What an idea! Surgy?
OK! So I haven't updated my blog for about a month now. Not that I have a lot happening in life but I am plain bored. Also, I think there has been a surge in my fat consumption and my brain has gotten slower now. I might say something and then suddenly start saying something else. That is why people should walk to work. Huh? Um... see?
I just had a "D'oh" moment there! What was I talking about?
This time I saw this advertisement on the idiot box about a mobile phone service that provides education to all. Well, there is this Christian priest (Abhishek Bachchan, of course) who gets an idea from the divine to provide distant education to village schools through a single teacher using an array of cell phones. A good deed, indeed.
Allright, for now I am ready to forget the complications that the teacher will face. I mean, it is already too hard for a teacher to handle a single classroom at a time. Here, (s)he has to manage 5 or 6 without being there. Utopia?
My problem with this TVC is not the highly idealistic view but is the essential concept of education. The problem with this country is the belief that a person is educated only if that person speaks in English. It is true that officially English is spoken in most private institutes and is a highly respected medium but does that mean we should stop speaking in vernacular?
Should we be ashamed of the language that we learn from our parents that we totally give away with it to speak an essentially foreign language (although it isn't a foreign language in India)?
Or should we be educated in order to advance ourselves including our language?
That is where the problem remains. We still haven't overcome the hangover of the British rule that we feel that being educated means speaking in English only.
I believe that if you are at home, speak in your mother tongue. It will help you protect your ethnicity. Speaking in English is not wrong (heck! I am writing in English here!) but totally doing away with your mother tongue is an insult to your ethnicity. Learn new languages, understand different cultures but never throw out the vernacular, because that is your identity. Your Culture.
Check the ad here. For free though! Grrr... they aren't paying me. There are other short ads in this series.
Dhanyavaad!
Friday, August 08, 2008
Posted by Apurv Kulkarni at 4:59 AM
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6 comments:
Well, well, well...when did you start getting all preachy about using your mother tongue, etc.
This ad appeals to IDEA customers, look at the brand name: IDEA...what language is that?...hmm?
Dude...of course the advt has them showing a Christian priest and English education, that's what Idea's pointing towards...a global kind of education for their kids...which is the germ of the priest's 'Idea'...its the brief of the ad man.
If you had to do it like a vernacular education ad in a rural setting, it wouldn't work to the same effect. Its not a social docuementary..its an ad for IDEA...so stop being senti, Sirjee!
Dude!!
I am not against this ad. This ad is allright and sends the message across.
The problem I have is with the social structure that exists in India. The perception that a person who speak English is well-educated and vice-versa.
The advertisement isn't what is disturbing me. The sad truth is the general perception in the Indian society.
This is exactly the basis on which some South-Mumbai folks become wannabes and speak Hindi worse than an Englishman would. They feel speaking in vernacular is "down-market".
These people are wannabe Americans and can't speak English in either American or British accents and at the same time can't speak Hindi in an Indian accent.
The hangover of colonial India.
My objection is not against the ad but against the sad reality it brings out.
It is because we generally relate education and English, the ad-men have exploited it. Not their fault.
I just feel sad for the reality. Where Indians look up to a man speaking English.
How much of business would you do, with a marathi-speaking bureacrat man? Just coz we all love our mother tongue, doesn't mean its the only thing running the planet.
Heck, French, and German languages were formed for centuries before English happened, but the English language has a beauty in itself, which you have to appreciate, how it manages to flow within conversations, and unites almost the entire world.
You gota take the good with the bad boss.. english is here to stay, and no amount of Crying over it, is gona change that.
Dude!!!
What are you talking about??
Whoever said that speaking English is wrong?
I am writing this in English!
Dude! You have lost my point entirely! Read the post again.
My clarifications:
1. Speaking, learning or teaching English is not wrong
2. Learning or teaching in English is not what I object to
3. The ad is not bad. OK, it might be but for reasons unrelated to this post.
The only problem I have is this:
The perception in India that Education = English.
It is no different from when u see some Indians trying to please fair-skinned foreigners.
Hence, I called it the hangover of colonial India.
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