Foreign language craze hits mother tongue: Expert
Former Sahitya Akademi Secretary K. Sreenivasa Rao warned that the trend of prioritizing foreign languages over mother tongues in urban India could lead to cultural and linguistic erosion. He emphasized that losing a language means losing unique worldviews and historical knowledge.
Why it matters
It addresses the global concern of language endangerment and the cultural impact of globalization on education.
Former Secretary of Sahitya Akademi K. Sreenivasa Rao on Friday said that it has unfortunately become fashionable to introduce children, in many urban settings, exclusively to foreign languages from infancy, often at the expense of their own mother tongue. Learning international languages is undoubtedly valuable, but it should never come at the cost of losing one’s linguistic roots, he opined.
In his address at the 58th Foundation Day at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), he said that if such trends continue unchecked, many languages may witness a steady decline in native speakers, eventually leading to language endangerment or even extinction. “This is particularly tragic in the Indian context because many of our languages possess ancient literary traditions and preserve invaluable knowledge,” he said.
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