The language of our knowledge and science

When we think in our minds, but still a kind of speech is active in our minds. Everyone's own inner talk is going on uninterruptedly নিজস্ব an introspection. It is part of our feelings and thoughts, it also has a language. What is this language of interjection? There are two alternative theories to answer this question. According to one theory, this language of thought is the mother tongue, or the language we become accustomed to when we first learned the language in childhood. According to another theory, it is not a language we know, but a language of absolute neutrality, internal and innate thought. Neither of these two theories has yet been confirmed as evidence has not been completed in proper testing. However, it is clear from the theoretical arguments of both that there is a special intimacy of introspection with the mother tongue, even if the introspection itself is not the mother tongue. What I can do in my mother tongue will be more heartfelt, it will play more in my mind, that is undeniable. However, it also shows that we have mastered any other second language as there is some language neutrality in the selection and the work we do in that language also contributes to our selection.

I am not alone in the language of my communication, so it is not like introspection. The other side of communication is better if its language and my language are the same, otherwise I have to communicate. The language of education has the same problem. In this we have to communicate with the weasel of knowledge and science, and also with those with whom we will apply that knowledge. So the language of education, the language of its use, the insistence that it will always be in my mother tongue is not desirable. It cannot be insisted that we do not have complete control over both the world of knowledge and its application, and very few nations in the world can do that. In the practice of knowledge and in the political-economic power, many powerful nations have also lagged behind. There was no grievance between them or any interruption in the pursuit of that power. This is because even though they welcomed the Vine language as the language of education, they did not give up the development and proximity of their own language and literature, because it is the closest to the language of the heart. In the end, as much knowledge, as much creativity, as much appeal of the world is captured in the inner selection of the people through that literature in one's own language. Many languages ​​are needed and at the same time return to one's own language — this is not just the case today, it has happened to almost all nations at all stages of history.

Raja Rammohun Roy learned Persian, mastered a lot of knowledge through it and practiced it. He has learned English, mastered much more through it, and practiced it. But his idea of ​​Brahmo Samaj and Brahma Sangeet did not develop through any of these two languages ​​সব in this society, all the theories of this music have been in Bengali. On the contrary, he and his Brahmo associates have improved the Bengali language and literature. His knowledge of Persian and English was not hindered; Rather it has been much more helpful. Raja Rammohun Roy is a historical figure, but there is no reason to think that his educational process is a rare exception. He can and should be the ideal for any of our schoolchildren. Rammohun fixed the language in the reality of his time, we will do it in our time.

We have many positive achievements in terms of application of Bengal. In the work of mass development, in various activities of daily life, in administration, in enlightening discussions, in our policy-making debates, in writing books on all subjects of knowledge and in its taste, we are using Bengali today and that is appropriate. For this we have won seats of honor among all Bengali speakers in the world. These have been possible because they are logical in reality. But it is not advisable to do anything beyond that logic, nor will it be. In that case, if we force ourselves, we will be harmed. We now have to understand that just one language cannot be the language of our education at a considerable cost. The poor condition of our language teaching in school in general and English in particular reminds us of that today. For a long time in the past, more than one language of our education was from school. It cannot be said that education would have been bad, it would have been confined to any class, the development of mother tongue would have been hampered. Today, not only our scholars, but the entire masses have become so attached to globalization that the need for those multiple languages ​​of education has now multiplied and expanded for all. But what was important then, is still important, is to maintain the connection of life with the mother tongue at all levels. Our first acquaintance with science and all other branches of knowledge must be in the mother tongue and that identity must be maintained forever from then on. This is because in the end all knowledge will come to our soul, will come through the mother tongue. We have to collect this knowledge through both mother tongue and world language and it starts from school. The more comfortable our anagona between these two languages, the more comfortable will be our practice and assimilation of knowledge and science. In this sense, almost all of us need to be bilingual and that is how education should be organized.

In higher education, that is, from high school to undergraduate and postgraduate level, we have paid a lot of compensation for the introduction of English in Bengali, excluding our long experience and skills. It was thought that education would be more assimilated, its value would increase; The opposite has happened, due to the closure of that world window. On the other hand, as the challenge of mastering the English language has been loosened since childhood, the whole matter of language education has been neglected and it has also affected Bengali language education. Studies have repeatedly shown that those who are bilingual do not interfere with the learning or practice of another language in any way; Rather helps. Even now trying to return to English in higher education, we are being hit hard by different situations in school-college. Frightened by this situation, the compatible parents are sending their children to English medium schools from the age of learning to speak, after which they have no connection with the mother tongue, in many cases even with the country. That class is gradually expanding, the class division in the country is becoming evident.

But there is no division between being bilingual, there was no such thing in our country in the past. Bengali is my mother tongue, the language of literature হলেও even if it is science literature, it is any kind of literature to get the feeling of the soul. In this language we will feel all knowledge and science from the heart. But we also need English well to collect that knowledge from the world and to practice it with ease. By denying this, we are creating divisions.