In the context of the protest to do away with the English language aptitude test of the civil services examination conducted by the UPSC, I read an article which gave practical advice to the government that now was the time to introduce “a new schooling system in which English won’t be confined to the children of rich parents…by enabling, nay obliging, everyone to acquire equal mastery over English, so that India has just one class…”
What an advantage it is for all of us to know English to get on in the outside world and even in different parts of India. But how easy is it to learn English? People having to study and speak it in an atmosphere where no one speaks the language find it really tough but this can be overcome, as can be seen from the example of those learning German and French in India.
We have to concede English is a bit of a crazy language. For instance, why do we not pronounce “but” in the same way as “put”? Similarly, “quick” is pronounced differently from Buick.
The word “up” is mostly used as a preposition, but can be used as a verb, adverb, noun or adjective. But how to know which to use when? Only constant practice and usage can help us.
Here is a paragraph on up that I received on the Internet: “At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak “UP”…and why is it necessary to write UP the report. We call UP our friends...and clean UP the kitchen. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is something special. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you do not give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred more...”
I received another interesting piece online which brings out clearly that English has to be spoken, read and practised much before one can feel confident in it.
It says, “One’s house can burn up as it burns down, you fill in a form by filling it out, and the alarm goes off by going on. People recite at a play and play at a recital. If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? You have one goose and more of them will be geese...one index and the plural is indices...If teachers taught, then preachers should praught…”
Poets and writers have exercised the right to change words to suit their style/rhyme, whatever—which they could do only if they knew the language well. Similarly, many of us use English with the local language and we get by. But once we master the basics, it is a fine language and one must be thankful it doesn’t have masculine and feminine nouns and verb changes because of that, as in Hindi or French. All in all it is a great idea to see that all, rich and poor, learn it and learn it fast.