Sponsor Area

The Last Lesson

Question

Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far? Do you know what linguistic chauvinism means?

Solution

Yes, people do feel the way. They carry pride in their language that in democracy like the Indian, the linguistic groups even oppose the screening of films of other languages in their talkies. They even paint black the sign-boards of other languages in their states.

‘Linguistic Chauvinism’ is the unreasonable belief, especially when aggressively expressed, in the superiority of one’s own language. As the Germans and the British had the unreasonable belief in the superiority of their languages German and English respectively. People with linguistic chauvinism think their own language superior to other languages spoken in the world. In the same way German was imposed to be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine and the teaching of French was stopped.

The people in this story suddenly realise how precious their language is to them. What shows you this? Why does this happen?

Franz thinks : “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons ?” What could this mean ? (There could be more than one answer).

‘When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.” Can you think of examples in history where a conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?

What happens to a linguistic minority in a state ? How do you think they can keep their language alive?
For example:

Punjabis in Bangalore

Tamilians in Mumbai

Kannadigas in Delhi

Gujaratis in Kolkata