Nishmitha Rodrigo Blog Post 11/29

The author, Nugugi, argues that it is important for people to write in their native language because it is a way of preserving the culture. How Rushdie has a counterargument to this, stating that it is in fact better to write in English. Although I think both of their arguments are valid and credible, I also think that it’s important for writers to write in the language they feel most comfortable with. For example, in the text Nugugi states, “before, I had written a few plays in English, and novels in English, and I had not been in prison for being critical of the post-colonial system. So why now? And that question is what set in motion my thinking about the unequal relationship of power between language?” This quotes from the text reveals the fact that it was common for people write in English, opposed to their native mother tongue language because it was one of those things that were considered normal at the time. However, I believe that the truth of the matter is that more people feel incomparably comfortable when writing in their native language. This is because writer’s have more thought flow and becomes extremely passionate about the topic of their writing when they aren’t specifically restricted to writing in one certain language. Writer’s should not be restricted when it comes to their chosen language of writing because sometimes one can be more appealing to their senses than the other one. However, the issues comes in when one language is more spoken and read than the other one because this brings in power struggle where the exposure to writing is one language is higher than the other one. This relates to Rushdie’s argument because she mentioned how kids in the India are already using and incorporating English into their lives and their writing, which essentially shows how much exposure the language of English has across the world. Regardless, at the end of the day the write should be writing in which ever language they feel the most comfortable in because its entirely a personal choice. Plus, native language is a huge part of anyone’s culture and its extremely important to preserve the culture.