Essay About Studying And Working.
The introduction of the study of English in our country has been a useful thing, in as much as it has brought us into contact with the science and philosophy of the West, which has widened our mental outlook, has made us enlightened and given us a critical sense where by we can truly evaluate our customs, traditions and institutions and abolish or reform them as we may choose. It is on account of that, that so many social reforms and so much new production in our literature has been brought about.
The sense of democracy and the idea of struggling for freedom from the foreign yoke, from the tyranny of caste and native despotism came to us from studying English history, the English constitution and the English law.
To make a foreign language the means through which all knowledge should be imparted to the people of a country, however, is a different thing from teaching that language. This is an artificial and a very harmful thing. It overtaxes the mental capacity of the child and puts a strain and labour on him that waste much of his energy and time. It is altogether a foolish thing. It lowers the prestige of the native language and makes the foreign language appear superior.
Thus a contempt is created for one's mother-tongue and a feeling of snobbery is bred among those who know the foreign language. This can be seen in our graduate who look down upon those who do not know English.
Much time is wasted in mastering the foreign medium of instruction. A normal child begins learning English at the age of ten or eleven and not till he is seventeen or eighteen does he acquire enough grasp of the language to understand even the simplest things that are spoken in that language. Ha' the education been through the mother-tongues by the time the student begins learning the different arts and sciences through English, he would have sufficiently progressed in their study and some years would have been saved.
Thus, at eleven we are taught in our schools fairy-tales and school stories that are meant for the child-class in England and our. F.A. text-books in poetry and prose are generally Matriculation selections of English universities. Similarly with the studies like history, geography and the physical sciences.
Sometimes very absurd things happen in our educational scheme. Some things that the student has mastered in the mother- tongue are taught over again in the high classes at school in English. Thus, Matriculation geography, history, mathematics are nothing but repetition in English of facts already mastered in one's town tongue. Thus is a sheer waste of two years. Sometimes we find absurd things happening like the study of Arabic, Persian or Philosophy through English -- the study of an unknown language through another unknown language.
The student's power of thinking of self-expression suffers. He does not fully understand what he is taught through English and cannot express himself fully if he does understand it. The same man who would do remarkably well in a subject if he had to write in his own language. cuts a poor figure when speaking or writing in English.
The peculiar difficulties of the English language, the delicate shades of its synonyms are difficult to distinguish, as force.' 'power,' strength'; 'hate, indignation,' spite' and 'scorn,' and its spelling, its very irregular verbs are lawless and pronunciation so often is out of keeping with spelling.
Some reform has now been made. In the Matriculation students can write answer in Urdu except in the case of English language papers and in the Intermediate answers to Persian, Arabic and Philosophy can be in Urdu. Now there is a proposal before the Punjab University to extend this option to all subjects except English. This is a much-needed reform.
The introduction of the study of English in our country has been a useful thing, in as much as it has brought us into contact with the science and philosophy of the West, which has widened our mental outlook, has made us enlightened and given us a critical sense where by we can truly evaluate our customs, traditions and institutions and abolish or reform them as we may choose. It is on account of that, that so many social reforms and so much new production in our literature has been brought about.
The sense of democracy and the idea of struggling for freedom from the foreign yoke, from the tyranny of caste and native despotism came to us from studying English history, the English constitution and the English law.
To make a foreign language the means through which all knowledge should be imparted to the people of a country, however, is a different thing from teaching that language. This is an artificial and a very harmful thing. It overtaxes the mental capacity of the child and puts a strain and labour on him that waste much of his energy and time. It is altogether a foolish thing. It lowers the prestige of the native language and makes the foreign language appear superior.
Thus a contempt is created for one's mother-tongue and a feeling of snobbery is bred among those who know the foreign language. This can be seen in our graduate who look down upon those who do not know English.
Much time is wasted in mastering the foreign medium of instruction. A normal child begins learning English at the age of ten or eleven and not till he is seventeen or eighteen does he acquire enough grasp of the language to understand even the simplest things that are spoken in that language. Ha' the education been through the mother-tongues by the time the student begins learning the different arts and sciences through English, he would have sufficiently progressed in their study and some years would have been saved.
Thus, at eleven we are taught in our schools fairy-tales and school stories that are meant for the child-class in England and our. F.A. text-books in poetry and prose are generally Matriculation selections of English universities. Similarly with the studies like history, geography and the physical sciences.
Sometimes very absurd things happen in our educational scheme. Some things that the student has mastered in the mother- tongue are taught over again in the high classes at school in English. Thus, Matriculation geography, history, mathematics are nothing but repetition in English of facts already mastered in one's town tongue. Thus is a sheer waste of two years. Sometimes we find absurd things happening like the study of Arabic, Persian or Philosophy through English -- the study of an unknown language through another unknown language.
The student's power of thinking of self-expression suffers. He does not fully understand what he is taught through English and cannot express himself fully if he does understand it. The same man who would do remarkably well in a subject if he had to write in his own language. cuts a poor figure when speaking or writing in English.
The peculiar difficulties of the English language, the delicate shades of its synonyms are difficult to distinguish, as force.' 'power,' strength'; 'hate, indignation,' spite' and 'scorn,' and its spelling, its very irregular verbs are lawless and pronunciation so often is out of keeping with spelling.
Some reform has now been made. In the Matriculation students can write answer in Urdu except in the case of English language papers and in the Intermediate answers to Persian, Arabic and Philosophy can be in Urdu. Now there is a proposal before the Punjab University to extend this option to all subjects except English. This is a much-needed reform.
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