English matters.

In France, people tend to be wary of English as they often see it as threat to the core of the French identity and as a weapon of Anglo-saxon materialism that ultimately undermines their culture. But no matter what, English has become the ‘lingua franca’ of today’s (and tomorrow’s) world.

A similar debate has been taking place in India where the dominance of English raises questions about Indian national identity and even more about the legacy of British colonialism but as this article originally published in Outlook India shows, a lot of Indians have now come to terms with their fears and they are embracing English, in their own way. The author makes it very clear that it is about being competitive on the global market but he also underlines that this does have to be to the detriment of one’s own culture. He differentiates between ‘mother tongue’ or ‘home tongue’ and ‘power tongue’ (i.e. English).

When Indians embrace English in order to win in the global market place, they don't turn their back on their mother tongue. While English empowers us, our mother tongue continues to give us identity. I agree with Ananthamurthy that in our big cities, we retain our 'home tongues', while using a 'street tongue' and working in the 'power tongue'

I like such a pragmatic approach which to me is very wise. This is all the more interesting when you keep in mind that most people in the world today are actually bilingual. (Most French speaking Africans, for instance, also speak a local language which they have kept through years of colonial occupation). The author also underlines this pragmatic approach when he says that:

Every Indian mother knows that English is the passport to her child's future – to a job, to entry into the middle class – and this is why English medium schools are mushrooming in city slums and villages alike.

Now the Indians have come up with a more accepted form of English called ‘Hinglish’ (a mix of Hindi and English) which the author says “should in fact be called Inglish because it is increasingly pan-India's street language”, but unlike Franglais which is a loaded term, Inglish is very popular in India, even in the parts of Indian that don’t speak Hindi. Apparently, Hindi has also gained popularity throughout India thanks to Bollywood movies. He goes as far as thinking that after American English, Inglish “or at least an English heavily influenced by India (and China, to a lesser extent)” will be the next world’s language.
An interesting idea that I still find hard to embrace. It is English which is now becoming an Indian language but the Indians are leading the way “in a world where a quarter of the people already know the world language and where experts predict another half will be English literate within a generation,” when China has the “objective to make every Chinese literate in English by the 2008 Olympics”.

As unrealistic as it might be, it reveals one thing – the two largest countries in the world have undertaken the immense task of embracing English as the necessary language for the future. So it is about time that France, a second-rate power, should take it more seriously and consider it a national priority for the future if it wants to keep a voice that will be heard, i.e. taken seriously.