On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Army Institute of Law hosted Professor Deepti Gupta, Chairperson, Department of English and Cultural Studies, Punjab University, to deliver the Thursday guest lecture. Professor Gupta has three decades of teaching experience and she talked to the students about “Language for Lawyers”. Before delving into her topic, she touched upon the occasion of Women’s Day and expressed curiosity at the gendered segregation of the auditorium and the entire room mirrored her opinion. She went on to talk about how languages are ever changing and how they have to continue to evolve otherwise they’ll cease to exist.
Professor Gupta pointed out how each individual adds their own flavor to the language, as a result of which even English is spoken differently in various parts of the world. This raised the question- ‘what is true English?’ , to which she replied that the World Standard Spoken English which is a set of functional words that will be understood in all parts of the world. She went on to point out the need for Multi lingualism, and how it’s important in today’s setting. She also emphasized that how as we Indians we’re all more inclined to speak at least two languages because of the diversity in our country. “It is your language that is going to prove who you are” , these are the words she picked to lend importance to the value of effective communication and the role of language in doing the same. In the end she concluded with the United Nations Development Programme which advocated the use of clean language and language that represents gender equality and inclusion. The session was filled with witty banter and prevented the students from dozing off after their hearty lunch.
The Blue Pencil wishes a very Happy Women’s Day to the women out there and the men who wholeheartedly support them!
The write-up was submitted by Akanksha Duvedi (I year).
