ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – The international community has long agreed that English should be the language of business and diplomacy and for this reason, nations have made it compulsory that citizens at all strata are exposed to that language. Those who intend to conduct business in the international arena are expected to master it at a higher level. There are those who believe that there is no place for our local dialect. In fact, a few years ago, the chief education officer issued a mandate that dialect should not be spoken on the schools’ compounds. The thinking was that the children’s native tongue would get in the way of the Standard English. However in its wisdom, the United Nations, in 1999, acknowledged ‘linguistic diversity’, and placed International Mother Language Day on its calendar of special days worthy of observances.
