The contribution to the Social Media Platform X caused the main will after rejecting Indian regional languages such as Kannada and Tamil as “not worth learning”, which triggered a wave of criticism from users, especially southern cities such as Bengalur and Chennai.
Now the viral post claimed that although it was meaningful to learn Japanese or Chinese when he moved to countries like Japan or China, “there was no sense” when moving to Bengalur or Chennai.
“If I moved to Japan, I would learn Japanese. If I moved to China, I would learn Chinese. If I moved to Bangalore, I’d rather speak English. If I moved to Chennai, I’d rather speak English,” he read.
“There is no point in learning languages of poorer economies and worse quality of life.”
The comment brought immediate criticism, and many users slammed it as an elitist, unconscious and disrespectful to regional cultures. The inhabitants of the southern states pointed out the deep historical, cultural and literary wealth of these languages, some of which have classical language status in India.
In the subsequent post, the user claimed that regional language debates are often “exaggerated” and suggested that the main companies limit their investments in cities such as Bengaluru and Chennai to avoid what they referred to as “linguistic harassment of migrants”.
This proposal only added fuel to the fire, and many accused users of trying to delegitimize the role of local languages in Indian cities and workplaces.
Social media was flooded with reactions, from language scientists emphasizing the global importance of Tamil and Kannada to technical workers in Bengalur, who insisted that the acceptance of the local language promotes inclusivity, not division.
“The languages do not define the economic state – define identity, history and belonging,” one user wrote.
Another user wrote: “Indian: We have managed your language to survive; mocking to feel higher, but your world will still stumble on” Namaste “while ours once whispered to the stars.
“You speak like a rich globetrotter that has seen it all, but you’re just another keyboard tourist sitting in a place where real progress has not yet knocked. Flowing English, as if it were a VIP, doesn’t mean you sound painfully uncertain,” the third user wrote.
(Tagstotranslate) Debate on regional language
