Languages, Countries, and being stuck in the middle of a confused civilisation

I was on Facebook, scrolling through my wasteful news feed, when I stumbled across this 9gag image.

And believe it or not, that actually got me thinking. I realised that I was using a very messed up combination of words from the British vocabulary and the American Vocabulary! (my friends were, too so thankfully I am not the only one)
For example, I used ‘Flat‘ and ‘Apartment‘ both thinking that maybe there was some teeny-tiny difference that I wasn’t aware of. Or even ‘Math‘ and ‘Maths‘; I spent a lot of my time being confused about which was the correct usage. And now, having read this list, I have a feeling I am going to be even more confused!

Another something that dawned on me was the fact that, being an Indian, English will always be a foreign language to me. I speak a lot of Hindi and that itself is testimony of which language actually is closer to my heart; yet I choose to write and read in English. I don’t know the reason and even though I am more than comfortable with this estrangement from a language that belongs to my motherland (yes, lots of love for the country), I cannot help but feel a little let down thinking about how I felt relieved the day I wrote my last Hindi exam, two years ago. Of course, I was less aware and thoughtful but that doesn’t excuse it.

Also, the pitiful sight of how even though we have adopted English to be our chosen language for most means of communication and upbringing of the upcoming generation, we still haven’t taken a stand with respect to its technicalities. British English is the one taught in most schools throughout the country yet we find ourselves using more ‘cooler’ American slangs in our day-to-day lives and the funny part is that nobody even knows they are American slangs which, if need be, cannot be reproduced on official documents.
The simple reason is that we are unaware of the difference, but that would mean that we are blindly diving into the pond of knowledge and education. Which might just be true.

I guess in the conclusion part of this post I should talk about how the key is to focus on what is our own and excel in it to the extent that the world wants to be in our shoes but honestly, I think we are too far into it (but that’s what people must have thought during the 200 years of British rule and look where we are now), also, it would make me a hypocrite considering I wouldn’t be able to give up writing in English.

So I really can’t say. For now, at least.