By: Raazia Syed
Language and speech make us distinct in any gathering but the conversation should be relevant to the occasion. Man used different signs and signals before the existence of language. But now in this modern world it is impossible to survive without a language.
Our way of talking reveals much more upon our addressee. Learning a language and making expertise in it is a success in itself. It is a saying of Hazrat Ali ( R.A) “if you learn language of any community, you will be safe from its skirmishes”.
During the exploration of languages, I have come to know that on international level, Chinese is spoken by a large majority of people and English is used in most of offices while in Pakistan 8% people speak Urdu and 48% speak Punjabi.
Recently Washington Post has disclosed in a report that there are such 12 languages which are spoken and understood by the two third majority of the world population which include 5 Asian languages.
Chinese Language is spoken by 1.4 billion people while Urdu and Hindi are spoken by 58.5 corer people. In Asia 2301and in Europe 286 Languages are spoken.
National language of Pakistan, Urdu has not been given its due status. Although, Supreme Court of Pakistan has given its verdict to make Urdu as an official language but much more efforts and time are required for its implementation.
A language always evolves and flourishes with the passage of time and suitable circumstances. Language of Mughal Courts was Persian which was replaced by Urdu in 1837.
National Institute of Modern languages was established in Islamabad in 1970 for the promotion of different languages which was later given the status of a University as NUML on May 29, 2000. In this University 27 Eastern and European Languages are being learnt. We can make our interaction easier with the other nations by learning foreign languages. In this way we may explore their literature, civilization and culture.
Although Urdu is our National Language and we are proud of it but our mother languages i.e. Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtu, Balochi, Saraiki, Hindko etc. must not be ignored.
Languages show our civilizations and we should learn them to shorten the distances.