Independence Day

Originally published September 2006

I continue the discovery of a whole new world. Recently, I was reminded of an anecdote I once heard from a MBA (Marketing) student. He was talking of how a detergent company was baffled at the failure of it’s marketing campaign in the Middle East. The problem, upon investigation turned out to be this; Arabic reads from right to left. How does that make any difference, you ask? As a consequence, the graphics on the packaging, which to most of the world (sic) would mean that dirty clothes — subject to the miracles of the detergent — end up clean; imply precisely the reverse process for the average resident in the Middle East.

Point being that, without being conscious of it, we live within a reference framework that is (sometimes severely) restricted by our language and culture. I have this habit of trying to absorb the languages of the people I work with. The Bengalis in the Institute were probably an exception to this. But in my defense I did not work with any of them. Trying to learn a new language is not easy. But in my opinion it is impossible outside a social and cultural context. This is also true of the written word. Which is based on the basic mental syntax that the spoken word employs. For example, in my workplace there are people who speak the following languages among others:

  • English
  • Hindi
  • Malayalam
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Italian
  • Chinese (not sure if it is Mandarin or Cantonese)
  • Arabic
  • Tagalog (Philipino)

This is not exhaustive but serves as an illustration to the point I am trying to make. The first three in that list — Indian. That is not a precise description, but it does imply that if you know one of these then you can understand and speak English and Hindi — which offers privacy from other nationalities(sic). The next in the list are spoken in pockets of one or two people. These also offer privacy if someone else speaks these languages. These are primarily used for “comfortable” communication. At this point, I’d like to admit a hypocrisy in this description. I label certain languages as Indian, because in this context, they become my “native” languages. Nothing else really. The third and most interesting set consists of the last two. These are spoken in a social and cultural context. Arabic, of course is the lingua franca of the Middle East. Tagalog is the baggage that the immigrant Philipino population brings. The interesting result is that I have been able to explore these two languages more than any other. The conclusions that I can draw from these are:

  • Languages are best learnt in language communities — usually native speakers.
  • Language has to be learned in the context of communication — learning from reference (for example, from texts) leads to incoherence.
  • Grammar bridges have to be built and basic syntactic instruments (for example, reflexives) have to be used as the platform for lexical acquisition. That sounds very neo-Chomskian, but it seems to be true.
  • Accent neutrality is possible, and depends on normalising the usage of the difficult phonemes. These can be separated into speech-limiters and auditory-limiters. More on this some other time.

The result of all this means that I now know what I have to do learn the languages of the world. The plan is not so grand as that statement makes it out to be. I need to learn Chinese and stay in China, which in my opinion is the last bastion of cultural independence. Have to go to Europe and learn Italian, Spanish, Danish, Greek in addition to making my knowledge of French and German workable. I have to live in Africa and learn Swahili and Afrikaans in the least. Japanese, uncertain but maybe. When I am back home — will look to learn to read and write Telugu (my mother tongue!) and Tamil. Gujarati, Pahadi and Bengali are also important goals. That should be it. And surprisingly, at this point all of this seems more possible than ever.

In other news, yesterday was the Qatari independence day. Independence from (surprise surprise) the British! But in keeping with my love for labour, I have been working since morning. Benefits of being in Doha, there are no attractions. None that I have discovered so far. But more importantly — I now have financial independence. My first paycheck has been delivered. And the first thing I did was to splurge on a bit of music. Was waiting some time now to get my hands on Corinne Bailey Rae’s record. Bluesish pop. The voice and the hair. Also picked up Dido’s “Life for Rent”. Amazing voice. Wish she would do Jazz. And the pick of the lot — David Gilmour’s “On an Island”. Was shocked sometime back to know that Syd Barrett died (almost in an anticlimax) of diabetes. Between Barrett and Gilmour lies the essence of Floyd. Waters, in my opinion, brought the savvy, which while no less important, but was not defining. Anyway. Have to buy more than a few books. But am absolutely confused. What with never having looked for things to read. Any suggestions would be welcome. Since not many people read this blog, will probably send around some e-mails. Will go home to Bombay this week. Buy a long overdue camera. And perhaps, a few other gadgets. And more importantly meet “all those wonderful people”.

Onwards to a life in abstraction.