Ignatius, you seem to hone in on one of the problem: the mother tongue! That said, there are those of us, Goichis who despise our own, and think the lovely Concani is the 'servants language': one makes the rounds of the cocktail circuit which has a liberal splattering of the greasy upcountry desi splashing their ill gotten gains on the Jonie Wal*er........it pays (for a Goichi) to low ball the fellow Goans no? I guess its twisted empowerment, to say I am the best of the Goans when you run down the rest? On the advertising cocktail circuit, the great Sylvester Da Chunha always managed a few lines of Concani when he met another Goan!
To all those in Mumbai or Lundon who look down on their own (there are many many) and think our very lovely and colorful Concani is 'low culture' (there is no such thing btw), they have a problem. One character is defined by how comfortable one is with ones background, ones roots, ones mother tongue. Ofcourse, when some of these folks hit rock bottom, they return to the lovely Goa and the only way they think they stand out, again is by not talking the language. I say how shameful. Have you ever run into those hoity-toity, nice smelling, convent-educated Bengaali baais speaking their 'what-ever-their-language' with an accent? Aye deus...I think my blood pressure is climbing, gotta run! I say speak Concani with pride, its what gives us that colorful and hot brand 'Goan' for crying out loud! And hey, even the Mallya (you know the plump fellow who makes beer and lives in the convent-like casa in Candolim?)...proudly speaks Manglori Konkani, his mother tongue!!!! On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 7:52 AM, ignatius fernandes<iggy.fernan...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote: > > > This in response to Ana Maria de Souza-Goswami. > I know you have not been raised in Goa but you > have lived in Goa for a number of years, why have > not attempted to learn our Mai bhas. > Perhaps they see you as a ghantti with your > fluent Hindi. > In my life I had to learn Swahili, English, Konkani > Hindi and a little Portuguese. > So I say learn Konkani and come back to the > fold of Konkani speaking people. > Regards > Ignatius Fernandes., >