People like to talk through their hat. If some one had to see the text books in
konkani medium you would not know whther you are reading urdu, kannad or
konkani. I am a konkani writer but I was finding it difficult to read and
understand the language for I am sure the person who has written the text book
has used some marathi words for I did not find any of those words in my text
which I used to read earlier or in the dictionary. So what you expect the
parents who have no knowledge of the subject help their children ? My wife was
a konkani teacher and she used to find it difficult to teach my daughter in the
primary and used the help of a marathi teacher to get the meaning of certain
words. albert
the
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:50:49 +0530
From: icso...@bsnl.in
To: goa...@lists.goanet.orgi
Subject: [Goanet] What is My Tongue?
From: goanet@lists.goanet.org
On Behalf Of Albert Desouza
If some parents want English as the medium of instructions what business we
have got to impose our theory on others? I know a number of goans living for
more than 40 years in Goa cannot speak a single word of Konkani and yet they
want konkani or marathi as the medium of instructions. Many parents had to
send their children for tuitions because the konkani taught in school is not
konkani. If your child is in the primary and you want to send her or him to
konkani school please send and you also learn that konkani so that you can
help the child while learning.
**All Goan parents know Konkani. Even those who speak English, do know
Konkani, to a great extent. Let the parents be well informed and choose
Konkani as their language. Let the students study also English well, not just
mugging up and vomiting for the exams, as most of them seem to do. Let them
also study other languages. Konkani in devnagri is to be learned together
with the roman script. Devnagri script will pave the way for hindi. Let
proper text books be prepared for Goan students. We do not want marathized
Konkani, nor teachers imported from Maharashtra, who do not know English. Let
the Ministers, who have been drop-outs, not meddle in the controversy with
their invested interests... I hope that there will be changes in the primary
and secondary instruction, though Konkani will remain as the language of the
Goan people and of the Goa State.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
___
From: fredericknoro...@gmail.com
Some 6000 people in Goa said their mother-tongue was English, as per the
1991 census. This number could have increased since. In 2011, I made sure to
be one of them!
**Is this true? How many of them really know English? How many children do
speak English and how many dogs understand only English? (this could also be
a part of research...)
Unfortunately, due to a misplaced sense of regionalistic sentiments, a lot
of people claim their mother tongue is Konkani or Marathi, when they may
be barely able to speak the language they opt for. (Meaning: many who claim
their mother tongue is Marathi actually speak Konkani, though they prefer
-- for reasons of politics, tradition, caste or religion -- to opt for
Marathi for their primary schooling and also as a literary language. The
latter is obvious from newspaper circulation figures in Goa.
**I do not think that there are Goan families who speak Marathi at home. They
may study and read Marathi newspapers. There are families who read
Portuguese, French and German books, reviews and papers. Yet the
mother-tongue is Konkani.
Likewise, many who claim that their mother tongue is Konkani may be second
or third generation speakers of Indian English (due to migration, economic
reasons, the British occupation of Goa during the Napoleanic wars,
preference for English education since the 1940's in some Goa schools and
since over a century back in some parts of migration-oriented Bardez such as
Arpora and Saligao -- meaning Fr Lyons' started St Joseph's and Mater
Dei).
**Students would go to English schools, but their language was Konkani. We
went to Portuguese schools, but we would speak Konkani at home and outside
(though Portuguese was also used at home). Today we use Konkani at home,
English, or even Portuguese. Yet our language is Konkani.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
