Some encouragement to new language-learners.
Although, I now consider it one of my greatest privileges, until a few years ago I hated learning languages. I hated it with ever ounce of my being.
Because learning new languages came out of necessity and at life-threatening costs. My dear grandmother who doesn’t speak any English, started me on that journey with an innocent request.
She said in my mother-tongue, “Learn, please. If you don’t learn the language, consider me dead-like ”.
Lesson 1 : Watch Cinema.
In the first year of my learning my mother-tongue, I consumed a whole lot of cinema to learn the “layman’s vernacular". I'd put my language to the test in the arguments I would have with my cousin closest to my age. In the last such argument, I unknowingly called him a “Son of a b’’ch” . I was 7.
It’s fair to say, for my uncle and aunt, I am their least favourite niece amongst the 13 others. The good thing is, them promptly showing me the door meant that I had mastered the accent.
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Lesson 2: Pay attention to questions.
I had to learn my next language in a new country.
My poor Indian mother bent herself backwards trying to teach me Hindi for a good ten years of my school life.
Because this was the rule - One must graduate schooling with elementary proficiency in atleast one national language.
Before the first Hindi test (of my life), I was a proud eight-year old going to make my mother proud. I knew every single answer by heart.
When I received the question paper though, it was a whole new story. I was a weeping mess. Because, idiot me forgot to memorise what the questions looked like!!
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Lesson 3: Read out Loud.
In one class, my Hindi teacher wrote on the blackboard a word that meant - ‘bangles’.
This was the drill-
Teacher writes a word
Kids read out loud in one voice
Progress to new word.
Pretty simple, right?
Only, because I struggled to read that quickly, my voice was usually the echo after.
The entire 4th grade class reads- “BANGLES”
My loud, delayed voice reads in an accented Hindi - “UNDIES!”
Lesson learnt. Read out loud with the vowel signs.