On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 8:15 AM, Deepa Mohan <mohande...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, in India, with rapid urbanization, I have seen this amazing > phenomenon (which I never thought about for a long time) of people who > cannot read and/or write their mother tongue, or even, sometimes, speak it. > Are there parallels in other countries? India, to my knowledge, is unique in having the combination of the below: 1. Having a huge assortment of languages and dialects native to the country, such that the need for link languages exists. 2. A large population whose only education has been in a language other than the "mother" tongue - in this case, in English. In fact, I'd make a distinction between mother tongue (being defined as the language that your family historically spoke) and native tongue (being defined as the language you usually think in). My native tongue is English. Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
