Tuesday, August 3, 2010

When you are born and brought in India, you would mostly probably end up speaking at least three languages. First and foremost is your native language (which is Marathi for me), second Hindi (the national language) and third English. Now, of course some people would just speak tow of the three and some know many more. In my case , I have been very fortunate to learn and enjoy Sanskrit.

I of course love languages and for me leaning more than one language has been a great source of enjoying the classic literary and contemporary works from those language. One of the best things we got from being a British colony is the language of Brits. Who knew that English would be such a powerful language that would end up being the business language of the world. Actually, I started learning English quite young but not until High school I explored the wonderful world of English literature. Thanks o a friend of mine! Since, I already was a reader plunging into English literature was not a difficult task for me. It initially took a while to go through a book but eventually it became much more fun. Now, I can proudly say that I can finish a book within a day!

I was talking to a friend of mine who is an avid reader, about how fortunate we are to be proficient in more than one language. Not only it comes handy for higher education and work but it also opens a gateway of knowledge and never ending fun. I am a huge supporter of being a polyglot. More the merrier. A language is a tool of understanding the culture it belongs to. It goes beyond communication or business. Language connects us to the people. So it is important to understand and read and enjoy your own native language first and then definitely as many as you wish. With the current trend of not exactly be able to understand one's native language, I wonder how much one can enjoy the other language. So the idea is enjoy reading and having fun with all the languages but don't miss your native language. Because, if you don't know who you are , you would never know who others are!

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