My footprints in India (7)

Located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat University is one of the best universities in the state. There are a lot of trees and green in the spacious campus. Built in the 1950s, the buildings look rather old and are not very well managed, an impression similar to that of the old buildings in Xixi campus of Zhejiang University. There is no air-conditioning, but electric fans on the ceilings are everywhere.

In India, the medium of instruction in universities varies depending on the subjects and the preference of the university management. In general, for medical, scientific, engineering and other technical subjects, they use English. For humanities and social sciences, they use Hindi or any other of the 16 national languages, depending on the state in which they are established. In the case of the Department of Sociology in Gujarat University, they use Gujarati. They studied the Gujarati translations of the works of Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim, said Ashok.

Ashok told me that since they do not have many opportunities using English in daily life or in academic studies, they cannot speak English well--a scenario similar to that of my friends in Zhejiang University. This reminds me of the ever-present dilemma in Hong Kong between using English as the medium of instruction in schools and using our mother tongue—Cantonese (not Mandarin, please!).

Written on 27th July, 2005.

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圖一：古吉拉特大學行政樓

Figure 1: The Administrative Building of Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.

雪泥鴻爪在天竺（七）

位於阿姆達巴得的古吉拉特大學是該邦最好的大學之一。在那廣闊的校園裡，綠樹林蔭，草地青青。建於一九五零年代的校舍，看來蠻殘舊的，沒有修葺，有點像浙江大學西溪校區的老校舍。沒有空調，但天花板上處處是電風扇。

在印度，大學的教學語言看學科和大學管理層而定。一般來說，醫科、理科、工科及其他技術科目，以英語教學。人文和社會科學，以印地語或十六種國語中其他任何一種來授課（要看大學所在之邦）。以古吉拉特大學社會學系為例，他們用古吉拉特語上課。他們念的是韋伯、馬克思和涂爾幹的古吉拉特語譯本，Ashok如是說。

Ashok告訴我說，由於他們無論在日常生活中或課堂上，都沒有多少機會使用英語，所以他們說不好英語──情況如同我在浙江大學的朋友一樣。這讓我想起在香港那沒完沒了的爭論──用英語教學好，或是用母語（廣東話）教學好？千萬不要用普通話！

原著為英文，於2005年8月6日譯成中文。

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