Student Responses

I think that making writing “easier” for people to understand outside of my native country or homeland is not worth it. I would rather write in my original language and have it be easier to understand for natives of my land rather than translate it to fit the tongues of others. Writer Ngugi acknowledges this and says “that question is what set in motion my thinking about the unequal relationship of power between languages”.  In the writing world, there is a relationship between all works and language. Across the world, English takes top place for being the most prevalent language in literature. Ngugi admits this in the article, while he also argues the importance of writing in your native language.  Ngugi feels that you should be able to write in your native language without being penalized for it, which I agree with. However, another writer: Rushdie feels the opposite. He feels that you should feel pride in writing in English, since it is a part of post colonial language. He reports that “The debate about the appropriateness of English in post-British India has been raging ever since 1947; but today, I find, it is a debate which has meaning only for the older generation.” I disagree with Rushdie, because I have seen many people these days fighting against post colonial traditions, so I feel like this topic would be very interesting to them.

I think the best way to preserve a culture’s history is to allow people to use the language that they can speak and write best. Although using native language is key to culture preservation, utilizing other tools (like the English language) can encourage people to study a culture for longer periods of time since they won’t be frustrated trying to learn a new language. Rushdie says “They use it as an Indian language, as one of the tools they have to hand.” This refers to Indian people using the English language as well. However, it is also argued that the English language shows a piece of their culture lost since they were taken over by the British. Ngugi says “unequal relationship of power between languages” referring to the post-colonial African government putting him in prison for writing in his African Language. He then fights this and continues to write in his “mother tongue”. For Ngugi perestive, he wasn’t given the option to write in his culture’s language which takes away the history. However, from Rushdie’s perspective he just wants to use both languages to help understand the culture better.

I believe that it ia better to preserve a cultures history by having writers work in their home languages. I don’t think it’s always necassary to make it “easier” for everyone to access a reading, and I definetly don’t think a writer should be obligated to write in a language that is easier for others to access. I think in some cases it also takes away the power of some writing especially when writing about these culural backgrounds, to write it in English. Ngugi acknowledges that,”that question is what set in motion my thinking about the unequal relationship of power between languages?” There is a unequal relationship, and that relationship usually places English as more powerful. I belive that writing in your own home language is a way to start bringing power to other languages. Ngugi argues that writers should be able to write in their home languages without being penalized, and be able to do it in pride. Ngugi sharing his experience about writing in his language compared to in English admits to this idea of a  language inbalance.  Rushdie, on the other hand, argues that English is a part of a lot of post-colonial language and that’s okay, to take pride in that. Rushdie reports that,” The debate about the appropriateness of English in post-British India has been raging ever since 1947; but today, I find, it is a debate which has meaning only for the older generation.” I find that statement totally untrue, for I myself know many people of the younger generation, especially in my family, that find this topic very meaningful. I think there is power in language and there is power and importance of writing in your own. Those that wish to understand will also be willing to translate.

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.

I believe that both of these scenarios are acceptable in their own ways. No matter what it is important to preserve your culture and its history but on the other hand, I do believe If all writings were understandable by one single language, in this case, English, it would supply more knowledge throughout the world. Reading these short excerpts I do see some inequality faced when one wants to write in their native language. Ngugi faces this and describes how he was punished or doing so. In the excerpt, it states, “that question is what set in motion my thinking about the unequal relationship of power between languages.” Here Ngugi acknowledges the injustices he faced further inspired him to continue writing in his native language. It shows the inequalities that are there when it comes to language and which are more “acceptable”.  On the other side of this argument, we got Rushdie who argues that all the inequalities due to language were only experienced by the older generation. In his short excerpt, it states,” It is a debate which has meaning only for the older generation.” This claim by Rushdie shows how children won’t have a problem with English due to it being a part of their everyday life. Even though this does provide advantages, people should focus on the here and now more often than the future. There should be focus on the prejudices people like Ngugi endure. This is confirmed by the way Ngugi wrote his first novel that is in the Gĩkũyũ language, on toilet paper, quite unusual. But this was done during his imprisonment in Africa for writing in the language. This goes to show the corruption there is due to language. Governments are trying to rid of people’s cultural history and it’s not right.