Lesson37 English Education
Polak and I had often very heated discussions about the desirability ofgiving the children an English education. It has always been my convictionthat Indian parents who train their children to think and talk in Englishfrom their infancy betray their children and their county. They deprive themof the spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to thatextent unfit for the service of the country.
Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my children inGujarat. Polak never liked this. He thought I was spoiling their future. Hecontended that, if children were to learn a universal language like Englishfrom their infancy, they would easily gain considerable advantage overothers in the race of life.
He failed to convince me. I do not now remember whether I convinced him ofthe correctness of my attitude, or whether he gave me up as too obstinate.
This happened about twenty years ago, and my convictions have only deepenedwith experience.
Though my sons have suffered for want of full literary education, theknowledge of the mother tongue that they naturally acquired has been all totheir and the country's good, inasmuch as they do not appear like theforeigners they would otherwise have appeared. They naturally becamebilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because of dailycontact with a large circle of English friends, and because of their stay ina country where English was the chief language spoken.
obstinate 倔强的, 顽固的
inasmuch 因...之故, 因为
英语教育
我和波拉克在是否应该给孩子们英语教育这个问题上经常展开激烈的争论。我一直深信，印度父母如果从小就教育他们的子女用英语思考和讲话是对他们子女和祖国的背叛。
他们剥夺了子女得到祖国的精神和社会遗产熏陶的权利，使他们在这个意义上不适合报效祖国。因为有这些信念，我强调要经常用古吉拉特语和孩子们交谈。波拉克不喜欢这样，他认为我这样是在毁掉孩子们的未来。他反驳说，如果孩子们能从小就学习像英语这样一门通用语言，他们很容易就能在生活的竞争中取得相当大的优势。
他没有能够说服我。到底是我说服他相信了我的态度的正确性，还是他认为我顽固而放弃了要说服我的努力，我现在不记得了。那是大约二十年前的事情了。我的信念随着经历更加坚定了。虽然我的儿子们缺少全面的文学教育，他们自然获得的对自己母语的了解对他们自己和他们的祖国都有好处，因为不这样做的话他们会看起来像外国人，但是他们没有变成那样。他们很自然地就掌握了两门语言，能很轻松地用英语说和写，这是因为他们与一大群英国朋友的日常交往，并且在他们居住的国家里英语是一门主要的口头交流语言。 |