Most people learn English just for the sake of speaking it, but in reality, that is one of the worst reasons to learn the language in today’s educated era. In the modern world, almost every educational book and source of knowledge derives its authority from English. Therefore, learn English not merely to speak, but to understand the realities of the world in an authoritative way, realities you cannot fully access in your own language.
Why does the dominance of English create knowledge gaps in other languages, and why is local research often ignored until it’s translated into English?
1. Knowledge Gap Between English & Local Languages
- Most cutting-edge discoveries (in medicine, physics, AI, genetics, etc.) appear first in English journals.
- By the time they are translated into Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, or French, the research may already be old or outdated.
- Example: CRISPR gene-editing was known worldwide in English papers years before it appeared in translated textbooks.
2. Bias of the Global Academic System
- The world’s top universities, publishers, and journals (Harvard, Oxford, Nature, Science, Lancet) publish in English only.
- A brilliant paper written in Russian, Hindi, or Japanese is often overlooked internationally until it is translated into English.
- This creates an English filter – only what is in English is considered “authentic” globally.
3. Translation Problems
- Technical words often don’t have perfect equivalents in local languages.
- Example: In Hindi, the heart is called हृदय, (Hridya) but terms like cardiomyopathy or angioplasty are still borrowed directly from English.
- Due to this, many scientists in non-English-speaking countries prefer to write in English to avoid confusion.
- If such terms are literally translated into Hindi (or other local languages), they often lose their precise meaning and become very difficult to understand.
Problems of Literal Translation in Science/Medicine
| English Term | Hindi Equivalent / Literal Translation | Why Literal Hindi Fails |
| Cardiomyopathy | हृदय पेशी रोग (Hṛday peśī rog) | Too broad — could mean any “heart muscle disease,” but the English term has a very specific clinical definition. |
| Angioplasty | धमनी प्रसार (Dhamani prasār) | Sounds like “artery expansion,” but doesn’t capture the surgical/technical process of inserting a balloon/stent. |
| Hypertension | उच्च रक्तचाप (Uccha raktchāp) | Correct in parts, but patients often confuse it with “tension” (mental stress) instead of blood pressure. |
| Stroke | आघात (Āghāt) / मस्तिष्काघात (Mastishkāghāt) | “Āghāt” just means a blow/injury; doesn’t convey sudden blood clot/brain damage context. |
| Diabetes Mellitus | मधुमेह (Madhumeh) | Ancient word exists, but modern understanding (type 1, type 2, insulin, etc.) is lost in this single Sanskrit-origin term. |
| MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) | चुंबकीय अनुनाद इमेजिंग (Chumbakīya anunād imējing) | Extremely technical; doctors and patients still say “एमआरआई” (MRI) because the Hindi version is clumsy and unfamiliar. |
| Chemotherapy | रसायन चिकित्सा (Rasāyan chikitsā) | Sounds like “herbal or chemical treatment” in general; doesn’t specify cancer-related drug therapy. |
| Vaccine | टीका (Ṭīkā) | Correct culturally, but originally meant a smallpox mark — now broadened but sometimes misunderstood. |
| Genome | जीनोम (Jīnom) | Borrowed directly; no natural Hindi equivalent without confusion. |
| Algorithm | कलन विधि (Kalan vidhi) | Literal translation exists, but almost nobody uses it; engineers and scientists stick to “algorithm.” |
This shows why English is preferred in science and medicine: because literal translation often distorts meaning, creates confusion, or sounds awkward.
4. Colonial & Historical Legacy
- In many countries (India, Africa, Southeast Asia), the education and scientific system was shaped under British colonial rule, where English became the medium of higher learning.
- Local languages were pushed aside in technical fields. Even after independence, this system continued.
5. Perception of Authenticity
- Scholars, policymakers, and even ordinary readers feel that English = modern, global, scientific.
- Local-language books are sometimes seen as “simplified” or “less rigorous,” even if they are accurate.
- So, people trust English sources more when controversies arise.
6. Result: Unequal Knowledge
- A doctor in Europe reading English journals may be 10 years ahead of a doctor relying only on local-language books.
- Students learning only in their regional language may miss out on the latest global debates in science and philosophy.
- Knowledge in local languages becomes “second-hand” knowledge.
Summary:
English dominates because it is the global standard for publishing and communication in science. But this creates gaps in knowledge access for those who don’t know English, and it marginalizes local intellectual traditions.
Examples of Knowledge Becoming “Authentic” Only After English Translation
| Field | Original Language | Work / Discovery | Author / Scientist | What Happened | When it Became Globally Famous (in English) |
| Medicine | German | Die Zelltheorie (Cell Theory) | Schleiden & Schwann (1838–39) | Originally in German, explaining that all living things are made of cells. | Recognized worldwide after English translations in mid-1800s. |
| Medicine | French | Germ Theory of Disease | Louis Pasteur (1860s) | First published in French papers; many countries ignored it. | Accepted globally after English publications in The Lancet and British Medical Journal. |
| Physics | German | Theory of Relativity (Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper) | Albert Einstein (1905) | Written in German; initially understood only in Europe. | Global fame after English translations (1919) and articles in Times (London). |
| Chemistry | Russian | Periodic Table | Dmitri Mendeleev (1869) | Published in Russian journal Zhurnal; barely known outside Russia. | Became world standard after English translations in 1880s. |
| Literature | Russian | War and Peace, Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | Originally in Russian; limited reach. | Became classics after English translations (1880s onward). |
| Literature / Philosophy | German | Das Kapital | Karl Marx (1867) | Written in German; only leftist intellectuals read it. | English translations (1887) made it a global revolutionary text. |
| Literature | Spanish | Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes (1605–15) | Written in Spanish; famous in Spain but not outside. | English translation (1612) made it world literature. |
| Medicine | Arabic | Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (Canon of Medicine) | Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 1025) | Standard Islamic medical text for centuries. | Became European standard after Latin & later English translations. |
| Mathematics | Sanskrit | Aryabhatiya | Aryabhata (499 CE) | Influential in India but unknown to Europe. | Recognized after English translations in 19th century. |
| Political Philosophy | Latin | Utopia | Thomas More (1516) | First in Latin, limited to elite scholars. | English translation (1551) made it influential worldwide. |
No matter where knowledge was born (India, China, Arab world, Russia, Germany, France, Spain), it only became “universal knowledge” after entering English (or earlier Latin, but now mainly English).
