Mind your language
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
LANGUAGE spoken or written is the most important tool of communication for the entire human race. It reflects and affects a nation's ways of thinking. Here my main focus is on language used in verbal communication rather than the written one. Language particularly the verbal one plays a vital role in all segments of the society -- social, political or otherwise -- between peoples of a nation. It is perhaps more so in a Third World country like Bangladesh particularly with comparatively low rate of literacy. Besides even the literate segment of our population are habitually poor readers. The importance of use of verbal language in communicating verbally therefore cannot be overemphasised. It is of vital importance at family levels, in dialogues in movies including theatres and dramas, on the street, in the parliament, interacting with dissident views including communicating between friends and acquaintances.
Of all areas of communication, the use of verbal language is of utmost importance particularly in the field of politics. Language in politics is as vital as oxygen to air. Words do not merely describe politics one pursues but they ultimately become a part of politics itself. History has it that all world class leaders had one thing in common their power to, and excellence in, communicating with the people verbally mainly through public speeches. It may be relevant to mention the names of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther king Jr, John F Kennedy so on and so forth.
At the backdrop of the above, there is much to be said about the verbal communication used by our politicians. Permit me to say that it is not only indecent but also demeaning every step of the way. There is hardly any healthy sign of its use in any field of political interactions. Look at how the sacred floor of the Parliament, where language used not only un-Parliamentary but also reflective of poor tastes and full of invectives.
We seldom talk to each other instead we shout at each other with the sole purpose of insinuating one another The use and abuse of this important tool of verbal communication has become acute particularly amongst the key political figures. The way they speak in and outside the Parliament is far from desirable. The worst of all it is highly pronounced with members of the ruling party higherarchy. I do not know of others but I for one am shocked by this persistent phenomenon prevailing amongst leading politicians, particularly amongst the ruling party lawmakers and others. I have earlier indicated that because of the verbal language used it is difficult to distinguish between the floor of the Parliament and Paltan Maidan. Allow me to be more specific; we must simply desist from any form of speech that is aimed at character assassination of any one, no matter how great the temptation may be.
Let me now turn our attention to other areas of the society and see what is happening there. At family levels too we often tend to use vernal language that is often alarming. Today teen agers and young boys of impressionable ages are using abusive language in their verbal communication. These days the four letter word used normally in depicting a sexual activity is being used at random. At the slightest provocation even children of tender ages are bad-mouthing and indulging in exchange of unsavory language. This phenomenon has also spread in educational institutions. For this, however, our political leaderships must shoulder the major share of the guilt along with teachers, parents and elders at home. Along with politicians others as mentioned above have simply failed to lead from the front.
In the electronic media, too, we now come across use of the language to be licentious in nature and reflective of a poor taste. If you care to watch some of the TV serials/ Dramas of today, you will often find that dialogues used are not only poor in taste but often irrelevant. The scenario is the worst in cinemas (locally produced) where one comes across a debilitating combination of use of most abusive language in an environment of extreme violence dominated by scenes of murder and even rapes.
Admittedly in an age of free flow of communication globally, we shall still be confronted with such verbal assault of the worst nature but surely there is no bar on our part in gearing gear up the regulatory process in preventing our film makers to desist from making such films for people to see. I am tempted to recall an interview of a middle-aged woman I saw in one of overseas TV channels where in she was asked as to what was her impressions of the present-day cinema. She responded by saying that she seldom sees movies nowadays ever since she counted in one movie the four letter being used many as 46 times. I know as I said earlier that we shall not be able to reverse the situation but surely we can make an earnest beginning at containing.
Epilogue: Samuel Johnson once said in the (the Rambler) about the use of language in general: "I have labored to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations." At one stage, he even goes to the extent of describing languages as "pedigrees of the nations".
From today's perspective, in this age of free flow of information and communication it may not be possible to regulate the use and abuse of language both verbal and written more so verbal from a cultural standpoint or otherwise, yet from the standpoint of our cultural and moral values we should be able contain it through a concerted and proactive social movement. Surely it is possible for our politicians in particular and the lawmakers working from the premise of sobriety and decency. All that is required is a commitment backed by a positive change in mentality and mindset. I say this with malice towards none. In this regard our writers and members of our civil society could play a vital role.
Over the years we have come a long way and now have a number of windows of excellence both in the labor intensive industrial sectors and in the socio-cultural sectors, we need attend to such issues being decent and civil in our manners of speech and verbal communication, whether speaking in the Parliament, making a speech in public, at educational institutions or talking to one another on the road or in the alleys.
(E-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com)
Of all areas of communication, the use of verbal language is of utmost importance particularly in the field of politics. Language in politics is as vital as oxygen to air. Words do not merely describe politics one pursues but they ultimately become a part of politics itself. History has it that all world class leaders had one thing in common their power to, and excellence in, communicating with the people verbally mainly through public speeches. It may be relevant to mention the names of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther king Jr, John F Kennedy so on and so forth.
At the backdrop of the above, there is much to be said about the verbal communication used by our politicians. Permit me to say that it is not only indecent but also demeaning every step of the way. There is hardly any healthy sign of its use in any field of political interactions. Look at how the sacred floor of the Parliament, where language used not only un-Parliamentary but also reflective of poor tastes and full of invectives.
We seldom talk to each other instead we shout at each other with the sole purpose of insinuating one another The use and abuse of this important tool of verbal communication has become acute particularly amongst the key political figures. The way they speak in and outside the Parliament is far from desirable. The worst of all it is highly pronounced with members of the ruling party higherarchy. I do not know of others but I for one am shocked by this persistent phenomenon prevailing amongst leading politicians, particularly amongst the ruling party lawmakers and others. I have earlier indicated that because of the verbal language used it is difficult to distinguish between the floor of the Parliament and Paltan Maidan. Allow me to be more specific; we must simply desist from any form of speech that is aimed at character assassination of any one, no matter how great the temptation may be.
Let me now turn our attention to other areas of the society and see what is happening there. At family levels too we often tend to use vernal language that is often alarming. Today teen agers and young boys of impressionable ages are using abusive language in their verbal communication. These days the four letter word used normally in depicting a sexual activity is being used at random. At the slightest provocation even children of tender ages are bad-mouthing and indulging in exchange of unsavory language. This phenomenon has also spread in educational institutions. For this, however, our political leaderships must shoulder the major share of the guilt along with teachers, parents and elders at home. Along with politicians others as mentioned above have simply failed to lead from the front.
In the electronic media, too, we now come across use of the language to be licentious in nature and reflective of a poor taste. If you care to watch some of the TV serials/ Dramas of today, you will often find that dialogues used are not only poor in taste but often irrelevant. The scenario is the worst in cinemas (locally produced) where one comes across a debilitating combination of use of most abusive language in an environment of extreme violence dominated by scenes of murder and even rapes.
Admittedly in an age of free flow of communication globally, we shall still be confronted with such verbal assault of the worst nature but surely there is no bar on our part in gearing gear up the regulatory process in preventing our film makers to desist from making such films for people to see. I am tempted to recall an interview of a middle-aged woman I saw in one of overseas TV channels where in she was asked as to what was her impressions of the present-day cinema. She responded by saying that she seldom sees movies nowadays ever since she counted in one movie the four letter being used many as 46 times. I know as I said earlier that we shall not be able to reverse the situation but surely we can make an earnest beginning at containing.
Epilogue: Samuel Johnson once said in the (the Rambler) about the use of language in general: "I have labored to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations." At one stage, he even goes to the extent of describing languages as "pedigrees of the nations".
From today's perspective, in this age of free flow of information and communication it may not be possible to regulate the use and abuse of language both verbal and written more so verbal from a cultural standpoint or otherwise, yet from the standpoint of our cultural and moral values we should be able contain it through a concerted and proactive social movement. Surely it is possible for our politicians in particular and the lawmakers working from the premise of sobriety and decency. All that is required is a commitment backed by a positive change in mentality and mindset. I say this with malice towards none. In this regard our writers and members of our civil society could play a vital role.
Over the years we have come a long way and now have a number of windows of excellence both in the labor intensive industrial sectors and in the socio-cultural sectors, we need attend to such issues being decent and civil in our manners of speech and verbal communication, whether speaking in the Parliament, making a speech in public, at educational institutions or talking to one another on the road or in the alleys.
(E-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com)