I wondered about the Railway station signs. So I went and checked a couple of images on the internet. Yes... they have 3 languages on signs. The top to bottom positioning and the font size seems to indicate the importance. [North sign is cut and pasted onto the pic from the south] Does Tindora (the gherkin vegetable) grow in this southern town/area ? The central government's position seems to force the non-Hindi speaking parts of the country towards learning English: QUESTION NO.1927 CHOICE OF REGIONAL LANGUAGES IN PASSPORTS
Yes the station names are in 3 languages the question is why is the 3rd language have to be Hindi ? And who makes the choice ? Does Tindora (the gherkin vegetable) grow in this southern town/area No the name does not have any connection to Tindora .
I read that answer of the Minister in the Rajya sabha as to why Hindi is the choice for the 2nd lingo on a passport. I noticed that the American passport has three languages. Very few (New Orleans ? some African and Vietnamese immigrants ?) speak French in USA. Unlike India, the USA does not have any "official language" designations in the national constitution. However, after the 2016 elections, and the shouts of "build that wall" that is supposed to have caused the win, there was bill in 2017 to make English "the official language of the United States", primarily sponsored by the rabidly immigrant-phobic members of the US Congress, in attempting to limit the number of naturalized first generation citizens in the voting rolls. The senate version came up in the news in 2019. AFAIK, this bill has not been signed into law in USA.
Yes. English, Spanish, french. French is the traditional language of diplomacy. Maybe that's why It is also an official language of the UN and EU.
LOL !! UN and EU are two outfits that Americans (during the Trump regime) do not particularly care for. And French is so detested that they even toyed with the idea of renaming a staple: "freedom fries" In the US passport the language use is by choice, as well as for the convenience of a goodly chunk of the population which speaks Spanish. The choice of French language in US passports may be because Ben Franklin liked them, or because the french helped Washington beat out the English in the war of independence, and then sold us a large chunk of American territory for a very cheap price. Anyhow... Americans like French for historical reasons. There is no reason why Tamils should like Hindi. It is just imposed on them to annoy them. If they don't impose, but just put up a lot of Hindi Prachar Sabha free schools, and offered a snack of pani-poori for coming to class, the Tamil people will learn Hindi right pronto. Or at least get good in vocabulary words related to pani and poori. Giving food to teach new things to people is the old trick of Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
I don't see an issue with encouraging hindi as a th ird language in South India especially if it is done in addition to mother tongue. It is good to know a language that the majority speaks. But i have an issue with the way it is tought. my kids learnt hindi for 7 years nearly and cannot speak it to save their lives. Studying with out usage or application is useless. I would slso request the govt. to encourage north india to opt for a southern lang as 3rd lang. 3rd lang should be taught from a usage perspective than theoretical.
What did poor Friedl Anthony Matsunaka do to get dragged into this discussion, passport and all? The little one looks so distressed, the US passport notwithstanding..
It’s a problem since long. There were anti Hindi imposition protests atleast since 1937. Later they dropped the idea. Slowly over time they introduced Hindi in many places which were all central government related. As to the reason why not in Tamil and English, we don’t have enough political support and voices aren’t stronger. Nowadays we have more workers from North India and it will be useful for them atleast. The NEP is another problem for the schools. Hindi as a third language is going to be problematic for those rural kids. They already have less access to the standard education and with this NEP they are the ones who will in most trouble. I feel sad for those who will be affected by this. I am not sure whether the curriculum wants them to be proficient and the marks taken into account. Language shouldn’t be imposed on anyone without their wishes. It’s not going to be helpful if they aren’t interested. Previously many used to change to studying Hindi, Sanskrit or Germany in Higher secondary school as it was easier to score marks. Tamil as second language was really difficult to get marks in HSC. That was one of the reasons before. Learning a third language is helpful for some but not mandatory for those who live abroad. Many of those who live abroad have a hard time to teach their own mother tongue to their kids, let alone adding Hindi to their list. Many kids who are overseas are not fluent in their own mother tongue. In some incidences the parents who don’t know how to read or write their mother tongue language, as they had taken Hindi as second language aren’t able to teach their kids their mother tongue. Complex issues there. Coming the your question there is politics behind such things and will be difficult to change these in India.
It is not just the marks in exams. When a child is studying the home/regional/mother tongue as a subject in secondary school, the sheer amount of material the child has to cram is huge. This eats the study time available for other subjects, and the whole mark-sheet is dragged down. If the child is taking a new language like Sanskrit, or German, the material is basic and the amount of effort is minimal for a good score. No essay questions in exams. The NEP 2020 is only a suggestion: The language policy in NEP is a broad guideline and advisory in nature; and it is up to the states, institutions, and schools to decide on the implementation. What did Anthony Matsunaka Friedl do ? He was born on Oct 23rd, 2002. Will be 18 in a few days, and would be eligible to vote in elections in Nov. He does look worried !! [He was chosen for that look, but later I noticed his birthdate].