February 21: International Mother Language Day
Endeavouring to overcome the language barrier
Karachi: Language is the most powerful instrument of preserving and developing tangible and intangible heritage. In a survey conducted by The News, many foreigners who live in Karachi expressed their views regarding the problems they initially faced due to their mother languages.
Mehmat Atayoglu, Turkish student of Mass Communication at the University of Karachi (KU), told The News: �After going through a troublesome process of admission to the university, my first year was the worst, as I did not know how to communicate with my professors, because many of them delivered lectures in English and some even taught in Urdu.�
Mehmat was not familiar with the English language, which is quite popular in the majority of countries all over the world. He could only speak his mother language, and found it difficult to cope with people who only knew either English or Urdu. �I came to Pakistan in 2007 because there was no other language to learn back home. There wasn�t even an option of learning another language in the schools of Turkey.�
Mehmat is now learning and taking extra classes of English to be able to communicate with people in the country. �I am a little satisfied now that I can make people understand what I am saying,� he said.
An Arab student, Nuha Abdul Rehman, told The News, �I used to get irritated when I couldn�t communicate with people.�
Nuha, an inhabitant of Oman, came to Pakistan in 2006 for the purpose of higher studies. She told The News that in Oman, there are no universities where she could have a variety of subjects to choose. �I had communication issues for a while, however since Arabic is similar to Urdu, that�s why I can speak Urdu now. It�s broken Urdu, but it is helpful for me now to be able to communicate properly,� she said.
As globalisation has made the world a smaller place, people of diverse languages need to learn more languages apart from their mother language in order to fit into the global mould. From a general survey it appears that English seems to have become a universal language with the help of which people can communicate.
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