I Leave Tomorrow!

Parent Cafe
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<p>Today was my first day of Tamil class. 10:30 - 4 p.m. four days a week. It took an hour and three quarters to get there. Luckily, my driver found a short cut home - only 75 minutes!</p>

<p>Four classes a day - all one on one. No hiding in the back! The first class was a theory and grammar background class with the director. There are now known to be 85 Dravidian languages in the world - even though we usually only think of four of them - Tamil, Malayam, Telegu, and Kannada. Some are wholly outside of India. Tamils had a great deal of influence on Japan (there Institute of Asian Studies, where I am studying, is a joint Tamil-Japanese venture.) And of course America’s greatest President was a Tamil - A. Brahmalingam.</p>

<p>There is a complete grammar and phonological treatise dating form 2,600 years ago. Also a complete ethnographic description of the Tamil people.</p>

<p>Then conversation class. I already know about 200 words - now I have to make sense of them. Hard work! There is plenty of Tamil conversation in my home here - Tamil is mainly spoken, and some members of the household don’t speak any English. My driver doesn’t speak English either - but we manage.</p>

<p>Today, I had two full hours of learning to write the letters. There are 12 vowels and 18 consonants, and each combination makes a new letter! So there 216 (actually there are 247, but let’s not go there. Singing the alphabet song could take half the afternoon! Since I flunked handwriting in English, oh 8-9 times, drawing these little shapes and curlicues required a lot patience on my part, but I’ve got the concept down, even if I can’t really ready them yet. (there are three kinds of Ns, and three kinds of Ts, and figuring out which one to say is a challenge!</p>

<p>Still, this is something I should have done 30 years ago, so I’m making up for lost time. I’m now sitting on the front veranda, with a cup of coffee, and the evening monsoon rain is about to hit.</p>

<p>I’m actually about 8 hours north of my home, but this will have to do for now.</p>

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<p>I think the self-studying will pay off, mini. Should count as a strong EC and you might be able to write a good essay about it ;)</p>

<p>Seriously, though, very impressive, look forward to hearing about the language progress.</p>

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<p>I am so impressed and fascinated…please keep the updates and observations coming!</p>

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<p>“And of course America’s greatest President was a Tamil - A. Brahmalingam”</p>

<p>Took me three readings but very funny!</p>

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<p>Safe travels! Looking forward to the updates.</p>

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<p>Piggle’s mom replying
My H was raised in Tamilnadu. He thoroughly enjoyed the quip about American president.
I (on the other hand) grew speaking Malayalam. My family used to tease my H’s Malayalam pronunciation -heavily accented with Tamil. He used to tell us that it was more difficulty to learn Tamil than any other south Indian language. I never learned it, but congrats to you !!</p>

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<p>If you like A. Brahmalingam, did I ever tell you about George Washington Bush?</p>

<p>Every year, in Washington State, we trot him out for African-American History Day, as one of the first settlers (ah-hem, there are 29 federally recognized tribes?) of the territory.</p>

<p>Only problem is, he wasn’t an African-American (and his descendants are still around, and are never invited to the celebrations.) His father was a Tamil sea captain on a British ship, plying the port of Philadelphia a little after the American Revolution. He married an Irish servant woman in a ceremony held at Germantown Friends Meeting (Quakers) around 1796. His son, said GWB, at some point decided to move west (and kind of Johnny Appleseed-type figure.) He married a white woman in Kentucky (you think they would have allowed the marriage had he been an African-American?), and continued to move West. But when he got to the Oregon Territory, he was not allowed to stay, as no Blacks were allowed. (To this day, Oregon has a tiny African-American population.) He moved to Tumwater, Washington (where his grave is right next to a Wal-Mart). He owned land, which actually took an act of Congress permitting an African-American to do so - except he wasn’t an African-American.</p>

<p>He is never celebrated during Asian-American Day celebrations. His descendants are considered white.</p>

<p>Go figure.</p>

<p>It rained for five hours last night. Hard! The pigs are out in force.</p>

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<p>Second Day of Tamil Class:</p>

<p>Just went I thought it was safe to go back in the water:</p>

<p>So I;'m working through the alphabet. All 12 vowels and 18 consonants, all combined makes 216, but then the vowels can be use by themselves. Half way there.</p>

<p>But then I discover, there are five more! borrowed from Sanskrit to make certain sounds unavailable in Tamil, each with thier own 12 vowels, so add 60 more! But wait! each of the 23 consonants (18 plus 5) can occur on their own, too, so now I’m up to 299!</p>

<p>Five-year-olds learn this, I remind myself.</p>

<p>Then there are aliphones, not as bad as in English, where “c-a-t” can spell “such”. Two letters have 3 aliphones each, one letter has two. Not so terrible.</p>

<p>Pronouns are okay!</p>

<p>“Evaluva nairam acham?” How long does it take? (to learn Tamil). How long do you have?</p>

<p>There are special words for the day before yesterday and the day after tomorrow. Kashtam! (difficult)</p>

<p>I think I’ve learned how to give the driver directions in Tamil (maybe), but of course I usually have no clue as to where we are supposed to go. (But he does.) He is a Muslim named Basha, and a very dear person. I’m lucky to have him.</p>

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<p>Home from the Second Day of Class and there are nine young girls, ages 8-9 on our veranda, working on their Tamil lessons. My mother supports them in the local school. They are the migrant children of “forest-dwellers” from Andhra Pradesh, and their native language is Telegu, not Tamil. So we are learning to count to 10 together (one of them can get to 20, and one can’t get past four), and the parts of the body in Tamil (I’m teaching them the English, to confuse matters further.</p>

<p>I finished writing the Alphabet! 246 letters (I was told not to count the Sanskrit ones, and the 247th is a special case.) Took me FOUR HOURS. Some of the letters are combinations of letters with little curlicues - I think there are words that could take up a whole line! They do fall into a pattern of course, which means that, sometimes, I can recognize what is going on.</p>

<p>Then there are words that are almost homonyms. You can get yourself in trouble really quick, like cooking rasam (a soup) with a tiger rather than tamarind, or going to the lizard rather than to school. (Sounds good to me!)</p>

<p>In Tamil culture apparently, (this is something I’ve known for a long time), instead of saying “How are you?”, you ask “Have you eaten?” Doesn’t matter if you’ve just seen your friend come out of a restaurant after a four-hour feast, it is still “Have you eaten?” And don’t answer, “No, I’m starving to death, and if you don’t feed me, I’ll curse your family unto the seventh generation.” No, the food will come out eventually, if you wait long enough (and it won’t be long.)</p>

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<p>Mini, thanks, on my way to the lizard now.</p>

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<p>Traveling to class today, we passed a car. Emblazoned on the back was “I am the LARD”.</p>

<p>That’s about the state of my Tamil. Fortunately, this is only my third day. And my conversation teacher says I seem to remember a lot! (which I do). Met a Japanese student today who is pretty fluent after five months, and a Singaporean, new, and there are three Austrians who I never seem to meet, as they have classes the same time as I do. It is said they can read newspaper headlines!</p>

<p>Today, I learned the theory of declensions. The grammarian from 2,500 years ago claims there are eight cases, which puts him at odds with the earlier grammarians (!) who say they are only seven. Since I can barely remember two of them, I won’t weigh in! I understand the theory (having done both Latin and Sanskrit grammar), but it doesn’t mean I can use any of them. </p>

<p>Nonetheless, I can give directions to the driver, who doesn’t need them (even north, south, east, and west), and I’ve got “No problem” down to an art. I’m picking a few letters off street signs. Had a good conversation with the director about the poems of Bharathi (I used to be able to play them on my veena, and he wrote his dissertation on Bharathi and Shelley), and last December I attended the annual Bharathi Day celebrations in Coimbatore, where they honored my Indian mother, and I had to sit on the stage for six hours, not understanding a single word they said. Oh, that’s not really true: seven times I heard, “David Albert, David Albert, David Albert, David Albert, David Albert, David Albert, and David Albert.” But I have no idea what they were seeing about me. So I smiled.</p>

<p>Incidentally, the word for “smile” and the word for “love” in Tamil is identical. And the opposite of this word is “to cry” (not “frown” or “hate”.) “Hate” is a word that is rarely used in Tamil - they are all too polite to hate anything.</p>

<p>Someone asked me why there were no boys on the veranda. The reason is that we have sent them to live at one of our hostels about 150 miles from here, and to get an education. Around ages 8-9, the parents would start giving the boys alcohol (almost all the migrant “forest-dwellers” are alcoholics) and so, with the parents’ permission of course, we are trying to give them a better chance. However, my 10-year-old stepnephew was simply placed in a boarding school near here, as he is too attached to our family.</p>

<p>Back to work!</p>

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<p>happy trails to you</p>

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<p>In Tamil, there is no word for “weekend”. That’s because there is esentially no concept of weekend. But Friday (or for some, Saturday, as well) are auspicious days. Fridays for Muslims, of course, but also for many Hindus. </p>

<p>Today, my adopted sister came down the stairs in a saree looking like a cross between the sun and a tangerine. Traditionally, on Velli (Friday), women used to wear yellow or orange. (Actually, there was a color for every day of the week, most long forgotten). And this is a special month in Tamil, dedicated to all female gods. So as I went about the streets, I did notice the women in yellow. Mostly older, and the younger women, or women going to offices, mostly wear pajama-kurta-salwah rather than sarees (more comfortable, I’m told - I haven’t tried. LOL!) </p>

<p>My cousin’s family is “asaivam” (non-veg), but they won’t each chicken on Friday or Saturday. But my other cousin (also asaivam), eats goat and chicken, but only on Mondays or Tuesdays. It’s what I love about Hinduism - everyone can come up with their own personal rules. i am Coffee Sadhu, and I drink coffee every morning. (Actually, it’s a mixture of milk, water, and a half teaspoon or less of Nescafe.) </p>

<p>I’m picking a few more letters off street signs. And learning more words! In Olympia, we have a cafe called “The Dancing Goat”. Well, in Tamil, the words “goat” and “to dance” are the same. So are “lamp” or “light” and “to explain”. Makes perfect sense to me - to “shed light on something”. </p>

<p>People have asked me whether this is difficult or not. Actually, neither. It just is. I’m a decade away from really knowing this language, and light years ahead of where I started. I just try to go to class with little or no expectations, and see what can be stuffed into my poor brain. </p>

<p>After all, five-year-olds do this.</p>

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<p>Fascinating, Mini! I love it. Keep it coming. And Safe travels!</p>

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<p>Very interesting stuff!</p>

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<p>Stalin Arrested!</p>

<p>You heard it here first! Not THAT Stalin! The Stalin, son of the former Chief Minister, one of the most popular politicians in Tamil Nadu, and now the subject of vendetta from the current Chief Minister. Within an hour of his arrest, virtually all the stores in the central part of the state had closed down in protest. He was released shortly thereafter.</p>

<p>There are now all kinds of kids growing up with the names “Bush” and “Saddam”. Watch for their return to Tamil politics in 25 years.</p>

<p>Indian politics are uniquely fascinating. This is the world’s largest democracy by far, with virtually everyone participating. Corrupt almost beyond belief (though not nearly as corrupt as the U.S. military-industrial complex, which is so corrupt, we don’t even bother to call it corruption). But here in the paper is a Sikh prime minister (and a woman President) hosting a Hindu official giving an award to a Muslim scholar for his studies of Sanskrit!</p>

<p>I just found (because she just arrived) that another cousin of mine is the assistant director for Tamil Studies of all the secondary schools in Tamil Nadu. I think she arrived to check my homework. Everyone likes my handwriting (which I found fascinating, as it all looks like a bunch of doodles to me).</p>

<p>And I read a whole store sign - all right it was an easy one “ICICI Bank” (with Bank in English, just in Tamil letters.)</p>

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<p>* I just found (because she just arrived) that another cousin of mine is the assistant director for Tamil Studies of all the secondary schools in Tamil Nadu. I think she arrived to check my homework. Everyone likes my handwriting (which I found fascinating, as it all looks like a bunch of doodles to me).*</p>

<p>;)</p>

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<p>P.s. The word “bank” in Tamil is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, it is impossible. There is no letter for “b”. However, after a nasal consonant, such as m, a “p” will be pronounced as a “b” as in “Mamballam” (mango). So it really should be pronounced “Pank”.</p>

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<p>This morning, after she finished her morning meditations, my mother told me about Ramalinga (for about the 300th time),a 19th-Century Tamil Quaker-like saint of the Inner Light. She told me how one night (and without any education), at 8 years old (I think), he sat down at midnight, and wrote 1,500 lines (a poem) about the nature of reality, the relationship between body and spirit and the forms of matter, etc., etc., etc., and finished at 4 a.m. I replied that in four hours, with 20 years of education under my belt, I managed to write the alphabet.</p>

<p>Incidentally, if you at all interested in what I am yakking about in terms of the alphabet, you can visit this site from the University of Pennsylvania:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/tamilweb/mkletter.html[/url]”>http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/tamilweb/mkletter.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>My 97-year-old father (there is a debate, some say he is 99), sometimes eats and sometimes doesn’t. He is blind (lost his eyes in 30-day protest fast in Delhi some 15 years ago, and deaf, and falls in and out of dementia. But sometimes he is as smart as a tack. Anyway, the whole household gathers to get him to eat. We sing loud prayers (and I insert the Tamil world for “Eat!” in the middle, and occasionally the name of a vegetable, and today it seemed to work!</p>

<p>Today, I am working on kinship terms. There are so many! The usual (father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter) but then there are really important ones like mother’s brother and mother’s brother’s son (important for marriage relations), father’s older brother, older brother’s wife, mother’s elder sister, the list seems virtually endless. Since all of these are assigned positions in the great kinship web, simply using uncle, aunt, and cousin simply doesn’t cut it.</p>

<p>Ramadan Kareem to all my Muslim friends.</p>

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<p>I really like the oo vowel. He looks like a smiling snowman. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us! :)</p>