Language

`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master -- that's all.'

---Lewis Carrol Through the looking glass

Which brings us to the recent propaganda for the development of a local version of English and the ads with popular personalities saying that we can talk "English - our way". This is a good initiative to be supported. But the promotion of our own languages like Sinhala and Tamil is also becoming necessary with all the Montessori schools and the "International Schools" popping up all over the country teaching in English.