My thought on language

I attended a writing and proofreading workshop yesterday. It was one of the best trainings that I had in months. The Leader was so focused, had a full knowledge of the subject and knew exactly how to keep everyone involved. No offense, but it is really hard to find these qualities in professional training leaders now a days - (please, please do not take it personally as I am one of them as well). At these trainings we (leader and attendees) just want to get over it really quickly and in reality it is just immpossible to throw out and consume the mass information in these training sessions. Specially, after lunch, people will start to leave as they want get their work done and the remaining will not be focused at all with all the good food that they had just consumed.

So, back to the point, the Leader yesterday said, "If English is your native language and if you really want to master it, learn a new language".

English is my second language; my first language is Hirdu (a combination of Hindi and Urdu). Given the fact that I am from India, English is a must language to learn - why? To just show how intelligent you are. Yes, this was the only idea behind it when I was in elementary school. My classmates struggled and so did I. Now, did learning English (a new language) helped me master my Hirdu???? No - but it should have. Right?

Here is the reason behind it: my native language was not correct to begin with. I don't know how to communicate everything in pure Hindi or pure Urdu. There are thousands of English words that I use (since I was a kid) when I speak Hirdu, and I still do. I don't even know how to say them in Hindi or Urdu - small things like glass, train, tube-light, table, marks, points, etc etc - the list is never ending. To tell you the truth, even if I know these words in Hindi or Urdu, I am just more comfortable using it in English - why? It just sounds cool and its easy to say.

11 Years ago, my Hirdu was somewhat better but now being in States for so long and using English daily as a prime communicating language - my Hirdu has become more weak. I am worried if my kids will ever know how to speak pure Hindi or pure Urdu when I, myself, didn't know........