Re: [LIS-Forum] Why do we need high proficiency in English language ?

Mr. Kumaresan, You have enlightened me by stating that Hindi has not been designated as National language. Thanks. I have neither got 'personnel' nor 'personal' with Mr. Vyasamoorthy. When we study Hindi in the school till 12th why can't two librarians from South and North east converse in Hindi ???? Why should we converse in English ? I don't think you have the right to state that I am narrow minded. In fact, I expect you to be broadminded and accept our National language, especially when you are living abroad. If you want to hate Hindi and love English then go ahead. There are even now States in India who do not want to teach Hindi at school level. So I think you as an Individual cannot be blamed. Now that you are in the Gulf where you interact with several Nationalities. just observe them. When they talk to each other...do they do it in English ? It is us, the unfortunate Indians who end up speaking to each other in English and the world wonders why Indians speak in English. Don't they have a langauge of their own. Regards. Jayadev P Hiremath On 24 Feb 2005 05:20:51 -0000, SCKumaresan wrote:

Hello Mr. Jayadev P Hiremath,

Greetings. I appreciate your love and concern for Hindi language. But please ask your self how many languages these european countries and for that matter any other country have compared to India. And by the way why do you think any two librarians in india should converse in hindi when they meet? Have you thought of a librarian from south or from far eastern state meeting with the librarian from hindi belt. What language do you think they should converse in, if hindi then why? I guess every one would have the same love for his language. If you say Hindi is the National language,excuse me.. then you have to read the constitution of India which does not specify so, provided 18 indian languages (pls corret if i'm wrong in the no) are given equal status.

I guess one should think beyond the borders of such restrictions based on language and have a broader mind and thought, The point Dr. Vyasmoorthy has raised has some substance in it and we should give a thought to it, Ofcourse you have the right to express your opinion, but i think you should not get personnel. Try to take things in a broader sense. Is it not worth giving it a try.

Good Luck and Best Regards S.C.Kumaresan

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How many Librarians in East Europe, Japan, France, China and Russia and many other countries know English. Haven't these countries progressed ? If the Librarian has studied in Vernacular upto high school, is it his fault ? Library Science teacher's are there to teach Library Science and not English Language skills.

When you were recruiting an Information Officer, what was the basic requirement ? Was it his skills in Information Management or English language ?

You have a done a great disservice by writing highly unwarranted mail. This will dissuade many Librarians from writing to this forum. They all will develop inferiotity complex. Itis a national shame that when two Indians...Librarians.... from different parts of the country meet they have to communicate in English language. Have you ever thought about conversing in Hindi ?

I jolly well know the importance of English language in the world. But that doesn't mean that we have to look down upon our fellow professionals who are not proficient in English. We have all become slaves to English language and take great pride in being so.

I as a customer, have received many e-mails from your Organization and I don't think ICICI as such attaches much importance to English language skills and rightly so. Why is it that only you are so keen about it when it is not an Institutional policy. Working knowledge of the languages is more that sufficient for providing the services. Unless ofcourse you are going to write a treatise.

Jayadev P Hiremath

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 12:36:38 +0530, Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com wrote:

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Dear Friends,

I am sure that some of you were expecting this. I am really appalled at

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Recently we had to recruit an Information Officer for our VIC. Out of

about fifteen persons we considered, hardly two or three could measure up as far as basic English Language skills are concerned.

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On one hand we find the Indian librarians community in India to be

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 Jayadev P Hiremath wrote : the lack of any semblance of proficiency in the use of English language among many librarians. I wonder how one could pass through some 17 years of schooling and even after that manage not to learn basics of English Language. It is regrettable that our present system of Education does not emphasize the importance of Language abilities. Because of selfish politicians promoting their own agendas at the cost of the nation and because of a tendency to promote or put up with mediocrity everywhere -- the necessity for striving for excellence is once in a way heard from our president, though -- students do not look at Language skills with any concern. prolific writers - even an entry level resume mentions two or three 'papers' published and on the other hand we find that their presentation and communication skills at horribly very low levels. What are reasons? How can this be changed? Who should take action? Is it OK to be where & how we are? What do LIS teachers have to say?

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In this lamentation I am not bothered about typing errors (may be you

are just lazy - not that you do not know), spelling mistakes (heavy dependence on spell checkers), occasional slippages (it happens to everyone), unheard of abbreviations being thrust on everyone by cell phone (or email?) culture and the like. I am concerned with basic English Language skills expected of a tenth class student. Kindly do not take recourse to "It is the same everywhere - in all other preofessions too" type of argument.

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Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence:

+91(40)27846631

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_______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum S.C.Kumaresan SeniorLibrarian, BITS - Pilani, Dubai Campus, P.O. Box No.500022. Block 11, Knowledge Village, Dubai, UAE Tele(009714)3664575/76, Fax(009714)3664580 Mobile. 00971508829462