<font color="#FF0033"><b>Guest Article, Sunil Shibad:</b></font> Language no bar, but can you write well?

Sunil Shibad

The Flea

Geeta Rao, advisor, Mudra, wrote an article, ‘The return of the English copywriter’, recently for agencyfaqs! In her piece, Rao asserted that the English copywriter has returned.

Rao tells demoralised English copywriters: “Polish up your skills and dust the thesaurus, even if it is virtual dust. Let the word get out. People who can write long copy in English, people who can build brands in English are hot. Go forth, fellow scribes, and let the commas scatter, the diphthongs glide and the paradoxes and oxymorons sing. Your time has come.”

I couldn’t agree more with her.

Amberish K Diwanji writes in his column that urbanising and industrialising Indians seek out English. And the reason is simply because English offers far more opportunities, not just in India, but worldwide. It is the most potent weapon of India’s growing middle class to meet their rising aspirations; the most important asset in the global village. Here is a language which regions such as China are teaching now; which new countries of the former Soviet Union have made their second language in place of Russian.

The question is who will train and nurture the next generation in the craft of writing advertising copy, no matter which language is used?

Those who spared no effort to dehumanise writers who were not just adept at English, but could also come up with ideas that would transcend cultural and linguistic barriers? (India has over 18 recognised languages and about 800 dialects. Hindi is not ‘the’ national language of India as is often believed. It is ‘a’ national language of India, along with 17 others, including Sanskrit).

Or is it those who shout loudly from the rooftops that they communicate in the ‘Indian idiom’, then desperately try to win the approval of award show judges in the US, the UK and France?

Or perhaps it is the people who hallucinate that ‘Hinglish’ is the lingua franca of India?

Or maybe those who ‘taporify’ advertising?

Is it those who feel that the cow belt represents India’s growing economy?

Or those who raised mediocrity into an art form?

No, ‘non’, ‘nyet’, ‘nahin’.

(The writer of this article, Sunil Shibad, is a creative director with The Flea, Mumbai.)

© 2006 agencyfaqs!