rgurus
Active member
My observation as a villager
The present generation students, particularly those from cities and towns may not have any idea about the issue discussed here. It is for their information that I am presenting these facts.
Nowadays we have developed a fancy, a fascination for English language.In my younger days we had no such fancy, but on the other hand, we had a positive hatred for English nurtured by our local patriots, since we were at that time under the British and the entire country was seething with anger against the British rule. So we were justly proud about our anti English stance and patted ourselves on our back for being such staunch patriots. In fact we were made to believe that all those favouring English were pro British and therefore traitors. In such a surcharged situation, there was one pro British person (according to us) in our family circle. He was working as a schoolmaster in the local board high school. He always felt bad that nobody in the village could speak in English. He chastised us students for not showing any interest to speak in English. He used to say that when even beggars in England could speak English, why you boys were not able to speak in English! He was teaching English for the eighth standard and the fun is that we have never heard him speak in English any time anywhere including in the class room. The strange thing was that English was taught to us only in Tamil from fourth standard (that was when English as a language was introduced) up to SSLC! (I think this practice is still in vogue in all the Tamil medium government schools in Tamilnadu). We have also not heard of English medium schools nor seen anyone speaking in English in our village at that time. So English was always an anathema to most of us and we were afraid of not only English but also of those who spoke in English. Even today I get dreams very often in which I dread to face English examination!
The first time I ever heard of people talking in English was when I went to college at Thiruchy to do my intermediate course after completing my schooling. All classes there were handled in English be it English or Sanskrit, Maths, Physics, or Chemistry and I was surprised to see a few students conversing in English and that caused jitters in me. I really felt fish out of water for one full term. (I could understand the plight of those students who study in Tamil medium joining English medium colleges).
The present generation students, particularly those from cities and towns may not have any idea about the issue discussed here. It is for their information that I am presenting these facts.
Nowadays we have developed a fancy, a fascination for English language.In my younger days we had no such fancy, but on the other hand, we had a positive hatred for English nurtured by our local patriots, since we were at that time under the British and the entire country was seething with anger against the British rule. So we were justly proud about our anti English stance and patted ourselves on our back for being such staunch patriots. In fact we were made to believe that all those favouring English were pro British and therefore traitors. In such a surcharged situation, there was one pro British person (according to us) in our family circle. He was working as a schoolmaster in the local board high school. He always felt bad that nobody in the village could speak in English. He chastised us students for not showing any interest to speak in English. He used to say that when even beggars in England could speak English, why you boys were not able to speak in English! He was teaching English for the eighth standard and the fun is that we have never heard him speak in English any time anywhere including in the class room. The strange thing was that English was taught to us only in Tamil from fourth standard (that was when English as a language was introduced) up to SSLC! (I think this practice is still in vogue in all the Tamil medium government schools in Tamilnadu). We have also not heard of English medium schools nor seen anyone speaking in English in our village at that time. So English was always an anathema to most of us and we were afraid of not only English but also of those who spoke in English. Even today I get dreams very often in which I dread to face English examination!
The first time I ever heard of people talking in English was when I went to college at Thiruchy to do my intermediate course after completing my schooling. All classes there were handled in English be it English or Sanskrit, Maths, Physics, or Chemistry and I was surprised to see a few students conversing in English and that caused jitters in me. I really felt fish out of water for one full term. (I could understand the plight of those students who study in Tamil medium joining English medium colleges).