Dear Fredrrick,
I would like to add to your article some crazy ideas in the lighter vein.
It is interesting how national English can be. For language in not
logic. It is an experience of a society which sometimes follow no laws,
no grammar , no logic, no structures developed and accepted depending on
time an place. SMS has added another dimension..
I recollect in the early days of Liberation. I think it was in the first
Assembly that the Calngute MLA ( was it J.M. D'Souza?) who said that
Konkani was a young language and hence did not require Grammar i.e.
crutches . We all laughed. Some said he never understood konkani.for
konkani had a grammar written by a priest . It was the days of every
language fitting into the grammatical constructions defined by Latin.
Today many would disagree with that type of Grammar. I remember my B. ed
Professor when she said " Bury your Wren and Martin" . I realise we
needed that shocking dose .
We discuss sometimes on abstract Terms. Mother tongue is the right
choice for a child. Now let us answer the logic of the child.
Upto what class I shall learn mother tongues. Is it oral? Writen,
Numeriacal ?
Which script I will learn at what age and do I switch it after a few
years? Why?
Will I be able to use mobile in class I . Will the government provide
mobiles for me to connect home in English numericals.
And the compute I shall handle in which class. Will the programmes be
adjusted to my learning.
After I learn my primary in Konkani , will i get preference to do Ph.
D. In konkani. Or will somebody from diaspora jump the que and do a Ph.
D. in konkani during a sabbatical ? And he is accepted by the society.
Konkani via America?
Now let us hear English puzzling us about its role. Surely the myth
tells us English is anti national, Is it defacto so?
Here are questions addressed to us by English.
Could marathi bring the integration of Goa into India. Why the
administrators didnt try it after liberation.Why did M. G, try it ? Is
Surender document signed by Vassalo in Konkani, Marathi, Hindi or English?
Could Portuguese language bring Goas integration into India. Would
Handoo permit it? Upper hand to Portuguese administrators..? ...
Could Konkani bring integration of Goa into India. ? Language was too
young or it might have been devoured by Marathi.
Interestingly Portugal's supposed to be true friends , the English
ditched them not only at Suez Canal but their language betrayed them
throughout.
English the language of twelfth Constitutional Amendment , 14
Constitutional Amendment, the language of integration of Goa into India-
Is it Anti national? Unconstitutional? All other languages perhaps
would have split the society . Portuguese Autonomy, Portuguese Ccommon
wealth, Marathi Nation- India's disintegration . Unbelievable . History
takes funny courses. It is not logic Goenkara.
Read the Bulletims of 1961 onwards. The language of the administrators.
It was Macaulay's Logic with an extension never contemplated before
Macualay was not thinking of Goans as civil servants? was he? Was he
impresed by Goans as civil servants? Never heard of.
Don't attempt to answer this. There is no logic. History takes
unpredictable course. Let time provide answers.
Carmo
On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 3:48 AM, Goanet Reader wrote:
HOW FOREIGN IS 'FOREIGN'?
Or, why politicians shy away from the truth over English in India (and Goa)
By Frederick Noronha
SOME TIME in 2003, the then Goa chief minister Manohar
Parrikar followed the footsteps of politicians like
Shashikala Kakodkar (during the short-lived PDF regime of
1990) in his stand against English-language education. He
said at a Marathi meet that "English cannot be the
mother-tongue of Goans". Since the early 1990s, politicians
of different hues have been blocking primary education in
English largely on the grounds that it is a "foreign language".
----------------------------------------------------
Read all Goanet messages at:
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/
----------------------------------------------------
