Before we start, I would like to share a story with you. I have seen a movie recently. The name of the movie is “Ocean’s eleven”. There are lots of characters in that movie which can attract anybody. But the character which interests me the most was the Villain of the movie. He possessed a strange talent of having a command over different languages. He could talk to different people from different countries in their languages perfectly, fluently and convincingly.
He has got the extensive command over the most widely spoken languages of present time like English,French,Arabic,Russian,Spanish and many others.moreover; the way he could communicate in these languages was truly impressive. He was portrayed as a successful businessman, a millionaire in the movie and According to one perception the success he acquired was due to his outstanding ability to communicate in these languages.
Well, you might be thinking that it is absurd to start a language learning book with a villainous character of a movie. Yes, it may look weird in the first place. However, it has been deliberately taken from a movie to show the readers of the book that a person can obtain success by just having the mastery over a language or two.
Apart from this, there is an interesting incident which I have read in, “Reader’s Digest”, one of the most famous, widely accepted and acclaimed English magazinein the world. I came across with this interesting article while I was reading that magazine. The writer of the article has shared somewhat weird but interesting Experience of him working in one of the best IT Companies in London.Along with the writer, there were some other Indians, too, who were working in the same company. Some of them were from Punjab, while others were From Gujarat, some from West Bengal, and some from Kerala.There were the people from every part of INDIA. Writer himself was from Bangalore.
Despite the fact that they belonged to the same country, they were not talking in any of the regional languages of India.They were not talking in Hindi even.The medium of communication was English.When one of the colleagues asked the author why they were using English as a medium of communication instead of their regional languages. “English is the only language which we speak and understand equally”, the writer replied.
Did you find any connection between these two incidents?
First one is not an incident even. It is just a character of a movie. Well, I have tried to connect them. When you take a close look, there is a very distinct similarity between these two examples. Both the examples reveal the importance of language.
In the first instance, the character of the movie teaches us the importance of the languages in general. It shows us that by having a command over different languages, one can communicate with other people, impress them, learn from them, understand them and convince them.
As, people are the most comfortable in their mother tongue and would prefer to talk in their language only, they would be familiar to you if you speak their language so it is always advisable for us to learn different languages. For example, we live in INDIA. We have HINDI as a national language. But, if you go to southern part or north – east states of India, people don’t understand Hindi properly, so you have to communicate in their mother tongue. In southern part, English would be advisable. Hence, we should have the knowledge of different languages at our hand to communicate with the people.
Some recent research also shows that learning languages other than our mother tongue can stave off old age diseases like Alzheimer dementia, boost our memory and even boost up our mother tongue. In this regard, learning languages other than our mother tongue is always helpful and recommeneded.
Second example shows us the importance of English. Nowadays, it is impossible to progress if we are lacking in English. English has been rooted deeply in our culture and Study.In addition, there are several other countries where English is spoken and one can get immigration in any country if they have a good command over English.
The writer of the article showed us that due to the knowledge of English language they could communicate with each other. It would have been an extremely difficult task for them to communicate if they hadn’t had English.
So, by these two examples, we can conclude that, by having the knowledge of mother tongue one can communicate in his area but because of the fact that the world is getting smaller day by day due to the advancement of the technology we should learn other languages too.
We can start with by learning our national language and any international language and while speaking about international language the only language which we should start with immediately is English. By learning English we can connect globally.
Talking about English in particular, people know the importance of it, that’s why we are not going to discuss it further. English has already become a part of our culture and society. We can say that English has got immense influence on our lives and day to day lookouts.
- For example, we feel comfortable speaking nurse instead of ”પરિચારિકા ” driver instead of “ચાલક” train instead of “આગગાડી” and there are lots of other words whose Gujarati pronunciation and meaning may seem awkward to us.
- There are dozens of English words like, Table, pen, mall, bike, computer, doctor whose Guajarati meaning is unknown to us.
- There are very few courses available after H.S.C where the medium of the communication isn’t English,
- It is the most prevalent language, as far as, getting the information from internet is concerned.
- The authentic and reliable material of Medical, Engineering, MBA, IIT, IAS, CA and other advanced courses is available in English only.
- One would feel the status if he is having a command over English.
Importance of English cannot be avoided, whether the prime reason for learning English is career or hobby, to get good score in schools and colleges, or to get higher rank in jobs. In one phrase, English has become a synonym for communication and success. We cannot afford to avoid English and people know the importance of it, so they try lot to learn English, after learning this language from schools and colleges they join classes, read lots of books and do enormous hard work.That’s why; I would like to dedicate this book to all those people who want to learn English, feel lagging behind due to the poor knowledge of English, and, are ready to put sincere efforts to learn it.