By A Staff Reporter

Lalitpur, Mar. 18: Bibek Rijal, 22, cannot speak a full sentence in Nepali without inserting a few English words. He admits that he finds many Nepali words and phrases confusing and prefers using their “simpler” English alternatives. But he can still be seen mouthing away in English even when the Nepali terms are shorter and easier than the English ones he is using.
“I don’t exactly know why,” Bibek replies, when asked why his tongue veers towards the foreign language. “I am not particularly affectionate towards English; but it comes to me just automatically, more so than Nepali.”
One of his friends, Ruzen Maharjan, pointed to social media as the reason for the corruption of Nepali. “The youth spend most of their time on social media platforms which are primarily in English,” he said, adding, “So we just get used to English as a more convenient language.”
Both Bibek and Ruzen are third-year undergraduate students of Media Studies at Kathmandu University (KU).
Ishita Shahi, a fourth-year student of the same course, provides a more concrete explanation for her generation’s weak English. She says, “We are exposed to English from the playgroup level itself. In school, out of eight subjects, seven are in English and one Nepali. And it is almost non-existent in technical education.” She starkly asks, “When you don’t teach a generation Nepali, how can you expect them to read and write in it?”
Dr Ram Chandra Poudel, assistant professor of Nepali at Kathmandu University, agrees with the views of all three students but believes that the real fault is in our mindset. “The elation in parents’ faces when their child utters a word of English is worrying,” he says. “The parents actively push their children to speak English rather than Nepali or their mother tongues.”
This, he says, reflects a wider mentality of people wanting to send their children abroad. “The goal is to send them abroad once they are old enough and enable them to settle there. That is why people are so overly enthusiastic about English.”
He also expressed his dismay at the fact that being educated has become synonymous with speaking English.
Poudel is equally critical of schools and colleges which have, in the “globalised world”, prioritised English and all but forgotten Nepali. “This ties up with the parents’ desire to send their kids outside,” he explains. “The schools and colleges advertise their so-called international standard of English and show how their students have been spread around in different countries across the world.”
However, as Poudel explains about the misplaced linguistic priorities of educational institutions, it becomes hard to ignore that his own workplace might have also fallen into this “globalisation” trap.
Kathmandu University doesn’t have a department of Nepali in any of its seven schools. Even within the Department of Languages and Mass Communication (DoLMC), which Poudel is a permanent faculty of and where he has significant say in developing and teaching the curriculum for Nepali language, the language is only taught in the first two semesters and only carries six credits out of a total of 126. (These descriptions are based on the Bachelor in Media Studies course – the only course run by the DoLMC).
To be fair, English, as a language, is also only taught in the first two semesters and carries a similar weight of six credits. But seeing as how all the other courses are taught in English, the exams and class assignments are taken in

English and the official language of instruction of the University is English, it isn’t as lacking in heft as Nepali is.
But KU is merely a representative case of the larger educational trend that has long been ignoring Nepali. And its result can be most prominently seen in reading and writing, as Poudel explains, “The students’ writing is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. They can’t bring gravity and nuance to their work.” He further adds, “I can see in class that students are finding it increasingly hard to read Nepali literary works. They can’t understand the words and are unable to delve deep.” He concludes in one sentence that Nepalis are losing their hold with Nepali.
Nepali typing
If Nepali writing is getting difficult for youths, then Nepali typing is nearly impossible for them. Ishita can’t type a word in Nepali and claims that it is difficult to learn. “I just have to accept that I will lose certain opportunities because I cannot type Nepali,” she says. Ruzen can only type with the help of online tools. But the drawback with them is, they only support Unicode. Bibek can just about type in Nepali if absolutely necessary but it took him weeks of intensive practice and focus and he is scared that if he doesn’t keep typing in Nepali, he will forget the keyboard layout.
Romanised Nepali
So, with Nepali typing being an issue and the ubiquitous nature of social media, the youths are turning towards Romanised Nepali as a way to communicate online. “It is actually helping the language to evolve and grow into the online era,” Ruzen says.
But Poudel is not so sure, “Romanisation has its limits because English only has 26 letters while Nepali has 36 letters and 11 vowels.”
He explains how Romanisation can’t fully express the Nepali nasal sounds. It doesn’t account for the two t, th, d and dh letters of Nepali and gets the names of people and places wrong. Romanisation might be okay for informal use but there is no replacement for learning Nepali typing, he remarks, saying that it is about time that the Nepali curriculum, at all levels, is expanded, and technology is incorporated.
Disadvantages
But while measures can be taken in the future to revitalise the language, the current generation has already fallen at a disadvantage due to their weak Nepali.
“We can’t compete in Public Service Commission exams, not because we don’t have the knowledge but because we can’t express ourselves fluently,” Ruzen expresses his frustration.
“Nepali is the working language of the government, so it is quite a hassle to get some administrative works done and write official applications,” he says.
Ishita also adds, “We have to give up on many lucrative opportunities in Nepali journalism, mass communication and translation because we can’t type in Nepali.”