To The Haters

It is generally said that what people can’t achieve, they secretly hate it. Some display this abhorrence in their behavior and activities. The same goes to some people’s irritation with English language. They not only hate English but also show their disrespect to those who use English language to communicate with others.

The trend is more common in academic field. In schools and colleges, English is often viewed as an unimportant subject. It is considered as a subject which students can pass easily without having to work hard in it. From the early days of school, students are advised to allocate more time to Mathematics, Science and other technical subjects. Some non-English teachers even tell students that studying, practicing, and revising English at home is a total wastage of time. This gradually demotivates students to learn English and they start taking it lightly. Some even start hating it secretly while many others, especially those who are seeking to build their career in science and technology, begin to question its usefulness.

In the first place, schools and colleges are responsible for this sort of discriminatory treatment of English and English teachers. Many academic institutions treat English teachers unequally. They don’t give the same respect and value to them as they do to mathematics and science teachers. English teachers in these academic institutions are discriminated in salary and incentives. They are not paid as much as science or Math teachers even though they are equally qualified and teach in the same level. English teachers can hardly bargain about time and facilities while the others are allowed to use these privileges.

Most of those who hate English are usually the ones who don’t have good English language bases themselves. They know they lack good communication skills in English.  They have bitter experiences to have missed many good opportunities because of their poor performance in English language ability tests. I know some friends who had to give up their dreams of pursuing their studies in foreign universities simply because they failed to get a good score in TOEFL or IELTS. Some appear in these tests repeatedly but give up finally as they can’t improve the score. So they don’t feel   comfortable when they find others using English without much difficulty. It makes them feel inferior and they show their deep rooted frustration with English by advocating on its uselessness.

In the contrary, people with good English always respect and value English language no matter what subject areas or profession they belong to. We can see a good number of non-English teachers who speak and write excellent English. They use English regularly and are eager to learn new things every day. We have heard about people who never attended any formal English courses in universities but are good writers of English now. People with no formal degrees in English are English language instructors. It is not necessary that you must have studied English or must be an English teacher or instructor to know English. English is not only a subject that people opt to take up. It is a language that everyone needs to learn in this globalized world. So, dear haters, you’d better improve your English and see how it can benefit you rather than hate it.

Durga Gautam

Buddhanagar, Kathmandu