A common language fosters unity and community development, Naidu said.
Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday encouraged people to “master” their mother tongue and said that learning a language “amounts to assimilation of culture and values” and can also widen a person’s opportunities. He asked people to “learn more languages to foster unity of mankind”.
Delivering an online address for the World Telugu Cultural Fest being organised at San Francisco, Naidu, according to a government statement, “highlighted the virtues of learning and mastering one’s mother tongue even as he urged the people to learn other languages to the extent possible for a wider understanding of cultural diversities and value systems”. He also said “learning other languages also fosters wider bonding of humankind besides enhancing opportunities of various kind”.
Calling language “more than a mere instrument of expression” Naidu said that “language is manifestation of culture and a system of values over a long period of time and it epitomises the personality types typical to respective cultures”. Each language, the Vice-President said, “is an outcome of an evolutionary process drawing from other languages during the long period of interaction with others”.
A common language fosters unity and community development, he said, and urged people to learn as many languages as possible for a broader understanding of the diverse cultures.