Re: Economic reasons to learn Telugu ?
Bapa Rao (brao@tis.com)
Wed, 23 Jul 1997 17:03:01 -0700 (PDT)
>
> We need already, or we are going to need soon, economical reasons to
> learn Telugu!
>
> I hate the idea that we must have to get economical justification to
> learn our mother tongue.
Syamala Rao garu,
The discussion you refer to took place mostly between myself and
Ramana Juvvadi. Neither of us has an issue with what you said above--
for both of us, mastering Telugu as the first language was an obvious
choice, and economics didn't enter into it, as you pointed out. And
hope it is clear neither of us is advocating that learning Telugu
should be tied to economic motivation. (Even if we did advocate such
a thing, we would be somewhat lacking in the power to enforce our advocacy
in a Telugu people who hew to their language as to their mother.)
That leaves us with the question of why a lot of Telugu people, regardless
of residence and economic class, prefer to educate their children in
English when given the chance. It does look like a lot of Telugus are,
in fact, opting for English over Telugu for economic reasons. I think it
is worthwhile for people concerned about the future of Telugu to understand
what is happening, whether it is significant, why it may be happening,
and what may be done about it. I believe Ramana garu's thoughts on Telugu
Romanization (and certainly my response) were founded on this very concern.
Materialistically speaking, the reason we care for our parents (no flames
please) is to establish a precedent for our children to care for us. It is
a fact that in today's economy, it can no longer be taken for granted that
parents will be cared for. Something like that seems to be happening with
Telugu. It seems that people are failing to find reasons to embrace their
own mother tongue. Perhaps it can be reversed, perhaps the social forces
behind it can be channeled into different, more creative, more healthy
directions. If you have ideas and experiences on this, please share them.
It is important to understand success stories (such as your Delhi friends)
as well as failure stories.
I don't know how far this is relevant to Telusa however. If you or others
like, we can take this to private email.
Bapa Rao