Thanks To My Mother I Am A Hubber Today

In olden times-I'm talking about fifty years down the lane- English was not as important or as popular as it is today in non-English speaking countries. Today people feel it a handicap if they are not able to speak and interact with the others in English. In India in particular, we have this feeling that people who are able to speak and write good English are better off than the others who are unable to.

For people to become proficient in English, the language that I choose to call the queen of languages, the schools that lay the foundation in education right from elementary level should be good and should have teachers who are capable of imparting good knowledge in the subject. They should not only help students write good English but also equip them to speak well.

Nowadays, English is a must for people who want to be placed in good jobs. You have an aptitude test followed by a group discussion in English and then a personal interview for students who pass their professional courses before they can secure a good job. This is the situation in India though I am not sure about the other non-English speaking countries.

My parents, hailing from a rural background settled down in Chennai, a metropolis after their wedding. My mother who was an excellent student in her high school wanted to study further but her father’s economic condition did not allow her to do so. She was married off to my father when she was barely sixteen (one of the worst practices in India 70 years ago) and bore three children, two sons and a daughter.

All of us attended an elementary school close to home and had to change school after completing grade V. My mother, who had had to bury her desire to go to college in her younger days, was very particular that all her children had the best education by attending convent schools where English was spoken. To this day, she feels sad that she is not fluent in English, a language that she loves to speak, and manages very well too.

My father sought admission for me in two schools, one, a convent school that was far away from home and a local school closer to home. The local school announced the admissions sooner and I secured a seat, so my father admitted me in the school not knowing if I would get admission in the convent. I had a very strong foundation in written English but could not speak a sentence without hesitation.

According to Linguistics professor David Crystal, of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers. Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

I started attending the new school and was very happy to be there for the simple reason that it was just like my primary school where written English was taught but not spoken. So I felt very much at home with the other students who were from a similar background.

One week after my entry into this school came the bad news (it was bad for me then but I am so glad about it now) that I had secured admission in the convent school which my mother wanted me to attend. It had once been her dream to study in that school as her parents lived close to this school, but due to personal reasons, had sent her away to their native village to stay with relatives and study in a local school in a vernacular medium of instruction. So she wanted me to study in the same school and become a smart girl speaking English because people who spoke English then were not too many.

My father who had to feed five mouths with a single salary obviously didn’t like the idea of losing the fees paid here and paying a second fee in my new school. But my mother, who normally had no decision-making powers at home, for once, put her foot down and said that I had to be put in the English school. She wouldn’t take a ‘no’ for an answer from my father.

Half-heartedly, my father admitted me in the English school (Vidyodaya Girls' Higher Secondary School, Chennai), a school I am very proud to have been associated with for 6 long years and where I had my foundation (a very strong one too) for spoken English.

English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after MandarinChinese and Spanish.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

Today I am very grateful to my mother for having made a wise decision but back then, I remember the traumatizing experience I had in the first week at this school. Almost all the children in my class had been studying there from their kindergarten and didn’t have any difficulty in interacting with the other children in English that was the only language used. It was a compulsory practice for the children to speak in English during school hours. It was just another girl and I who were new and both of us were from local schools and did not speak English.

Classes had already begun in this school as I was admitted late. Our class teacher, a very sweet lady, came to class on my 'first' day. She was very kind to us, and addressed the new children-just the two of us-and introduced us to the class. I was feeling very nervous and wondering how I would talk to the other students. The teacher who taught us Math asked me if I had brought my Math book. I stood up and answered, “I didn’t brought my book Miss”. Luckily no one laughed or at least I don’t remember very clearly. The teacher realized my problem and called me to her table and explained patiently with a smile on her face, “You should say ‘bring’ and not ‘brought’ okay?” I nodded and was very happy that she was so supportive. From then on I never felt scared about talking in English and as time passed, I picked up the language slowly but surely and when I left school after six years, I was confident about my ability to speak English fluently.

In college where I joined the Zoology class, my English professor Mr. Joseph was very appreciative of my English writing and called me "Queen of the English class". He was a great inspiration for me. I owe him too a lot in life. He would now be very happy to hear about my online activities as a freelance writer. My father who wasn't initially interested in putting me in the English school (for purely economic reasons) is very proud of my English knowledge today. His English was excellent because he learned it from native English people in the post-independence days (1950s) when he worked under them, so he used to appreciate my English skills and had to admit that my mother made the right decision at the right time.

Now I am a freelance writer who works online and I owe all my knowledge of English to my wonderful mother who has been instrumental in making me who I am today. You should see her happy smile when she finds me talking to someone in English over telephone or in a public place. She feels very proud about her daughter's English even when I tell her that it is no big deal today with most of the youngsters being proficient in the language.

Thank you Amma (mother) for all the support you have given me in life. I owe you my success in life in general and in having mastered English (I have definitely not mastered the language-there's still so much to learn but I'm much better than so many others my age). But for your dream of making me fluent in spoken English, I would never have made it this far and be able to interact with my wonderful hubber friends today on Hub Pages.

Here is a table that gives you statistics of the English-speaking countries in the world where India too is featured.

According to a 2006 census:
The United States (215 million)
The United Kingdom (61 million)
Canada (18.2 million)
Australia (15.5 million)
Nigeria (4 million)
Ireland (3.8 million)
South Africa (3.7 million)
New Zealand (3.6 million)
Source: Wikipedia.org