We live in two universes, a universe of communication and a
universe of things, with which science deals. We are always talking or
constantly listening. When no one is around us, we talk to ourselves.
Words are the means by which our civilisation is developed and
passed on. Our language determines largely the character of our
intelligence, our affection and disloyalties. We live in words, are
surrounded by them, and the only means we have to get outside of our
own language so that we can even look at it, is through the study of
foreign langauges.
No one can know fully the features of his own language, its
qualities and defects, without understanding another language. Through
foreign study a person perceives how conventional a language is, and
becomes conscious of the mechanism of his own speech. Without the
knowledge of a foreign language we are just like a squirrel in his cage.
MENTAL DISCIPLINE.
There is a tendency now-a-days to discount all claims for mental
discipline except in relation to exactly similar skills or activities. Yet, to
give up these claims entirely would be to reject most of the traditional
subjects of the curriculum. Who uses algebra, trignometry, ancient history
directly or indirectly in his daily life? Almost no one. And yet these
disciplines, along with other factors, apparently effect changes so
noticeable that a few minutes of casual conversation usually suffer to
identify as a man who has had this kind of training. The difference is as
real as that between the average lawyer and the average plumber.
Language study exercises the memory chiefly, but memory cannot be
divorced entirely from other intellectual faculties. It depends on and is hellitated by close observation of resemblances, differences, and
distinctions. The ability to perceive such differences and similarities
characterises most mental disciplines.
LITERATURE
There are people who think that many philosophical, narrative,
and dramatic works can be handled in Urdu translation. But the simplest
things are the most difficult to translate. The flavour of words, the
s of words and emotions are difficult to communicate. In nearly
every translation of a literary work, something is lost. It is never possible
on translations is like studying the colourless reproductions of paintings
rather than originals. When the originals are too difficult of access, the
to enter fully the spirit of a nation except through its language. To depend
reproductions may be most useful, but they can never satisfy wholly.
Some people are under the impression that, with the introduction
of English, we have undermined the importance of the mother-tongue,
Urdu. It is a fact that English, being the official language in undivided
India, enjoyed the most important place for almost two centuries, but now,
when we have got freedom, it is sometimes a false antithesis set up with
regard to English and the mother-tongue, it being wrongly supposed that if
the latter is emphasised, the former suffers. As far as the teaching of
English in our schools is concerned, the mother-tongue can be of the
greatest assistance, directly and indirectly. Any emphasis laid on the
mother-tongue will have a good effect on the standard of English. Other
things being equal, strengthening the mother-tongue will mean strength in
English. Work put in to improving the standard of the mother-tongue will
show itself in an improvement in English.’
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL PATTERNS.
It is possible to go round the world and not to see anything.
Whatever a nation really stands for, whatever is important in its life and
civilisation, reaches consciousness only in the heads of a small minority.
the artists and intellectuals.
The study of a foreign language allows us to escape from the
atmosphere of the home, the village, and from the styles, fads and fances,
not of a single space but of a single epoch. This is what we need, because
we, the people of Pakistan, are backward in every respect. Ninety percent
of our population lives in villages. They live in mud-houses with no ventilation whatsoever. Sanitation is unknown to them. They do not have
refuse or manure pits. In order to uplift the masses, it is necessary for us
to tell them the Western standards of progressive living. It is through the
study of English language that we can have access to Western culture.
MODERN SCIENCES AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
It is a hard fact that books on modern science, such as chemistry,
zoology, biology, political science, etc, are written in English. Almost all
the terminology is in English. If we want to be abreast with the modern
world, we have got to know these sciences and only the study of English
will enable us to understand these sciences. The development of rapid
telephone and radio communication and rapid transportation by air now
places us politically, physically, and socially closer to Americans than the
French were to Norwegians only a few years ago. The activities of our
national and personal lives affect, and are affected by, people in the far
corners of the globe.
The point need not to be laboured. We are living in one world.
This small world is one in which all of us-diplomats, business men, and
scholars must live out our lives, and our children will live more
intimately than we with their contemporaries in other lands. Whether we
discharge our world-responsibilities well or poorly, ignorantly or
understandingly, will be determined greatly by our ability to understand
other peoples and their ability to understand us. Only through the ability to
use another language ever modestly can one really become conscious of
the full meaning of being a member of another nationality or cultural
group. Last, but not the least, nobody can deny that a foreign language,
such as English, broadens our outlook. the benefits of English literature
and thoughts are best manilested through the modern Pakistani writers.
None of the modern writers is merely an oriental product. Modern
psychology has influenced them a great deal.
The notable success achieved by Urdu short-story writers in
recent years is largely due to the influence of English masters like R.L.
Stevenson, Poe, James Joyce and Galsworthy. The technique of the short
story is even yet imperfectly understood by Urdu writes; for most of them.
confuse it with that of the novel. But there are many exceptions. Krishan
Chander, S.H. Minto, Ahmed Nadim Qasmi, Hajira Masroor, Ahmed
Alik Ahmed Abbas are some of the writers who understand and practise
the technique of the short story. All of them have been inspired by English and other foreign authors. It is highly doubtful if they would have given us
and short story-like Krishan Chandar’s Yarkan or Ahmed Abbas’s Esi
Bulandi Esi Pasti if they had not drunk deep at the spring of English
literature.
The writer does not believe that English should be the medium of
instruction at our college level. But only the values of teaching a foreign
language as a second compulsory language have been discussed here.
