> On 06-Jun-2014, at 10:50 am, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > >> 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 > -- > Question to those who use multiple languages on a regular basis. What language do you use to think? I find myself mostly using English. I can read and write Kannada and Hindi and I use all 3 languages on a daily basis.
Anil Kumar >
