Printing Press by Jaohannes Gutenberg in 1455 AD which could be duly compared with Internet of our age, where everyone has access to the Information they need and the frenzy it has created among the people of our generation.The same amount of energy and enthusiasm was created when press was invented and the first Book , the Bible ,got printed. Many books got printed thereafter in large amounts and got circulated producing reformation and change in every field known to man.There is also one more point to be added for the cause of Renaissance, the trade contacts of West and East boomed which paved way for the merge of Eastern and Western thoughts.
Definitely , the period of Renaissance is a milestone in the history of democratization of Information.
"Peter.F.Drucker in the ...."
Hey... if i am right, that guy Peter.F.Drucker is the father of scientific management. Every MBA student's first lesson is on his 14 principles to scientific management... and many of teachings are still preached in B-schools.
... i am proud of myself.. i still remember this much about my incomplete MBA course.
mmmmm....I didn't check this section for a loooong time......romba peruma pattukkatheenga....Taylor is the father of Scientific Management.....I even googled and confirmed it.....but the other part of the statement that his teachings are preached in B-schools is right.
-JP
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