Year of English :

Present trend for advancement

Sarath Sandacan

Man is a by-product of nature. Therefore, nature had provided everything man needed for his existence at the very inception of the evolution. But, man was not satisfied with what was given by nature like other creatures were.

He wanted to make his life more comfortable and easy. So, driven by lust and insatiable thirst for comforts and ease, throughout history, he has been struggling with nature to attain his desired goals. In that long non-ending process, man made various tools and equipment though they were not as sophisticated as that of today.

Language

Having used them, he changed the order of nature. Parallel to that he was compelled to coin words to name what was around him and what that were manufactured by him using the few sounds he had inherited at the initial stage of evolution. In that process, he was able to evolve his language.

But, it was an amorphous language. Though the origin of language was such, its development was not at standstill or in abeyance. Obviously, it is an everlasting process that goes through varying stages of development in many related fields.

At present, the entire scenario is absolutely different from that of the past. Private sector has come to the forefront, playing a pivotal role in very many sectors such as production, distribution and service, applying latest technology. In reality, their contribution to national development is significant in spite of the fact that there are some unscrupulous elements.

Their needs are quite different. They don’t depend entirely on the State in launching their projects or expanding their businesses. In fact, they are relatively independent in planning and implementing their decisions. But, when they face the question of securing manpower, they are compelled to depend on the State, as the State is the controlling and spearheading machinery of education, though the standard of English is abysmally bad.

So, their grievance is, though they are capable of creating employment opportunities, our young people do not possess employability due to lack of English Proficiency.

As a result, they complain, that it is extremely difficult to find competent men and women to fill in some of their vacancies. It is a hard and undeniable fact in the prevailing economic order in which latest technology is used in order to compete with their rivals.

On the other hand, man has peculiar behavioural patterns for which we need to pay our attention. Because of this trait, naturally people are keen on their living and safety. In addition, they are sensitive to the surroundings being social animals. Due to those characteristics, very often, they tend to make use of what is around them for their existence and better living.

Social segments

For that matter, they are not reluctant to discard what is not useful for their forward march and economic progress. Even the language is used in that sense. The present trend for learning English must be looked at from that angle.

A similar trend was there in Sri Lanka, when British Empire held its sway on our country. During their dispensation, there was a penchant among some social segments irrespective of their ethnicity and religious beliefs to learn English as it was the State language.

The use of national languages, particularly Sinhala, was marginalized though it was the language of the majority. Same fate befell the less privileged Tamils in spite of the fact that the medium of expression of the majority in the Tamil minority was Tamil.

Social disparity

As a result, economically poor Sinhala and Tamil majority were deprived of securing a relatively higher position in the State sector in spite of the fact that they were toiling endlessly day and night to generate income to enrich the economy.

Unfortunately, due to myriad of other facts and a situation beyond their control for which those people were not accountable, they were economically impotent to compete with this privileged social layer that consisted of Sinhala and Tamil minority in the game of acquiring knowledge related to the blooming new world around them, in English.

There is no doubt to the fact that the social disparity and inequality in the distribution of wealth was the stumbling block to receive higher education in English.

Their knowledge of national languages or creative talents in no way of use or of value to occupy a glamorous niche in society or to lead an economically prosperous life. In this context, they would have perceived this reality as social injustice and apparently this situation would have been the main cause for social unrest. In addition, there would have been invisible, but incandescent rage combined with jealousy and class hatred in them against the handful of people enjoying the fruits in various sectors.

This reality and other objective conditions that were not in their favour, would have aroused the feelings and national sentiments of this social layer.

It is quite evident from the above facts, that the surge of social interests, concerns and other national feelings would give birth to the renaissance movement of the country about 70 years ago.

This social movement wanted to see that the pride of place given to Sinhala dethroning English. Eventually, their campaign triumphed with the promulgation of Sinhala as the official language and the medium of instruction in schools.

Then, again in this background, people moved in large numbers to study Sinhala, accentuating the naturally inherent adaptability to the changing circumstances and exhibiting human hypocrisy in their dealings. They opted to learn Sinhala not because they had a special love or affinity to that language; but for the simple reason of earning their living.

True patriots

On the contrary, in the very sense of the word there were true patriots and language lovers who did a lot for the benefit of Sinhala. Munidasa Cumaratunga, Raipiyel Tennakoon and many likes whose names are not mentioned here played a pivotal role and rendered a yeomen service for the uplift of Sinhala language and literature through their arduous scholarly works and research redound to their credit and recognition.

Though, the struggle of this social layer ended with resounding victory to the chagrin to Tamil brethren, wittingly or unwittingly it committed three historical blunders for which even today the nation is paying an exorbitant price.

Firstly, not appearing and not pressing to offer the same status for the Tamil language and secondly, failing to address the true grievances, social and political interests of their Tamil brethren in spite of the fact that the majority Sinhalese have inherited a rich culture, nurtured by Buddhist values well over a period of 2,000 years, that teaches them to help even an enemy in distress.

Financial cost

Unfortunately, the whole nation is bleeding today at a very high human and financial cost, though their struggle was just and authentic.

If this movement had acted on the basis of equality and equity preached by The Buddha and dealt with intuition and wisdom, the present tragic and pricking situation would not have emerged.

Thirdly, for not fighting and demanding equal rights, more opportunities and facilities for learning English. The concomitant and cascading ill effect is the vast majority of our present generation, including a sizable portion of graduates are loafing not having employability due to lack of English proficiency.

In an interview with ‘Silumina Paper’ on September 7, 2008, Sunimal Fernando, the Advisor and Coordinator, Presidential Task Force on ‘English as a Life Skill’ too admitted the above fact, highlighting, though there are nearly 21,000 teachers and over 2,100 tutoring institutes the employability is at very low ebb.

With the dawn of the computer era, the world has been narrowed down to global village amidst its geographical vastness.

Young and old generations are now improving their computer literacy regardless of their age. Most of the middle class households have computers with internet facilities. This is a giant leap in the forward march towards social progress and it has helped enhancing international communication.

Thanks to the advanced and very sophisticated information technology now people are mingling and interacting with other nations while physically being at their abodes.

In these new circumstances people are compelled to shed their old notions, some values and traditions to move with the outside world. In view of this current trend, the attitude of our people towards learning English has dramatically changed as this international language is indispensable for living in the modern world structure.

Year of English

Having realised this surge and thirst for Learning English, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, being a farsighted leader and the Head of the State has declared the year 2009 as the ‘Year of English’.

In the very sense of the word, it is a laudable, bold step in the right direction for which all right thinking people should extend the fullest cooperation through all possible means to make his endeavour a success in the name of the unborn generation as it would undoubtedly lay the foundation for ethnic harmony, and usher in the dawn of a new era opening new avenues off job prospects in the global labour market and throwing new opportunities to our young generation to acquire a wealth of knowledge about current trends and new values expanding in global societies.