ENGLISH, WHAT ENGLISH?

Serbian and English, what a silly combination? Are we prone to anglo-saxon culture and thus study English; or has it become one of our primary needs because of the technological progress? Why did this language become so important in our country, anyway? “If you do not study English, when you grow up you will be treated as illiterate.” – this is what youngsters in our country hear almost every day, and just look at their parents, or whoever is saying this, with an astonishment, muttering angerly: “English, what English?”

I can’t imagine any TV show, and let alone head news, prepared by a more sophisticated TV station which did not change their language code. If you follow the TV programme more attentively, you will notice that about 40% of expressions they use, concern all spheres of life, are either acquired from English or are pure English words. It is absolutely not unusual on a Serbian broadcasting system in one of the fashion shows statements like this: “She is an elegant and exquisite model but has a bit vague personality. It is, perhaps, because she is still too young.” Of course, the whole sentence uttered in Serbian except the key word personality pronounced in true accent English.

I doubt there is a need to mention computers or adored video-games by which younger generations are thoroughly imbued, and hence forced to know the language itself. It is not too complicated to deduce from the stated that the boring sentence they hear almost every day sounds like a prophecy. Patethic, isn’t it?

What is so pathetic, anyway? Is that English piteous, or the circumstances and the reality we live in? Initially, are we as a nation so hapless? The most appropriate excuse would be that English is imposed on us, and it is not just a hypothesis because I personally heard this from many experts who deal with this problem. Namely, the fact is that we even do not know our mother-tongue, so it would not surprise me that the one who reads this article by chance would say: “So, what? What about that English?” And, here we are, the very beginning again.

Irina Malj