Re: Economic reasons to learn Telugu ?
Prasad Chodavarapu (chprasad@hotmail.com)
Thu, 24 Jul 1997 06:58:04 PDT
i agree with sri bapa rao that romanization of telugu script
would not solve anything. if any, it would have a devastating
effect on already ailing telugu-pride.
one of the arguments is that people who can speak telugu but can't
write will find it easier with romanization of the script. most people
who fall into this category are pravAsAMdhrulu or the convent/central
school educated. the first category definitely needs help in learning
to read/write telugu. i am sure that if not today, there will be good,
public-domain software programs in future that will help them either
learn telugu script interactively/use roman transliteration to
read/write telugu texts. e.g. sri PSRK and sri palana always talk about
a modern times _pedda bAlaSiksha_. (aside: how about telusaers joining
efforts to create a web-based interactive _pedda bAlaSiksha_, primarily
for those who can't read/write telugu?) the demand is there, so there
will be supply. it is only a matter of time before this
happens.
as far as the second category of convent/central school educated is
concerned, i am not sure the demand is there, for, if any of those are
interested, it isn't really difficult to learn the telugu script at
home. especially so, when young. infact, the solutions for the first
category can help the second too but the lack of computers might be a
problem. for these people, it is more of a economic reason than that
of a scarcity of learning resources. one of the contributing factors
to this problem, imho, is that the tribhAshA sUtram is not really
implemented in central/convent schools. i studied all my life in english
medium but as my school was based on a.p state board
syllabus and my first language was telugu, i had the opportunity to
learn telugu. infact, my best teachers at school were my telugu
teachers! so, if the central schools implement the three language
policy properly, there is no reason why kids will come out of the
school, unable to read/write telugu.
there definitely is a scarcity of economic reasons to learn telugu
after high school. sadly, even sanskrit is proving to be telugu's
nemisis, for, u wouldn't believe me, getting marks in sanskrit is easier
than in telugu at the intermediate level. forget about even
the option, once u enter a professional course. they will teach you
english there, but not telugu. e.g. why shouldn't recw have a telugu
professor when they have two or more english professors? u know what,
iit kharagpur has a bengali professor for teaching humanities electives.
in fact, the curriculum has telugu electives too, but there is no staff
that can teach it.
in summary, both lack of resources and lack of economic factors
adversely affect the cause of telugu. while the former can be easily
addressed, the latter is definitely a problem that can't be addressed
with simple solutions like romanization of script.
regards
prasad
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