Languages

While on a train last weekend, there was an elderly couple discuss some family matters in Malayalam and on my opposite was a businessman from Delhi talking to a client on the phone in Hindi. There were also a bunch of guys sitting on the upper berth and talking in Telugu. Before the train left, a group of eight people who were daily commuters from Chennai discussing their work in Tamil. WOW. So many people speaking so many different languages!

Then as I lay on my berth I could still hear some of them talk and others whisper into their mobile phones. I began wondering about languages. First of all, how many did I know? I knew English for sure as it was my medium of study and the language I majorly spoke. I also did know to speak Malayalam very well for it was my mother tongue and the language I spoke at home. But I can only read and write Malayalam very slowly. Nor can I appreciate Malayalam literature. Then there is Hindi.. my second language. I can read and write in the language but how fluent am I in speaking it? Or Tamil for that matter. Ever since I can remember I have been watching Tamil movies and interacting with people who speak only the language. I do understand most of it and can also manage with speaking it. I do read Tamil too, though very slowly. So do I say that I know Tamil, or don't I? And the most hilarious thing. Lets talk about Arabic. I did study Arabic as a language for almost eight years. I know the alphabet and can read. But I do not understand what I read. Now how weird can it get. Other than a basic greeting or so, I can hardly speak it. So what use of learning it at school. I could never say that I know Arabic. Why do we learn a language? Isn't it so that we'd be able to communicate? Now I cannot communicate anything in Arabic except for the fact that I don't understand much of the language. and all that for the 90% marks I used to score!

Learning a language means learning a whole new culture too. Even the accents and the pronunciation gives us an idea of the kind of people they basically are. It is so difficult for one to adapt to a new accent. For instance in Malayalam the tongue is left very loose and flexible to allow more sounds. But when I speak Hindi I have to restrain my mouth a little. And a little more when I speak English. I have now begun an attempt at learning French. Yet again, the accent is quite alien to me. My teacher says that it is a very musical language.. and yes it is. It has the same alphabet as does English but the pronunciation is so different that now I realize what a mighty effort they too have to make to get their English accent right.

Not being a linguist or a language person, I can gleefully get away with my so-called analysis here without bothering about what the science behind it is. I am only a layman and expect to get a few comments on my fellow-friend-linguists. But I like the idea of knowing so many languages and comparing the tiny details and differences in each. It would be good if I were able to identify, if not speak, at least a dozen languages. And then travel to all these places.. Wow.. that would be fun...

Err... well let me stop day dreaming for now and get back to doing my work where the letters and numbers are in English, other notations in Greek alphabet and while being read it sounds like something that has come from another planet. Well, I'm talking about my math.


Cut to 2019: How much life has changed in the past decade! Back then I was single (but committed), independent and living life on my terms... what a life it was! I've moved 2 cities and a country in the last decade, married the love of my life and mother to a smart 3 year old... Such posts serve as a reminder of how life changes... and how our thoughts change, how the things we notice change and how the topics we blog change..