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* * * 2006 ANNUAL GOANETTERS MEET - GOA * * *
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WHERE: Foodland Cafe - Miramar Residency - Miramar, Goa
WHEN: December 21, 2006 @ 4:00pm
More info:
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2006-December/051412.html
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Frederick,
An interesting point you've raised here in on-topic land.
Do you think Konkani chauvinism is on the rise in Goa or on the wane??
A couple of years ago speaking to a Goan in Hindi would have got you
the 'French treatment'. However, now you very often see Goans
communicating with fellow Indians in Hindi.
When I started working I made a decision to improve my spoken
Hindi(since I had already studied it for 10 years) rather than spend a
lifetime of communicating with fellow Indians in bad English. I must
admit that many a time Goans(even my mother!) would react strangely
when I was having long conversations on my cell phone in Hindi and then
switched to speak to them either in English or Konkani. Not having a
decent knowledge of Hindi has long been trademark of Goan
youth(especially the Catholic middle/upper classes), I find that this
is mindset is rapidly changing. Don't you??
The root of Konkani chauvinism is similar to the German example you
site below.
However, would you consider it insensitive if an Indian asked you if
you speak Hindi or English? Just as all us Goans learn Hindi in school,
a vast majority of Germans learn a second language(either English or
French but mostly the former).
What is the first question a German will ask you in India? Don't think
I need to answer that one.
When travelling anywhere, I now try to learn at least the following
statement in the local language(very common, but useful tactic) "Excuse
me, I'm sorry I don't speak your language, Can you please tell me...
(switch to English with my Indian accent)". I have enjoyed good
treatment all over the world with this simple tactic, except Tamil
Nadu, where random people will lecture me for hours that an NRI Tamil
should learn his mother tongue! Continuously protesting "Tamil Illa" or
that I'm from Goa seem to have no effect on the length of the lecture.
Best Regards
Sunith D Velho
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
FN writes:
That could be because they don't like the British or the Germans,
rather than they not liking you :-) Or, it could just be a linguistic
thing, as is the rising head of Konkani chauvinism in Goa.--
In 1990, a Tongan colleague undergoing studies in Berlin would ask
Germans she ran into, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" To my mind,
then and now, it came across as an insensitive thing to do. If I was
German, I would probably say, 'Why should we/'
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