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Hi Santosh & Selma,
You have both raised up an interesting issue which is very personal to me.
To cut to the chase, my Konkani sucks! And I ain't proud of it.
My "Motherese" throughout my childhood was English, aided by the fact that I
had little exposure to Konkani as I was born and brought up in Kuwait for
the first 7 years of my life. The Goan maid that took care of me during that
time also knew English, so I took the convenient route at the time. Although
my parents speak in Konkani fluently, they don't converse with each other in
Konkani all the time. My exposure to Konkani at home was limited to the
arguments my parents had with each other, so I am very well versed with the
"colourful" side of Konkani!
After moving down to Goa, my father realising that I was a potential "WOG",
tried to speak with my sister and me in Konkani and used to take us for
Konkani mass, which I resisted, as the language seemed unfriendly and alien,
and I could not understand the sermao. Add to the fact that I was admitted
in a rather English-oriented school, which did not have Konkani as a
language option at the time but Hindi and Marathi instead. By the time I
reached 8th grade (after switching schools), I chose Portuguese as a third
language, Hindi being the compulsory second.
Now the interesting part is that till today, English is the only language
that I can speak fluently, despite me being exposed to 6 other languages -
Arabic, Konkani, Hindi, Marathi, Portuguese and now - Kannada. I have
studied Hindi for 9 years and Portuguese for 5. I was able to WRITE
brilliant essays in Portuguese and sometimes even used to beat the
Portuguese fluent students like Sunith in the final exams! (I can prove
this, but right now I am chilling in my red kashti, and I have to go to my
hot garage and dig up the records!) However, during that time and till
today, I cannot SPEAK 3 complete sentences in Portuguese without stuttering.
My Hindi is equally laughable and so is my Konkani.
Needless to say, I am extremely embarrassed when I am found out, w.r.t.
Konkani and Hindi, especially since I have been in Goa for 14 years
including adolescence. When I get asked the question in utter disbelief "You
DON'T know Konkani/Hindi???", I quickly retort that I suffer from LLDS.
"What's that?" "Oh, its a medical condition known as 'Language Learning
Deficiency Syndrome'", I respond hoping that he or she will be gullible
enough to accept it as true. This saves me a lot of time!
This question is, is there any truth to my cooked up "medical condition"? I
know that I am willing to learn, I am intelligent in other areas but perhaps
I have not put enough effort, but why is it such an "effort" in the first
place? Sunith once told me that a neurologist told him that it is best to
learn new languages before the age of 30, so I have not given up instead
of surrounding myself with negativity. I am creating a mini-dictionary
spreadsheet of my own with all the languages I desire to learn before 30,
which includes Konkani and Hindi of course.
One final aspect: The second question that I get asked after I am found out
is one that I take extreme exception to: "Are you really a Goan/Indian???" I
politely quote Vajpayee's farewell speech when BJP was ousted by Congress in
2004:
"Friends, ours is a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic nation.
However, in spite of her immense diversities, our national culture has woven
an unbreakable thread of unity since antiquity...".
http://www.ramdhanyk.com/movabletype/archives/thoughtprocess/000923.html
Cheers,
Aristo.
On 11/1/06, Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> The one thing that might be interesting in your case
> is to know what language your daughter was exposed to
> in the first year of her life, because it is that
> language that she would most likely learn faster.
> Infants become perceptually tuned to their mother
> tongue as early as 6 months of age. Indeed, they
> become much better tuned to what is called "Motherese"
> or infant-directed speech that all mothers and
> caretakers use when communicating with their babies.
>
> Was your Motherese based on Konkani or English?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Santosh
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