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Frederick Noronha wrote:
PS: What is Selma's point? That because expat Goans find it
difficult/don't find the need to learn Konkani, others won't be
studying/using/speaking it too? If so, I would disagree (subject to
the comments in my earlier post)...
Response:
More balderdash from Senor Noronha. For good measure he has thrown in his
favourite taunt "the expat Goan." Now for those not familiar with the "expat
Goan" he is a rare species of Homoerectus who is responsible for everything
wrong with the world including global warnning and falling fertility rates.
Don't ask me how but he is.
But ahem...to get back to the subject matter, Noronha after telling us of the
lone German teenage girl he knew who could speak in Konkani, now mentions a
couple of his close aquaintances a Sikh, an Oriya and a Kannadiga in a red
light district all of whom spoke fleunt Konkani. For Noronha's information not
much language skills are required in red-light areas. Knowing how to say "how
much?" will suffice.
But again getting back to my original point....I categorically maintain that
Europeans cannot pick up Konkani casually just by listening to it. The reasons
being that Konkani, to begin with is an incredibly difficult language to learn
unless you have learnt it on your mother's knees and because of the range of
phonetics and different syntax involved, it is a near impossibility for
Europeans to learn to speak it casually without dedicated study.
Now if you go to Dubai, you will find every Arab speaks Hindi. Every Iranian
understand Urdu and every Muslim Keralite will at the very least know how to
type Arabic. Why because similar and related languages can be learnt. To give
you an example, an Italian can quickly pick up Spanish. A German can easily
learn Flemmish. A Goan can ofcourse easily learn Hindi. And those who come from
a Dravidian base of languages have the amazing ability to speak a wide range of
languages.
But we were talking about "many Foreigners" speaking "fluent" Konkani and I say
this is an impossibility for an adult "Foreigner" to do just by casual contact
with Goans. At the most they will pick up a smattering of Konkani but by no
means can this be construed as "FLUENT".
Incidentally the word Foreigner and expat are archaic. And Senor Noronha stop
using * for inverted commas. Are you trying to start a new language with its
own punctuation :-)
Best,
Selma
