Dear FN You asked for an English translation of the Poem; I presumed it was a genuine request, without a hidden agenda. I suspected a couple of errors in your transliteration; so I rang up a niece whose daughter was in std. II last year, hoping that she would still have the book. She did. So I asked her to read the poem over the phone. In the meantime, someone said that it sounded like Greek. So I provided the English meaning of every word therein. I wanted to know which were the words that sounded like Greek; the info would at least add to my knowledge. Hence I posed the question, accordingly. And what do I get? Did I ever claim to be an expert in anything? If yes, could these worthies please point to the locus where I said so? And, pray, what has my knowledge of Konkani and English (or lack of it) got to do with this matter? The question marks are not mine. Somehow they just appear when a matter is uploaded on Goanet; they may stand for space, hyphen or even an accented letter. This should be familiar to anyone who reads the Goanet posts. I do not see what is so complex in that poem that it would be too much for a six-year old to comprehend. Aren't Our Father and Hail Mary etc. in Konkani more complex than this? Aren't these prayers taught to six-year olds at Sunday school, assuming that the child has not already learnt them at home much earlier? Sebastian Borges On Sat, 16 Jul 2011 : Frederick FN Noronha <fredericknoro...@gmail.com> wrote: << But, don't you think it's more than a bit illogical to attempt teaching something so complex, that too to a six-year-old, and whose parents (in most cases) don't have a clue as to what's going on? I'm talking as a parent here, who's been through it! And certainly doesn't like the idea of "promoting regional languages" with a gun pointed to my head. FN "J. Colaco < jc>" <cola...@gmail.com> wrote: [1] Tony de Sa wrote: Konkani? Looks more like Greek to me. [2] Sebastian Borges wrote: I request Tony to point out the Greek?in this? [3] Tony de Sa wrote again: While Sebastian Borges may 'claim' to be an expert in Konkani (a view certainly not supported by a faction of Konkani cognoscenti), I personally, have my doubts about his knowledge of the English language as demonstrated by his remark above!!!!!!!!! COMMENT: Tony! Tony! Tony! Why have you just taken off all very Gulabi on Prof Borges? All he did was to ask you to solve a puzzle. I do not know that those '? ?' mean but could you not find the Greek in Prof Borges' post. Here, let me help you out. Look out for the CAPS Prof Borges: I request Tony to point out the GREEK in this. But then again, it all depends on what Prof Borges meant by "in this". I could understand IF the kon_fusao had occurred with me, I am a Devnagri ONLY for Marathi and a Devnagri Also for Konkani. These Devnagri Only for Konkani chaps need some serious 'help' when it comes to Romi-English. jc Sebastian Borges
