You might be wondering “what is up with the title?” “Why is it written in English but reads in Nepali?” Why is the article title written in “Facebook ko messege jasto”?

Before answering all of your questions, I have a few questions of my own to ask as a student. When did English become so important that as a Nepali, I struggle to read, write and speak in Nepali. This is not just me speaking my own experience, I have a lot of friends who would skip some task or do something else rather than deal with reading writing or speaking in Nepali. Right now, I can write a whole article in English without having to double check my spellings or grammar but I am so dead when it comes to Nepali that I don’t even attempt it. I am not blaming anyone for this, no teachers, no parents or anyone. In fact my “guruba” and “guruaama” did the best they could. I could blame myself, yes, but then I would have to nitpick everything surrounding the teaching system and blame almost everyone and all it would lead to is a cycle of blame which I am not trying to start. But I do believe that something is not right because honestly, if the title was written in Nepali, I would have to ask someone else to check to see if it was right or not.

And I am not saying that this is the case for every one of my peers. Some of them are so good in Nepali that I wonder how they do it when our teaching is so hugely based around English. Although, those who were good in Nepali usually had a reason like their parents are Nepali teachers or I enjoy Nepali or my reading was based on Nepali, and on the last most case, when their Nepali is good because their teaching was based on it, their English might not be so good, that is a discussion for another day.

Everyone can agree that comparatively English is a much easier subject. Between the “Raswo” and “Dirgas”, English seemed much easier. Seven out of Eight subjects were English based, so all you had to do was just pass in Nepali and do best in other seven subjects to get good marks, and as a child that seemed like a pretty good deal. And even as a teen when in class eleven science, I did not have to read even a bit of Nepali, the mind was pretty quick to completely remove the teachings of Nepali subject.

This is the system where the national language has been a burden or difficulty for many Nepalese students. Maybe this was not a problem for the previous generations, but being part of the first generation that had the privilege to study in a completely English surrounded teaching system, it became a problem.

Article by: Ankit Paudyal , BBIS Kathmandu University