Should English be taught to children over mother tongue?

Whether we accept it or not, English is a must for all of us to survive in the competitive world. In the Indian context  we have our reservations to accept Hindi as our national language but many of us may not have any objection to accept English as link language. Tragedy is that many of us cant understand Hindi the most spoken language of the nation, we all can understand English. When it comes to the regional languages, if you confine to your mother tongue, you are confining yourself.

English is a lingua franca‘(or working language, bridge language, vehicular language) is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues. you want to exist internally you have to be able to communicate... unfortunately there are people who mistake the term Language with the term Culture! they feel if one learns English they are forgetting their cultural background... With that mentality what do those people expect by not being employed... bloody learn English!! South Africa has 11 official languages including English but only 5% of people speak English as their first language... Sadly enough this is the truth!

I support this view. English is a language which everyone should learn at schools itself. Then only we can communicate easily with one another whether we are in India or overseas.

English should be taught along with Mother tongue..!

That's the reason behind why all KPOs, BPOs, IT and other major verticals are here in India and India is a pool of expertise..! We are getting more jobs because of this and what's the harm of learning anyway..!? 

I believe..!

Yes English must be taught along with other languages because your child must grow to face the world today.Due to being non english speaking you may feel harassed at plenty of places in your life.

Being nostalgic for any identity regarding culture, civilization or language is a good thing, but it always slowdown the speed of your development. As far as the language problem in developing country like India is concern this all has been created by the politicians and politics is playing major roll in this regard. Its also true that not a single ethnic group or identity of the world could accept any imposition or hegemony of other identity without any reason. But as far as the English language is concern it must be taught as a mother tong to every child of a developing country because in the contemporary world there is no single language containing as vast knowledge base as English language.  

ENGLISH IS A LANGUAGE THAT IS WIDELY ACCEPTED AND RECOGNISED BY A REASONABLY GOOD PERCENTAGE OF OUR POPULATION.ENGLISH SKILLS ALSO HELP US TO HAVE BETTER COMMUNICATION WITH TWO PEOPLE KNOWING TWO DIFFERENT REGIONAL LANGUAGES.ENOUGH OF STUDY MATERIAL IN ALL SUBJECTS IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH.PEOPLE PLANNING TO GO ABROAD FIND ENGLISH SKILLS VERY USEFUL TO TRAVEL OR STAY THERE,SEEK EMPLOYMENT.ENGLISH CAN BE TAUGHT ALONG WITH MOTHER TONGUE AND HINDI.

Dear Madam

We need to develop a common medium of communication to survive in multilingual communities and save the complicacies, that medium is english which is spoken in the vast portion of the globe even in france and tamilnadu.

Dinesh Sharma

dear madam

i would like to differ with you here again as English and French or any other language of the world have similarities and English has words from almost all the languages of the world but mother tongue has the regional impact and it alienates you from the World and you remain a stupid when faced with Global audince if you don't the common medium of communication.

DineshSharma 

English is a international language , even the French, Japanese and Koreans are learning the same language

No doubt one shoudl know local language but then the language which is  used world wide is to be given importance

Interviews in companies are done in English and not local language

What is the definition of a mother tongue? AFter all you cant even talk when you are born. is it the language your mother uses to comunicate with you as a child? An illiterate mother, to what extent she will teach you a language? Or is it the language you use to comunicate with your friends, neighbour and the people surrounding You? Suppose if you are born in a land of dumb people and only yoour mother speaks a language then what is your mother toungue? or if your mother is dumb and the people around you speak a language then what is your mother toungue? Why all this fuss about a language?

We require a language to comunicate with others effectively, and if the people surrounding you do not know the language you speak then you need to learn their language or they need to learn your language to communicate effectively. If you want to study the llierature in another language or want to be a science student then you need to learn the language in which scientific literature is published need to be learnt. You have lot of literature in English and most technical books and research results are published in English Language. Now if you want get benifited from these books and literature either you need to study and master English language or you need to get these translated to your own language. Here comes the economics: Which is cheaper? Learning English or getting these translated and publishing in your own language and effordability of such expenses. Wehter you like i tor not we becaME slaves of british because of our own people and ultimately we became an indipendent Nation. We lerant English in the process. The british also learnt the local Language for ruling us. In the bargain they not only translated our literature in to English, They published dictionaries english-Local languages and did a real service to us.  Is practcal to spend lots of money in translating technical books and adding new words barrowed from english and other languages to our own languages which our mother do not about. We have other preiorities, that are very important. Building economy, improving the economic status of a large percenage of poor people, providing social security to all and so on. Learn your language, learn as many languages as you can and afford, dont hate any language.  

Language is a means of comunication. Comunicate culture through literature, Comunicate Science and Scientific findings and so on. One need to learn all languages in the world if he wants to understand and get benifitted by the culture of other languages. Or read literature from other cultures tarnslated in to his own languages, if available and propelry translated. To make available books from other languages translated in to ones own mother toungue, first of all some one should have knowledge of both the languages. Does that mean that person who learns another language and translates literature in to his mother tongue for the benifit of his fellowmen should become outcast to his fellowmen because he has learnt a language other than his mother tongue. Culture of another linguistic society can be best learnt by learning that language first and then mix with other society observe, practice and read about that socity. Hating another language only means refusing to learn and widen ones knowledge and refusing to be accomodative. People who ruled this country did learn language of this country by mixing with our people first, were able to make us their slaves. Our forefather had to slog and give their lives to get freedom.

If you want to gain from Scientific books and literature you should necessarily know the laguage in which they are available If you are able to master the languages in which these knowledge is available then only you can learn better. Not by reading translations.

English need to be learnt because most scientific works are published in that language. The assumption made while preaching that one should learn mother toungue first or education should be provided only in ones mother toungue is that the child will become proficient in mother toungue very fast and all the cultural and scientific literature is or could be made available in mother toungue. There are 1000's of languages in India of which less than scores of laguage is recognised as laguages and according to which the states haave been reorganised. Idea was in future importance should be given to learn in these languages and efforts should be made to make available scientific and cultural literature in these languages in those regions where these languages are spoken. But what is happening now. people are fighting on the issue of language. Maharastara want to divide in to more states Vidharbha, Konakani Areas and the rest of Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh in to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka into Maharastra Karnataka, Hyderabad Karnataka, old Mysore State, Tulu Nadu, Kodavas.

All this talk about language issues is only Political and political ambitions and aspirations. Everyone wants to become Chief Ministers, more the states more Cm's Every beurocarat wants to become Chief Scretary, more states and more number of CS. More Distrct means more Collectors and so on. Thus people are not fighting for Socio economic development they are fighting for getting power in to their hands, every one wants to be a king. The new type of Pallavas, kadambas, Cholas, Chalukyas, Marathas, Rastrakootas, and I dont know how many. These politicains want to disintegrate the country at any cost Just to enjoy power. History is repeating.

So wake of common man preach and accept universal brotherhood learn as many languages as possible and read and speak as many languages as posible. Art has no language boundaries, try to enjoy art in any language as from your own culture. Your health will then improve, you will be able to lead a peacefull and enjoyable life. Prevent people from fighting on language and relegion issues. They are all Deshdrohi's.

Well,english is an International languege and i agree with mr. Ganta sripathy that english should me toughtfrom KG which will give strong base and good command over english.

English should get the preference as much as education is concern, ofcourse mothertounge is very important but it is not required to teach as childrens learn it from their house itself.

Indian students should not lack behind only due to poor english knowledge when they have to face world.

If given a strong english base in acadamic years it will be easy to communicate for indians when they interact globally.

If you want our future generations to be successful in this globalised world, they should be proficient in English & may be in Chinese also!

Being proficient means to be familiar & using the language as early as possible.But its the family's and society's responsibility to make sure future generations doesn't grow up 'cultureless'.

Striking the balance is vital. 

No body opposes mother tong; every one wants to talk in mother-tong, every one likes their children should learn mother tong. If English language is of so much importance, it should be taught from the beginning.

Learning mother tongue is a must. But side by side even English has to be taught from the beginning. The reason being in this growing age of globalization, one cannot expect to study in mother tongue till a particular class and then move on to English later on. Too much effort is needed by the child in order to make this move. Just by studying English, I do not believe we won't be knowing our culture. Culture, I believe, is something which we learn at home and not taught in the classroom.

Now coming to the topic of being able to understand each other in mother tongue, do you really need to go to school to learn to understand in mother tongue. If so, it cannot be the mother tongue at all.Even an uneducated person will be able to understand in his/her mother tongue. 

How much ever the regional fanatics fight over the local language, I still believe that one has to be proficient in English. But they should also be taught the regional language of that region.

You know that english is the official language in India as well as internationally, it has got such a dual importance in a human life. As far as local language is conserned its importance is as if its word meaning and there fore its usage is restricted to the local area. Start english from fourth standered is the proceedure followed by our predesessoers long before, it was a period of restricted movement by an individual, movement of a person is well restricted within the local area. But that is not the position now, lot of developments took place with regard to communication, travel and living style. Right now people are moving freely any where universally. As such importance of english is more when compared to local language, further study of local language can be without being taught, it will be taught by the local area movement, my daughter is a classical example for that, our mother moyher tongue is konkani and the local language is malayalam, she is attending play school but studying 3 languages at time, she is only 3 years old. Konkany she studying at whome without being taught aprt form malayalam and english. What I am going to say is that mother tongue can be studied without being taught and considering the importance of english language it will be very good decision to start english from standered 1.

Learning mother tongue is a must.

Though English is the most uncouth language with no basic written rules; in the phonetic forms of its alphabets, in the combination of alphabets in forming words, with four separate forms for every alphabet for writing and printing, with same letter pronounce differently in different words, in forming singular and plural forms, in the  usage of vowels and compilation of words into sentences etc., it is still worthwhile to learn English for some more years in our own interest to continue in the top notch of unavoidable process of globalization.

You are right that 'UTNA HE MAHATAWA DENA CHAHEYE' BUT TO LEARN IT PROPERLY, you have to start early, it does not mean you are giving importance. It is just you are preparing your future generation to go with the time.

Sarika Singh is right, I agree with her fully. The way Globalization is going on, It is our duty to prepare our children for future. English is spoken all over the world and children should be aware to communicate with each other over Internet, doing new innovations [children doing this, not the youngsters] , they should be given all tools to learn English from K G CLASS.

English I feel should be taught from KG classes. This will give the students a strong base and command in English. Since English is more often used in offices etc., I think learning English is a must those days as well in these days.

Society is a very complicated phenomenon. On top of it if the citizen cannot communicate with each other let alone learn modern science subjects which are all exposed through English, then it is wise to learn English as the unifying language of a Nation. There are no advanced text books or subject books available in local languages. Even if one decides to learn ones own mother tounge later on when one grows understanding complicated processes will become difficult for everyone those who decides to stick to mother tougne. India is one example, even the government cannot solve the problem of all inclusive symmetrical processes. It becomes different markets for differnt clusters, starting with those who speak different languages. A homogeneous market is a necessary criterion for proper development and probably learning English early on life is the only soltution. There is no other choice left open for us.

Yes English should be taught right from primary School. In my openion apart from Engilshi children should have the option to chose and learn more languages. In a country like ours it is not worth while spending money on translating or writing technical books in local language. We have too many languages and where is the money required to translate all technical books and literature in to mother tongue when we have at least 20 -100 languages in this country. It is necessary to have one common language and one should learn that language right from primary school so that he  or she masters it nearly to the level of native language. To day we dont speak or write in our own mother tongue properly. If watch TV Channels some of the nachors do not speak their mother tongue properly and as result children who watch such programmes also follow these people. We have other priorities for spending like providing basic aminities to people and building economic infrastructure. preiority shuld be learn your mother tongue properly and laso learn English so that you are not deprived of an opportunity to read technical books and literature in English. Try to learn as many languages as posible. Dont hate any language.

Yes it should be taught from earlier classes there is no harm in it. But one need to consider the situation of teachers and parents also, are they in position to teach english from early classes. As this will not only impact the students in cities but also in remote villages where, changing things overnight may not be possible. Now it’s up to scientist and doctors to decide weather a child brain would able to capture three different languages at same time (Hindi, English and regional language). If all these problems dealt well  then there is no problem in it.