The nice thing about writing a regular
column is that one gets a lot of feedback.
Well, to be honest, it is not nice when people poke fun at me, but
sometimes even the not-nice stuff contains valuable insights. I received one of those nice-stinkers the
other day. Here’s the gist.
Kolombians classify those around them as “English Speaking” and
“Non English speaking”. Their offspring can barely
manage 'enna,' giya,' or awa' but beyond that any Sinhala word would be a tongue
twister. Kolombians mom spend most of their mornings in a gym toning their
figures (having dropped their kids at school -- kids who are assured only of a
minimum pass for Sinhala, that too with grueling effort!). They spend the rest of the day on Facebook
and at flagship stores. Watching Kolombian moms at kiddie’s birthday
bashes is super entertainment. They get
stressed out trying to figure out how on earth the kids would pass Sinhala.
“Why can't they do away
with this subject? And that literature part
of it! Gosh! Such a nightmare!” they would say.
Kolombian moms take great pride in the fact that their children are “awful
in Sinhala.” Even if a project is
assigned to them on 'paththarayaka kotas' (sections of a paper) for Parisaraya
(that’s ‘Environment’ or rather ENV), Kolombian moms would dare not cut and
paste Sinhala Paththara Kotas!!! NO WAY not even LAGNA PALA PALA (‘Daily
Horoscopes’)!!!!
Good points, I concede, but there’s
nothing here about WHY things are this way.
I mean, Kolombian moms (and dads, but certainly not ammas or thaaththaas)
have a legitimate cultural-political reason to take pride in their kids not
knowing Sinhala. We just don’t want them
to learn Sinhala (by the way this holds for Tamil too) and this is why some of
us tell our kids “It’s the servants’ language”.
Look, we’ve had it good with our
English-Only system. We define ourselves
when we call those others ‘riff raff’, ‘rabble’ or some other derogatory
name. That was we rise without any
effort. The problem in learning Sinhala
or Tamil is the risk. What if all of us
and all Kolombians who came before us were wrong, what if those who can’t speak
English were actually intelligent, or worse, far more intelligent than any of
us Kolombians? You see, knowledge of the
existence of just one super intelligent person who can’t speak a word of
English would smash our world to pieces. We can’t risk that. Our world, our Colombo, our Kolombian future
are all at stake here.
I got this other comment recently. A question, actually. I was asked why Kolombians use ‘Sinhalisms’
when they speak. That’s not Sinhala
words, by the way, but Sinhala language-ways, shall we say? The example was the ‘over-use’ of the word
‘no’ at the end of sentences. ‘That’s
just the English transliteration (and not translation) of the Sinhala “ne”
isn’t it?’
It’s simple. A dash of the ‘ethnic’ gives flavor but don’t
take away the core taste of language and culture. Now if we went the whole hog and the
Sinhalisms outweighed our English, we won’t be speaking English and we won’t be
Kolombians, would we? We use Sinhalisms
in our speech and in our writing but you will not catch us putting together 10
Sinhala words in a sentence and come out with any coherence. That’s would be suicidal. Someone might say ‘you just can’t’. Well, not only are we unable to do so, we
will not do so and we go out of our way not to be able to do so. It’s called cultural preservation.
And have you noticed that we don’t say
“no” but prefer to say “na” when we do the transliteration thing? That’s sexy.
That’s what we are about. We appropriate and enrich, but we will not let
what we rob replace what we have or change who we are. No way! We are far more intelligent na?
And we have ways and means of putting
down any upstart non-English speaker or someone who speaks excellent Sinhala or
Tamil and speaks English as fluently, especially if they happen to show any
sign of possessing an intellect. We call
them ‘native intellectuals’. We define them into a corner. ‘Native’ is less(er) than
‘international’. It’s an adjective that
implies a subset and by the very fact disqualifies the thus-defined from
claiming the whole.
So don’t chide us for not being
conversant in Sinhala or Tamil. It’s not
just a matter of pride for us. It is
about being who we are and doing our best to ensure that our kids maintain our
strong traditions. We need to feel good
about ourselves. English is an important
part of feeling good. Now who would want
to ruin a good thing?
Other articles in this series:
We shall not be re-named
Get off my walkway!
Thank you Mahinda for the Avacado Prawns!
*Everyone takes note. Some keep notes. Some in diaries and journals. Some in their minds and hears. Some of these are shared via email or on Facebook or blog; some are not. Among these people are Kolombians, people from Colombo who know much -- so much that they are wont to think that others don't know and can't think. This is the sixth in a series published in 'The Nation' under the title 'Notes of an Unrepentant Kolombian'.
Get off my walkway!
Thank you Mahinda for the Avacado Prawns!
*Everyone takes note. Some keep notes. Some in diaries and journals. Some in their minds and hears. Some of these are shared via email or on Facebook or blog; some are not. Among these people are Kolombians, people from Colombo who know much -- so much that they are wont to think that others don't know and can't think. This is the sixth in a series published in 'The Nation' under the title 'Notes of an Unrepentant Kolombian'.
3 comments:
This is the result of that swabasha nonsense of Banda. We have to get rid of the blue menace. MR must be beaten. Better to be colonized by the Norse than to be ruled by these wattaka and karawala bunch. At this rate they might require us to eat jaadi once a week. Oh praise be Jesus, give me a lumprais darling.
Thank you Malinda for this one which was conceived in what I sent you- how Kolombian mums take pride in the fact that their kids don't know Sinhala. Good reading!
Snoweater's comment makes me realise just how true to life Malinda's Kolombian series is. :-)
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