Soma Devi is 82 years old and her health is failing. And when she passes away, she will take with her something that only she knows .. her knowledge of the language of Dura. She is the only person in the world that can speak this ancient ethnic language. Her family and off-spring never learnt to speak it.
This is how languages fade away. Its usually because parents fail to pass it down to their children. Or its because children do not have an interest in learning their mother-tongues.
Living in a distant land, one can very easily realize the gravity of this situation. Especially when our mother-tongue is not the national language. It becomes harder for parents to teach a child multiple languages. And just teaching them is not enough. A language has to be practised in order to be retained.
For now, I have decided to teach my kids English and Hindi. One is the medium of education, and the other is the medium of communication with our home-land. And as they go through the education process, they will learn a third language that the schools offer. Against this backdrop, teaching a fourth language is going to be a challenge.
I hope that the story of Soma Devi will be my inspiration to face up to the challenge ..
Friday, January 18, 2008
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11 comments:
I see your point that language need to be saved. Hindi, Sanskrit and other languages have stood the ravages of time, so no prob there...
Somi Devi taking the lang. with her as sad as it sounds kind of means that the language has lost its usefulness in the society. When better ways of communication comes in, these tend to happen. It is the process of launguage evolution as well.... 'Selection' by the society...
language is a myth - right - one created by us to communicate - as if it dies - it is sad but it is progress because there are other means for communicating
it happens in all aspects of life too right - the old has to go to make way for the new - and that my friend is also true with us humans
You should know about dying languages - yours is one of them.
I have always wondered if the world would be a better place with just one language but I am still not convinced either way (I don't ask anymore - so I don't have an answer but I think I would move towards saying it should be a way it is. One language would not solve our problems - we still wouldn't understand each other. It would instead kill some of our uniqueness). But languages dying out I think is a normal process - it is bound to happen and will keep happening at a faster pace. It is something we just have to live with.
I taught my 2 year ol' our mother tongue, Manipuri and she's fluent with it now. I'am happy for she can converse well with her grandparents back home who're english & hindi illiterate. But, deep down, I've wondered whether I shd have started off with teaching her english so will pick up the other kids well as she starts school. And a kid shd be taught only one language pprly before she learns another. Otherwise, I've witness cases of mixed up languages.
Considering my case, it's quite natural for a language to die depending on "survival for the fittest".
@everyone - Thanks for your comments. I generally agree with your views.
At the same time, some things in our lives are personal in nature, and do not want to follow the rules of society, survival and usefulness. I think I feel the same about this subject. I dont want the language I grew up with to die.
i agree with you..traditions , customs , knowledge should be handed down ..while communication is not an issue, its the knowledge that we are losing out ..
It is very sad that now that I live in the United States and talk in English or Hindi most of the time, I have started to forget what I grew up speaking..Gujarati. At this rate, I am never going to be able to teach my children anything.
@backpakker - I liked the way you summarized it.
@solitaire - I am sure if they grow up in NJ, they won't have a problem learning it :P
Peace.
Yeah....i see the point of this post.. Thats sumthing I
myself struggle with.
I grew up with working parents who came back home arnd 8 pm, so my sis n I till date feel comfortable talking to each other in English only..no other language.
Tamil is my mother-tongue and mom grew concerned we wouldn't learn the language..so even li'l things like water n salt..she wouldn't respond if we din't ask in Tamil....That was a good thing!But tamil-speaking ppl tease me..saying i don speak really good tamil :-(
I grew up in Bangalore, so I know some broken kanada.
Hindi i learnt in school.But agn am not too good at it. Having me speak hindi is the biggest source of entertainment for some college friends. I never the get the "ka" "ki" , gender etc right!
English..is the language i can communicate best in.
So u cld say I'm jack of a few trades but master of none, which I don't think is too bad..rite!
But i feel...my kids SHOULD know at the minimum..Tamil,Hindi n of crse English!
@pavi - Its the same within our house .. just that the shoe is on the other foot now :)
And good luck with your kids-to-be. Hopefully they will be masters ..
Well said.
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