"Don't you know what Tur Dal is how old are you and how long have you been a shopkeeper?"... heard my friend.... A customer was screaming at the shopkeeper.... Seeing my friend he turned around and started speaking to her... "These guys can't even learn Hindi... 'Tur Dal' to be the least... Hindi, our national language...everyone should know......" blah....blah....blah........
My friend listened patiently and asked that gentleman "How long have you been living in Bangalore?"...."11 Years" he said...."You have been living here for 11 long years and haven't bothered to learn what is Tur Dal called in Kannada?"..... The gentleman walked off taking his Tur Dal... without uttering a word...
--------------
I was talking to this friend after a couple of years... and got reminded of this incident narrated by her....
I was in Tirupathi last week.... I was trying to converse in Telugu (with as little as I know of that language).... "Be a Roman in Rome".. they say.... Should attitude be a deterrent to learning a new language?.... My answer is a 100% 'NO'... This percentage creeps steeply when the new language is the Local language.... Doesn't it?
May 18, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
