By birth Hindi and Malayalam would be my language. However a series of events have made it more complicated than that. Since Hindi is my mother tongue, my father instilled this practice of speaking only in Hindi at home so that the language does not become foreign to us. On matters of Malayalam, well right now only my grandmother has the patience to listen to me speak broken Malayalam. Doesn't sound complicated?
So I grew up in a Metropolitan city, attended schools that taught in English, a British legacy. As I grew up I took to reading in English..result: English is the language I think in, I breathe in and I can swim in it. Sometime in school I did French, but it didn't stick in my head. Much later I took Spanish. In my city I learnt the local languages while communicating with the auto-walas and my maids. You see what has happened here...
Why this little history lesson? In Kuredu English has sort of alienated me. There is no one here to converse in Hindi, for the first time I feel sad that I cannot speak a language of my own. Something deep in my roots, so close to me by legacy, by blood, a heritage. Instead I have inherited a foreign language. It has a beauty of its own but....
However on the flip side, all is not lost. I am so thrilled because over here we have staff from over 17 countries. So we have Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans (which is what people initially think I am!), Mauritian (my favorite) German, Chinese, Philipino, Scottish, British, French,Russians.... and so many others including Maldivians themselves. This was one of the first things that got me really really excited.
So far I know [Pardone the mis-spellings] Guten Morgan, Guten Arben, Chus, Petiche (German), Moya, Doh! and Lobby which mean crazy, right (like you use in colloquial conversation not the direction) and lover(respectively) in Divehi (the Maldivian langauge), Privet! and Lipka (Hello and sticky in Russian), I can do a hello! How are you? conversation in French and some bad word in Mauritian which I don't know the meaning of yet so more on that later.
An ever expanding vocabulary which I try to revise often so I won't forget. So many times I just stand and listen in awe to conversations in foreign languages. For instance:
One night, I was at the bar with some French guests, a fellow French speaking island host conversed fluently while I just listened to the exchange and smiled. I didn't understand everything but I caught the essence. No one translated for me, I just tried to use my knowledge of language. Didn't really help.
Sometimes at dinner I hear my Russian friends discuss their day with each other. Or listen to a German conversation between a guest and island host. Other times the Maldivians talk to each other. Or Mauritians do a rapid fire exchange in Creole or a Chinese conversation with all its intonations. I do not understand a word but over time I try to find patterns and have developed this habit of trying to read facial expressions and body language. Honestly its great fun. Hard work. But so fun. It makes me smile like a lunatic when I understand something without a translation. Of course I double check before I celebrate!
What I love most about this experience is that no matter how much you think you know, there is so much you don't. I find that I am never too tired to learn, I just need to keep reminding myself to stay patient and curious. Occasionally some of the Bangla bartender have basic conversations in Hindi and I feel so thrilled because its my language. Haha.
So I grew up in a Metropolitan city, attended schools that taught in English, a British legacy. As I grew up I took to reading in English..result: English is the language I think in, I breathe in and I can swim in it. Sometime in school I did French, but it didn't stick in my head. Much later I took Spanish. In my city I learnt the local languages while communicating with the auto-walas and my maids. You see what has happened here...
Why this little history lesson? In Kuredu English has sort of alienated me. There is no one here to converse in Hindi, for the first time I feel sad that I cannot speak a language of my own. Something deep in my roots, so close to me by legacy, by blood, a heritage. Instead I have inherited a foreign language. It has a beauty of its own but....
However on the flip side, all is not lost. I am so thrilled because over here we have staff from over 17 countries. So we have Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans (which is what people initially think I am!), Mauritian (my favorite) German, Chinese, Philipino, Scottish, British, French,Russians.... and so many others including Maldivians themselves. This was one of the first things that got me really really excited.
So far I know [Pardone the mis-spellings] Guten Morgan, Guten Arben, Chus, Petiche (German), Moya, Doh! and Lobby which mean crazy, right (like you use in colloquial conversation not the direction) and lover(respectively) in Divehi (the Maldivian langauge), Privet! and Lipka (Hello and sticky in Russian), I can do a hello! How are you? conversation in French and some bad word in Mauritian which I don't know the meaning of yet so more on that later.
An ever expanding vocabulary which I try to revise often so I won't forget. So many times I just stand and listen in awe to conversations in foreign languages. For instance:
One night, I was at the bar with some French guests, a fellow French speaking island host conversed fluently while I just listened to the exchange and smiled. I didn't understand everything but I caught the essence. No one translated for me, I just tried to use my knowledge of language. Didn't really help.
Sometimes at dinner I hear my Russian friends discuss their day with each other. Or listen to a German conversation between a guest and island host. Other times the Maldivians talk to each other. Or Mauritians do a rapid fire exchange in Creole or a Chinese conversation with all its intonations. I do not understand a word but over time I try to find patterns and have developed this habit of trying to read facial expressions and body language. Honestly its great fun. Hard work. But so fun. It makes me smile like a lunatic when I understand something without a translation. Of course I double check before I celebrate!
What I love most about this experience is that no matter how much you think you know, there is so much you don't. I find that I am never too tired to learn, I just need to keep reminding myself to stay patient and curious. Occasionally some of the Bangla bartender have basic conversations in Hindi and I feel so thrilled because its my language. Haha.
Meanwhile. English which you would think is a universal currency language for everywhere lays dormant inside me while I discover other ways to communicate on this island.
When I read this I got so excited by the idea! :D imagining so many people of different nationalities sitting around you conversing in different languages, all with different expressions and accents and tunes! I think that sometimes you can appreciate the appearance and sound of a language much more if you don't understand what the words mean...
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