English or Marathi
This is a loud thinking.
Amar’s mother tongue is Kannada. He is very well versed English, Marathi, Hindi, and his ancestral language called Chitpavani. That means he can not only speak in those five languages but can also read and to some extent write in them. In the age where people from different states of India have created a rift over the languages, he is a good example how languages can be a bridge for conversations. It was interesting to learn from him how he chooses which language to use and where. He says that the choice differs from one context to the other.
As part of the 21 Day Challenge, I have been writing same article in two languages. It is basically a translation but with some fine tuning so the writing suits cultural context the readers are having. English of course has a wider cultural context than Marathi. Until now I have been writing in both the languages separately and had two different broadcast lists for sharing them. Between English and Marathi readers there is an intersection, who can read creative writings in English as well as Marathi, so these readers have been receiving both the write-ups since these readers were included in both the messaging lists.
I checked with 10 of these readers about how they made the choice of language. There were personal reasons for some people for choosing Marathi over English. These people told that they had always conversed with me in Marathi and for them it was natural for them to understand me in Marathi. Some people said that reading in English would be better when it dealt with some technical complex subjects while Marathi was better for an article on light but thoughtful subject. One person said that it was his ability to read fast in Marathi that determined the choice. Nine of these readers had clear preference for Marathi over English. The first and foremost reason all of them gave was this was the language which they have been brought up with and could easily relate to. It would be interesting to know how our brains get wired and create signals that are in the form a language.
After starting to write in both the languages, I have done some experiments. I have written some articles first in English, like this one and then translated in Marathi and also did the reverse. The results were always strikingly similar in some respects. For an A4 sized paper, when an English article was taking 600 words to fill up, the same content in Marathi was taking 500 words. Since English is very rich in terms of words, the content also resulted to be richer with more choice of appropriate words. While Marathi has far less number of words than English, Marathi content came out to be extremely direct in reaching out even without loss of meaning. May be some linguist would be able to throw light on this.
Languages are really bridge for connect between the people. There is also a utility factor. One argument we native Marathi speakers from Maharashtra have always heard that those coming from other regions don’t make efforts to learn to speak Marathi. However Marathi speakers are the ones who do not speak their language commonly in their own native state for open public conversations. While a large number of natives in Maharashtra, in urban as well as rural area went in for choosing English medium schools for better “progress” of their kids, only a very few thought of improving the quality of education in Marathi schools. They have reduced the bridging as well as utility values of their own language.
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Amar’s mother tongue is Kannada. He is very well versed English, Marathi, Hindi, and his ancestral language called Chitpavani. That means he can not only speak in those five languages but can also read and to some extent write in them. In the age where people from different states of India have created a rift over the languages, he is a good example how languages can be a bridge for conversations. It was interesting to learn from him how he chooses which language to use and where. He says that the choice differs from one context to the other.
As part of the 21 Day Challenge, I have been writing same article in two languages. It is basically a translation but with some fine tuning so the writing suits cultural context the readers are having. English of course has a wider cultural context than Marathi. Until now I have been writing in both the languages separately and had two different broadcast lists for sharing them. Between English and Marathi readers there is an intersection, who can read creative writings in English as well as Marathi, so these readers have been receiving both the write-ups since these readers were included in both the messaging lists.
I checked with 10 of these readers about how they made the choice of language. There were personal reasons for some people for choosing Marathi over English. These people told that they had always conversed with me in Marathi and for them it was natural for them to understand me in Marathi. Some people said that reading in English would be better when it dealt with some technical complex subjects while Marathi was better for an article on light but thoughtful subject. One person said that it was his ability to read fast in Marathi that determined the choice. Nine of these readers had clear preference for Marathi over English. The first and foremost reason all of them gave was this was the language which they have been brought up with and could easily relate to. It would be interesting to know how our brains get wired and create signals that are in the form a language.
After starting to write in both the languages, I have done some experiments. I have written some articles first in English, like this one and then translated in Marathi and also did the reverse. The results were always strikingly similar in some respects. For an A4 sized paper, when an English article was taking 600 words to fill up, the same content in Marathi was taking 500 words. Since English is very rich in terms of words, the content also resulted to be richer with more choice of appropriate words. While Marathi has far less number of words than English, Marathi content came out to be extremely direct in reaching out even without loss of meaning. May be some linguist would be able to throw light on this.
Languages are really bridge for connect between the people. There is also a utility factor. One argument we native Marathi speakers from Maharashtra have always heard that those coming from other regions don’t make efforts to learn to speak Marathi. However Marathi speakers are the ones who do not speak their language commonly in their own native state for open public conversations. While a large number of natives in Maharashtra, in urban as well as rural area went in for choosing English medium schools for better “progress” of their kids, only a very few thought of improving the quality of education in Marathi schools. They have reduced the bridging as well as utility values of their own language.
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