Needless to say it’s a fine channel , coming from CNBC network .They serve excellent analysis on money and everything related to it .And the punch is ….its in Hindi .
Debates were always on in India , more so may be in the south ,that the generations that grow should grow in Indian language. It assumed different dimensions ranging from social engineering to something as obvious as TV channels. The overall subject of national identity and its future with respect to language is quite vast for this write up, but something that’s can be a short and excellent case driving in the point is education. Like all other spheres of it India had it large share of experiments with teaching and language chosen as medium of instruction. The synthesis had many academic and political offshoots some of them quite extreme and some rather ridiculous .
And as usual, the masses did deliver the verdict , English is the way to educate yourself in India , something quite poetic to a Democratic country .
There are voices that say to retain our nation pride we must educate our pupil in our own languages and countries like Germany and all are often cited as example .And when all these people could make the decision , which they did , we see state boards schools teaching everything in Indian languages .And there were others who said in order to survive on globalized world we need to learn it all in English, and these voices , which often came from the masses seem to have won .There is no point detailing on how the medium of education and mastering a language can be and are tow different tasks and can be done equally well , because anyone who really thinks on this matter can realize this soon on his own .And to make it more clear this isn’t actually realized by most .
The experiment with all-in-own-language resulted in Science being taught in some really absurd and unimaginative vocabulary .And the other extreme is made evident by Indian middle classes fascination of English private schools .Interestingly tough the moderates, did come up with something called as semi English wherein few subjects were taught in English and others in some chosen language .But that was more of dividing the problem than solving it .
Something that surprises me is that both the sides do make the valid point and drive them halfway through , exactly where the solution would have emerged .The nationalist when say it helps to nurture children in their own language ignore that subjects like maths and science [as tought in school] aren’t what is grown in India. And the other side while trying to keep pace with world ignore that English isn’t what the kids think in . To be complete ;things are not so black and white and well separate as such and there is a generation that does think in English and so on .
The point that’s complete lost in is by virtue of a simple mistake in approach taken to solve this .The over emphasis on ends that the means .And to put is very simply the whole story of a language chosen and education is that of relevance ! . Relevance then can be elaborated on different themes such as simplicity of usage , ease of conveying the subjects in the language , strategy of easing and incorporating new trends in subjects ..and many more academic divisions like that .
Relevance and lack of it is what made these experiments not so successful . And relevance is what CNBC Awaz made highlighted in it success . Its very simple here , the channel servers the content that’s of use to the masses , it servers that in the language that’s understood by them . To be fair that fact that science can be made extremely and deeply understandable in Hindi was first made clear by discovery channel .But theirs is more of a linguistic achievement ….
Any smart guy would use instead of saying account would use Hindi word “Khata” and I personally wont waste time praising them for this J .CNBC Awaz not only came up with innovative words for Global and financial jargon but it also changed itself and accommodated and integrated to the lingo and mind and logic of Indian masses .And that’s where you have day trading being effectively serverd in Hindi on a Channel from an Agency from outside India .
I could go on elaborating how well and distinctively CNBC did their task but the point in case is …. How they did it and the fact that they did it .What they did with finance and an Indian language is something that might just hold key to all answers and solutions on why and how can one do education in his own language .Its after all building better people while and before building a better nation .
Someone like CNBC did that here ..made the language and content relevant to each other, is doing it really well .And at times this Hindi version of channel is better that the English counterpart .Its not about the linguistic victory but the feat …that excites me ……
…….profit from it ! ..that’s the wish ..