Has anyone wondered what the consequences of knowing more than couple languages can be? To be honest, it raises an eyebrow when westerns learn that most Indians speak atleast 3 languages... foreign/native. But at what cost?
Yes, being multi-lingual has its own advantages, you have access to a variety of literature or knowledge in different forms for that matter. I have noticed that most westerners speak just one language fluently and a broken second one! However they have an added advantage.... majority of the westerns are super fluent and articulate in that one language. And wouldn't anyone be... I would find it rather odd to speak just one language and would try to bring in some variety by coming up with some cool lingos' and better forms of the same language. This way they progress in terms of "hold on the language".
Indians too excel in their multiple languages however they mostly are related to the field of literature in one way or the other. They like to experiment and it is fun for them. An average Indian is not really that fantastic at it... he is grammatically correct about it but there is no flair to his language. That's where the difference lies. This person has enough variety and hence does not experiment. As a result, his expertise, however correct is rarely more than that!
Therefore I think the westerns who speak just one main language and know a strictly second language are at an advantage! What say you?
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4 comments:
I think i will completely disagree with you with all due respects...
as a multi-linguist who can at least speak 5 different languages fluently and few more haltingly, I can say that my flair in Tamil or english has not diminished. I am not in anyway short changed when it comes to adapting and adopting to newer styles and neither do i hesitate to use the languages I know with flair...
Most of the westerners, if I can call them the BUBBA's, are the ones who speak only one language and that too with bad english and grammar...and I feel nothing but pity for them.
The more your brain can grab the more better...many languages u know helps u solve analytical problems easily...it is not easy to learn new languages and once u know how to crack the code to do so, you are only smarter and obviously have an advantage over others :)
Actually you do agree with me!! u just didn't see it throgh my viewpoint! :P
You count among people who love literature/writing/reading in all forms... u also possess 'flair' hence you love expressing it in most languages you speak. I did mention specifically about this 'category' (forgive me for being so judgmental)because my mum falls in it and so does J! I hope to someday too! ;)
I was commenting on other people I have interacted with, who are not always articulate. Like I mentioned before, they are grammatically correct but their language is (for the lack of a better word) BORING! There are no twisted phrases thrown in, no double edged statements, funny one-liners...nothing! But they are correct none the less (yes I noticed i use this phrase a lot)! And I tried to think why people who can construct mundane statements...do not evolve to some fun liners...or subtle sarcastic retorts!
And then I thought probably one of the reasons to that is because they do not feel the need to be creative... they just shift to another language and make the conversation interesting by using unique quotes/lingos from multiple languages! :)
So people who cannot switch between languages may have been forced to come with all the stuff mentioned above.
But I am in total agreement of being multi-linguistic (not sure its the word)! I currently speak 6 and am trying to learn French!!
In case you were wondering why I thought of this in the first place, I was reading Shoba De and she too switches between Hindi and English(... ofcourse she is always entertaining regardless of that fact)! And then somehow I had posted this on the blog!! :D
hehehe@ P...
I want to read shoba De...never done that...
:P keep writing...fun to read :)
hey darlings --- when it comes to languages -- for an 80 year old who has not crossed the indian borders -- nor for that matter knows only 2 places one of studies and another of livelihood -- the latter a distant suburb of a great metropolice where the striving souls from tamilnadu to kashmir exoded in search of a living ,,, half a century back also -- myself also a poor lady doc added the multilingual bag to literally sustain the meagre income of those days --- -- now after a passage of half a century i have a mental analysis --- given the individual gift of itelligence to each by the lord and the social uplift on top -- i have come to the conclusion that multi lingualism is a diversion in achieving the individual potential-- asort of reverse focussing diffraction? one feels it more at this ripe age when one wants to tell simple things -- many words come jumbled up and not the right one -- i feel lost -- it is mentioned in one of the papers also that the japanese or chinese do not lack in achievement because of stickingup to one language --
hidear when you or your mom was an infant we were forced to stick up to one language marathi the local one and not our motherlanguage kannada as we observed that the infants were finding it difficult to cope with the early speech
pardon the nanny
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