By: Faisal Anas
Language is the medium of
communication. Linguists say “a language is the written and spoken method of
combining words to create meaning used by a particular group of people”
Language either can be verbal and
non-verbal. Non-verbal includes gestures, signals and drawings etc. that are
the medium of communication by which someone communicate the message. Verbal
means a language that is spoken by human being. There are lots of language in
the world. Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, French, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and
English. But the status which English language gained, no language became
successful to achieve that. English became world’s native language. Everywhere
and in every field, there is need of English.
Before we discuss about its scope
and importance, let us know the history of it. How, when and why this language
got the status of world’s largest language. English language emerged on the sky
of the world because of colonial era. British has ruled in many nations which
are known as commonwealth nations. In almost all such nations, there is
importance of this language. People learn, speak, listen and read. Second
reason is discovery. Yes, most of inventions of the world invented by British
and Americans and they used English to as the language of their inventions,
that’s why everyone had to learn it. Thus English became largest and most
common language of the world.
Official Status: Officially, this language is the most popular
and used in widest range in the world. It is the national language of 58
countries while French has 29 and Arabic has 25 counts only. In other nations
which does not have English as an official language like India, Pakistan and
Nepal, people speak on large scale and many of them prefer this to other
language not only in office, in business on seminars but in general
conversation too. This make it world’s largest language. There is only two
language in the world which spoken in almost every country. English and Arabic
but first one has more enough speakers than the second one.
Economic Status: Since it became common language of all, when
the speakers of two different language meet, the only option to hold
conversation is English. We all know the importance of business. Business is
almost dealt in English. Because there is no option in international trading
and marketing. Russian does not
understand Hindi. Pakistani does not understand Chinese. German does not
understand Japanese etc. but English is familiar for all and that’s when two of
them meet, they hire and translator who can translate from English to another
language and vise versa. And that’s why this is famous saying that when a
Korean businessman go to deal with his Brazilian counterpart, the only option
of language is English.
English in Media: English
media is found everywhere in the world. Top five broadcasting companies like
CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC and CBC use English. English news channels and newspapers
and also magazines are available in all over the world.
Social Networking: social networking uses English as its own
language. World’s largest online encyclopedia (Wikipedia) uses English as its
main language. All search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing work in English.
World’s largest social networking website Facebook and others like Twitter,
Linkedin, Instagram, Flickr and Whatsapp are also run in English.
International Organizations: UNO
has five languages. That are Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish. But English has more influence in it. In
2009, out of 189 UNO members, 120 preferred to use English to communicate with
other embassies.
Almost all international
instructions were created in English language. WHO, WTO AND WFP are some
examples.
Sports: no doubt, English is the language of
sports. Cricket, football, badminton, Hocky, wrestling, baseball and golf. All
of them and others also uses English as the main language. All rules and
regulations of all international games are written in English. All
terminologies are English. All kinds of announcements and results are published
in English. And official broadcasting of all games is played in English only.
Education: English
language has a treasure of literature. Shakespeare, the world’s most famous
poet and novelist was writing in English. Not only Shakespeare, but there a
long list of poets, novelists, article and story writes, thinkers, philosophers
and researchers who chose English to promote their particular ideas among the
people. No doubt, other languages are also rich in literature but English is
richest.
There are English medium schools
in every nation and also you can find institutions which teach English. This
shows the importance of it. There are many companies in the world which teach
English. They have many branches in all over the world. Lingua, American and
Focus are such examples. And it is a field of business too.
English in India: India is
one of the commonwealth nations. Like all commonwealth members, India is
influenced by English during the British era. When they left the country, they
left their language also. And due to its easiness and importance, people
started using it. Teachers started teaching and students started learning it.
Businessmen started dealing in it. Even the government adopted this language and
now English is the second language of India after Hindi. And I go one step
ahead and say that Hindi is First language only on the paper but reality says
something else. English has more influence than Hindi not only in business, in
media, Bollywood, schools and universities, sports, politics but in government
too. Almost all kinds of forms of government recruitment are issued in English.
Almost all announcements of government come in English and even our president,
vice president, prime minister and top political leaders mostly deliver their
official and non-official statements and speeches in English. Almost all
parliament’s proceedings are held in English.
Indian public sector in not
untouched from English. There is craziness for English in Indian society.
Everyone wants to speak English and now, people speak Hindi or Urdu because
they do not know English. When anyone
of them learn English, he/she starts using it in daily life. Following lines
will tell you how English is ruling on Indian society.
·
In education, prospectus of all universities,
student identity and admit cards, admission and examination forms, results and
all kinds of official announcements are issued only in English.
·
Some courses are taught only in English, like
MBA, all medical and engineering courses, hotel management, pilot course and
law.
·
In business, name of all companies, logos,
monograms, slogans, advertising, name of products, and print of wrappers on
products and found only in English.
·
Government related issues like Driving License,
Adhaar Card, and Voter ID Card, name plate of vehicles, traffic signals and
signboards and only in English.
·
Train reservation, bus tickets, air tickets, all
kinds of ticket bookings are only in English.
·
The NAVY is totally in English as well as
aircraft too.
·
Banking sector, insurance sector, marketing,
transactions, purchasing and business deals are only in English.
Here, it is not possible to count
all, the list is long and the paper is short. I can only say that English
became a part of our DNA. English became the medium of success. English is the
name highness and development. English is the symbol of style and smartness. If
you want to show yourself as educated, if you want to impress someone, if you
want to do your job interview better, you should use English in all.
Observing its importance, as I
mentioned above, many institutions are opened to teach English. The CEP
(communicative English Program) of Jamia Miliia Islamia is one of them. Now it
is ending its third successful session. With this end, CEP has been taught not
less than 600 students so far. I am very proud to be a part of it. Only 6
months passed since I joined it and now I can write a long essay, not only on
this topic but on any topic and not only me but all students of CEP can do
this. CEP made them to work hard to learn it in its own style. We, the students
learned it, we gained it because we know the importance of English
in our society.
