A Slice of English

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Perhaps what has been written in this blog has been oft repeated but the repeated occurrence of the same is prompting me to repeat the topic and bring it to the fore once again.

English is a beautiful language and as far as I can remember my teachers at school made to fall in love with it. Words are a dream for me and they are my first companions. I love the play of words and cannot bear to see its usage being downgraded. For me the Bible was a book called Wren and Martin and I picked up my English from this constant companion of mine. But I guess over a period of time this book has lost its importance and its value. For me English is a religion and its usage dominates countries the world over. So Where is the plot getting lost.

I would squarely blame technology for the same. Laughing out Loud has become LOL. Rolling over The Floor with Laughter has become ROFL. Be Right Back has become BRB. Why cant people wish a healthy Good Morning and a restful Good Night instead of a dull GN. I have all the time in the world to troll someone on Twitter but dont have the time to add a few words to TTYL(Talk To You Later). You cant embrace greatness by swallowing a few alphabets, GR8 has become Great. How can I be F9(Fine) when English is being reduced to such levels.

I am worried for my children and the future generations as well. I hope that our future mails do not resemble a mumble jumble of abbreviations difficult to decipher. I recall seeing an app that is available on the google play store, which aids in understanding the scripts in the times of the Indus Valley. Shortly we will need an app that will help us in understanding the English Language better. It is a very sorry state of affairs and knowingly or unknowingly each one of us has been responsible for this situation

Time is not yet lost and we can stop this unwanted slide from happening. We need to stop English from becoming extinct. First get children to stay away from smart devices. Get them to love books once again. I would spend hours reading books as a child. In fact at school we used to have a weekly once Library period. How many schools have this Library period. Teachers would encourage me to write. I remember a compulsory Holiday Homework "How I spent my Summer vacations" Get them into the practice of reading a newspaper from a young age. I found the Editorial columns of The Hindu to be among the best.

A practitioner of Medicine can only become a doctor, one who constructs buildings and Engineer, and so on and so forth as far as different professions are concerned, the common thread among all professions is English and without its use global economies would collapse, transactions stop, all kinds of communications would halt. In short lets stop the wrong use of English and ensure its growth. So that is why I have titled todays blog as a Slice Of  English, never really anywhere.

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