Putting emphasis on practicing Bangla language properly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has castigated those, who speak Bangla in English accent.
“There is nothing to do except showing compassion for those, who staying on the soil of Bangladesh, cannot speak Bangla and who try to speak our mother language in English accent,” she said.
The prime minister said there are some boys and girls in the country, who try to speak Bangla in English accent, forgetting Bangla and languages of their own areas.
“It seems from their attitude that they feel very uneasy to speak Bangla,” she added.
The premier said this while inaugurating a four-day programme of the International Mother Language Institute (IMLI) in Dhaka on Friday (Feb 21) on the occasion of the Amar Ekushey and the International Mother Language Day 2020.
Presided over by Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni, the function was also addressed by Deputy Minister for Education Barrister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury
Nowfel and Head of the Office and UNESCO Representative to Bangladesh Beatrice Kaldun as the special guests.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata Professor Dr Pabitra Sarkar presented the keynote speech.
Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the Education Ministry Md Mahboob Hossain delivered the welcome address, while Director General of the International Mother Language Institute Professor Dr Jinnat Imtiaz Ali gave the vote of thanks.
Bangabandhu’s younger daughter Sheikh Rehana and granddaughter and Chairperson of Bangladesh National Advisory Committee for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Saima Wazed Hossain were present at the function.
Besides, cabinet ministers, PM’s advisors, parliament members, foreign diplomats, Ekushey Award laureates, litterateurs, poets, academics, writers, researchers, linguists, poets, journalists, artists, heads of international organisations in Dhaka and secretaries concerned to the premier were present.
Referring to a comment of Professor Pabitra Sarkar, who presented the keynote speech at the function, the prime minister said: “The noted Indian educationist made a true remark that narrow mindness works among us while practicing our own language.”
Hasina said there are some people who think that their children will not get job or cannot move in the society if they (children) do not study in English medium. “There is no doubt that they (those people) are suffering from mental poorness,” she said.
In this connection, the prime minister said she and her younger sister had to lead a refugee life abroad after the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
“We had not that fortune that from the beginning we will provide education to our children in Bangla medium, rather we had to get admitted them to foreign schools and foreign soil,” she said.
Hasina went on saying: “On the foreign soil we always tried to teach our children in Bangla language and we also always talked in our mother language in our house.”
The prime minister said their children started going to school or mixing with other kids there from their childhood and it is natural from them they will learn foreign language.
“Simultaneously we the two sisters tried so that our children can speak in our mother language and they now also speak Bangla. There is nothing to blame them if any problem on accent happens while speaking in Bangla,” she said.
The prime minister said she likes to talk in mother language or her village language. “However we try to speak Bangla properly in the meetings, but when we talk in the house we speak mixing the languages of Gopalganj and Dhaka,” she noted.
“We speak in the both languages as we moved to Dhaka during the childhood and born on the soil of Tungipara. So there are influences of both the languages in our talk and we don’t feel ashamed in this regard,” she said.
Referring to the historic March 7 speech of Bangabandhu, Hasina said the Father of the Nation unhesitatingly uttered the language of Gopalganj which created an appeal among the people.
“Bangabandhu had been able to reach the hearts of the people very fast and also had been able to tell the words of the people. That’s why whatever directives he had given the people accepted those,” she said.