A journey from one language to many - with no destination! (Part 3)

 

I recollect my early days in my English-medium school. Surrounded by brilliant classmates and guided by some of the best teachers, I was lucky to have got enrolled in that school. The only issue was my aptitude in the language, English. If there was one thing in my little world which scared me the most in those days was the feeling of communicating in that language. I was terrified and felt nervous to even place myself in the class, I felt I did not belong there!

In my class we had a small desk and a chair, fitting to the size of a 6/7-year-old. “Miss, may I go to the toilet?” – this was the question my classmates would ask to the teacher, but for me, to say this one single sentence was as difficult as getting an injection (I got quite a few of those in my childhood, due to health reasons!), or getting a boil (I do not know why, but I would get one every month when I was little!), or missing my dad (he was away with his job to different cities in India!). I would clutch the side of the desk, channelize all my courage, stand up, but then sit down – I could not say a word.

I was fortunate to get some very caring teachers. Some of them are no more with us, but if I close my eyes, even today, I see them in my imaginary world.

One day I got help – Miss told me, what to say. I was frozen, and somewhat shivering and had to desperately go to the toilet. My teacher gave me the confidence to speak what was obvious to say. It worked. The train started to roll on the tracks. The first hurdle was overcome.

The reason for this long introduction is to state the fact that any foreign language is hard to internalize. In other words, we tend to learn the vocabulary, the grammar, the sentence construct etc., but we forget to learn the regular or daily expressions. Some simple sentences, some conversations and some requests – we must learn these first in any new language. For once, we must be able to express our thoughts, views, worries, warnings and sorrows!

The journey to real learning of English language was still not smooth, even though it had started at school. The main problem was – too little English would reach the ears. I remember, back in those days, the only few sources of getting to hear English was through news, sports commentary or some cartoon programs on TV. Sunday was funday for kids of 80s. In India we would have a Spiderman or He-Man show on TV and mom would cook chicken curry - every week, with no exception. We would turn on the TV and watch some episodes and wait eagerly for the lunch. Weeks after weeks passed – those shows came and went, but I could learn nothing. Simply because the shows were not capturing my imagination of how people communicate. The emotions were foreign, away from the daily occurrences I was seeing around me. The action sequences, the comedy and the odd sad moments were all good – but I would make something out of them in my own way! Not by deciphering the English dialogues.

Then came the time of listening to cricket commentary. It helped somewhat, even though I must say, most of the foreign commentators had strong accent. Again, somewhat difficult for me. There were one or two Indian anchors and presenters who would speak softly, and it would be possible to discern the statements. English movies were painful, so were English songs – even today, I struggle to decipher lyrics in English, though for movies, I have come quite far!

So, what did help me then?

Well, the electronic media did not. The newspapers, too, were hugely cryptic. I would not mention the name(s), but most of the popular print media outlets in the 80s and 90s would write columns, editorials or even simple rapportage in an extremely difficult way. Filled with unfamiliar words and complex sentences. None of those words I had learned those days are used in daily conversations today.

The only rescuer back then were books – poems, essays and stories were of great help for me. I would not understand it all, but I would get the context out and repeat reading. Reading the same text twice helps in recollecting meanings of words. Though I could not get the construct right, and I would often start wondering why a sentence did not start with a “And” or why did it start with a “When”, I would still manage to make a meaning of the text. Stories attract minds – in the famous book, Sapiens, the author says, stories have guided generations and history. Indeed true, for me, stories opened doors to my knowledgebase.

The other aspect that had helped me in those days were lectures by our beloved teachers. I still remember our English teacher teaching us a William Blake poem –

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Today when I look back at those days, I often fail to reconnect to the situation. On a small town somewhere on the eastern part of India, where there was an old school building, there was a second of third floor classroom, and there was a teacher teaching us Western nuances through a poem. There is no correlation between the affluence of West and the lack of many amenities of the East. But there was no lack of curiosity and urge to learn. To see the unseen and to know the unknown.

I would listen to my teacher, her explanations, her emotions and try my best to grasp the motivation behind the poem. In the middle of all these exchanges of images, there would come a hailstorm and would drench us all in the classroom, due to inadequate protection; the lights might go off, but we would keep listening. That is how we had learnt!

[To be continued]