Here is something concrete for any one who want to understand better why we should save what is withering away......
I salute you Adv. Peter D'souza for your wonderful article, however will they have the capacity to skillfully understand the truth and the would be outcome if they ever succeed to kill the fruit of first love mentioned in your wise article? I smell the death now only as the present generation is spending their energy to talk to their toddlers in English only and not a word in Konkani, i see it in my own house and in the surrounding too and these are the ones who are fighting mostly in the Force for the MOI. They are not interested to foresee the future. It is the present generation who has to think deep into this issue and save what they might never see again in the future just like endangered species. Only those with wisdom will really think over this and do something to salvage what is being erased from our generation. I sometimes used to wonder: It took no time to Portugal to convert whole of Brazil into Portuguese speaking country. But in Goa even though through persecution the Colonial Masters have tried to kill Konkani during their occupation of long 450 years they could not succeed to uproot a single word of it. Whereas now what was protected by our forefathers during all those 450 years of occupation time, we ourselves are trying to totally erase all that was saved for us just within 50 years of freedom. God bless you and I hope your article will help open the eyes of those who are erring and also hope a better sense will prevail in them. Elvino. .............Original .Message: 6 Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:29:03 +0530 From: "Peter D'Souza" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] article on medium of instruction Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Hi all, posting my article on the medium of instruction in schools for comments and views. Adv. Peter D'souza - Calangute, Goa. SPEAK ENGLISH, MAN!!! Date: about twenty year ago. Place: Calangute ?tinto?, as it was then called. Scenario ? a lady standing with two small kids one aged about five, the other younger by a little over a year. The dress code said they were Catholics. Overheard: The elder kid said something to the little fellow who responded in konkani. Immediately, he was knocked on his head by the lady, saying: ?Speak English, Man.? That was during the earlier ?for English? agitation. At the time there were the good Catholic folks from all walks of life screaming their lungs out against the then head of the Church in Goa, demanding support for grants to English medium primary school. They did not hesitate to use some of the choicest expletives, in Konkani, against their Bishop. But, the church stood firm. All the ordained who spoke tried to explain the benefits of teaching kids in their mother tongue. All, except for a few black sheep who dared not go public. Also, at the time, there were two priest brothers. One, a very good friend of mine. He was a staunch *?pro-konkani wadi*?. I remember assuring him that Konkani would be a dead language within two generations. He practically laughed in my face and gave me statistics of church attendance for the Konkani masses, blah, blah blah. I remember telling him that his church would be at the fore-front to dig the Goan grave even before the chapel bells toll konkani?s death knell. Today, exactly one generation has gone by. The priest friend of mine is silent. His brother, on the other hand, who had not spoken a word at the time is now in the vanguard of the present ?English-for-our-kids? movement. And he does not hesitate to air his views on church premises. This time, interestingly, the head of the church is silent. I do hope the kid who got his head knocked has not developed a stutter, though I am certain he is making his *mommy* happy by trying to speak English. Yes, it?s only twenty years gone. My prediction is still one generation away. Now for the present. Scene: my colleagues house. Her maid hails from Maharashtra. Has settled in Goa, and now speaks fluent Konkani. Has not picked up any English. Says she will not be coming to work on the next day. Reason: the PTA of her little girl?s catholic school has taken a decision that all parents should attend a meeting at Panjim in support of English. Her child is in Std. I, Konkani medium. English is just one subject. She has failed in it. The mother was one of that ?large gathering? demanding grants for English medium at the primary level. The child is otherwise fluent in Konkani and Marathi. The demand for grants to English Medium Primary has taken quite an interesting twist. Everyone seems to agree that education through the child?s mother tongue is the best, but ... Parent?s want the language which will help their child some ten to twenty years down the line, and so why should they be deprived of grants to English medium primary schools? Appears to be very, very farsighted. But appearances, more often than not, are deceptive. And in this case, the road to hell is paved with extremely good intentions ? the child?s future. All crowds at rallies for English are predominantly, I repeat *predominantly *, Catholic packed and backed. On the media front be it print or electronic, it is also Catholic. Interestingly, too, most are second or third generation children of ancestors who found greener pastures abroad till some idiot Amin or later Saddam forced them to leave lock, stock and barrel. And they are predominantly Catholic. The rest are followers, blind or deaf to any other voice except what their local *padre* has preached, though in Konkani. The other group is the non-Goan settler, basking in our sun and hospitality. Among these will be found a number of non-Catholics. One wonders if they had made the same demands in their home States! I fit into that section whose ancestors had migrated to British India some three generations ago. English has been my first language since birth. Unfortunately, it has been the only language I have a command of. Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Dryden, were my favourites. Even our own Mahabharata and Ramayana were read by me via their English translations. It was Radhakrishna?s English version of the Bhagvad Gita which was my favourite for many, many years. I should have been in the vanguard of the present *Charge of the English Brigade*. Yet ......... What I find baffling is why is there such an anti-Konkani attitude being developed in the mind-set of our otherwise down to earth Goans. Today, English is the easiest language to learn even without attending a school. Besides, any school can set up such additional classes, and I am certain parents would not mind their kids spending an extra hour at school learning to speak English. The aids to learning English as a foreign language are awesome. These same parents in the forefront of the ?*Aid-English?* agitation could lend some of their expertise to this enterprise. It should not take us more than six months to have every child in Goa to have a command over spoken English as long as it is not muddled with History, Geography, Science and Mathematics. Now comes the other question. Why discriminate against English at the primary level when it comes to grants? The argument is equal treatment to all languages under the Constitution. In fact two states in India have opted for English as their first language. These are Megalaya and Nagaland. Again, where the majority are Christians. So why not Goa? Firstly, English is not the predominant language.... as yet. Next, it has never had any roots in Goa, the colonial language being Portuguese. The presence of English is only of recent origin, and as such it is totally foreign to our Goan culture. In other words, English may certainly be the language of the future, but, here in Goa it has no past and also no present, except for those few illegitimate English folk like yours truly. Yet, the above two arguments could still be faulted on the ground of unjustifiable discrimination, and there would be some brownie points to be gained for the die-hard *I-want-English-for-my-kid* bloke. They could even have a judgment or two up their sleeves. I would definitely not get into a head-on clash with these folks. But, I do hope they try to understand what is to come. English is definitely one of the most powerful languages in the world. No other language would stand a chance if English is around. A couple gives birth to their first child. A girl, born spastic. They care for her with all they have. Some years later the second child is born ? A bouncing baby boy. Would the parents be faulted if they paid even greater attention to their first love of their life? Konkani has had more than its share of attempted abortions, and survived them all. English is the new kid around the block. Given equal treatment, English will eclipse the language of our land, and by the end of the next generation it will be relegated to the language of the dead at church funerals. What I had said to my priest friend one generation ago will have proved truly prophetic. If our people can kill the unborn girl-child only because she is not considered as having an economically viable future, do you expect them to cling on to a language which they see as hopeless from the start? There is still another issue to be ironed out. That of competence of teaching through Konkani. Ironically, this issue was raised by the * Englishwallas*. They question the linguistic credibility of Konkani. What they forget is that English itself is called a bastard language, an illegitimate product of Latin, Greek and other Indo-European languages? And it continues to grow by the day feeding itself on various tongues, with the modern trend being to incorporate words from our very sub-continent. And I wonder if our chaps have heard the Irish or Scottish, or for that matter the London cockney! Still, the language grows. Language is not restricted to a vocabulary. It is the structure which matters. Even in India we have the two broad streams, the Northern languages with their roots in Sanskrit, and the Southern Dravidian group. Konkani is on the border of both these two great streams. Its richness can be measured by the fact that it has survived all these centuries of persecution. It has a basic structure akin to Marathi, and a vocabulary which is open to boundless growth. There should be absolutely no problem in teaching even till the SSC in Konkani. We *Englishwallas* should never forget that we have borrowed the numerals from the Phonecians, and the script has an even more complicated history with its twists and turns. Nearly all scientific terms are Latin based. Admittedly, one cannot teach love of one?s culture through Konkani. No, one shows love of one?s culture through teaching in this language which is the cradle of culture. We *Englishwallas* are neither here nor there. I remember many years ago one such *Afrikanda-returned-to-Goa* young man with English as his *forte *who tried to educate our people by staging Satre?s ?Men Without Shadows?. I also remember instructing him he would have a bigger audience if he translated Moliere into Konkani and have it staged here. His farce will be much appreciated in our times and places. In today?s world there is no necessity of making any species extinct. Least of all a language which is still vibrant and full of life. The stage is one place where one can feel the pulse of a culture. It?s Konkani, hands down, for our Goan culture. And even the hilarious *Konklish* is with a Konkani syntax. ?*Arre, English Ulloi*?, and not, *?Ulloi English, Arre?*. ------x----- -- Adv. Jos. Peter D'Souza
