INTRODUCTION OF KONKANI AT HOME!
Domnic Fernandes
Tue, 09 Mar 2004 00:00:43 -0800
We are extremely happy at the progress Konkani has made in the Gulf particularly
in Kuwait through Tiatr and Tiatrists. Tiatr is one forum through which our
mother tongue has made formidable strides in reaching the Konkani speaking
masses for over a century now. I don’t know what would have become of our
language had it not been for Goan Tiatr writers/directors/producers, actors and
actresses. As one of the tiatrists, I can confidently say that it is the Goan
Tiatrists’ fraternity that has kept the flame of the Konkani torch going on.
A lot has been and is being said in English on Goanet about the Konkani language but very little has been done in terms of its promotion. Most Goans born prior to Goa’s liberation and even those born soon after liberation know how to speak Konkani, but what about the present generation? No doubt, education has picked up at a very rapid pace in Goa and it may not be out of place to mention here that most Goans are well off in their respective jobs universally as they are gifted with a good command of English both written and spoken, but that does not mean that we should neglect our mother tongue. I fail to understand why we are so hesitant to embrace our mother tongue! Are we ashamed of it? The present parents hardly make any effort to impart the knowledge of our mother tongue to their children.
Every Indian community speaks their languages
at home. A Maharashtrian speaks Marathi; a Keralite speaks Malayalam; a Sikh
speaks Punjabi; a Karnatakan – speaks Kannada/Tulu (Christians and Konkannas
speak Konkani); to name a few, but we Christian Goans prefer to speak only
English at home over Konkani. If Mangaloreans can speak Konkani at home, what
prevents us from doing so? We do not only speak a foreign language in our homes
but we also restrict children from speaking Konkani. I have witnessed this fact
among Goans in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and most recently in Dubai. What is most
hurting is that when children gather at a playground to play games, each one of
them speaks his/her language except our children - the result: our children
learn to speak their languages but cannot impart our language to them because
they don’t know how to speak it. While children from other communities act as
ambassadors of their languages and promote them, our children demote our
language!
It is not only children; even some adults
refrain from speaking our mother tongue. I have come across some employees in my
Company who hail from Bombay and claim to be Goans but cannot speak Konkani.
Obviously, their families back home follow the same pattern; I know this for a
fact because I visited them in Bombay. However, their children speak fluent
Marathi!
I do have a little good news to our readers. A
couple of months ago one of the Goanetters in the US informed me that she was
teaching Konkani to her 3-year old granddaughter. Not only that, she wrote to me
that whenever she called her family in Goa, her granddaughter spoke Konkani with
her great grandmother. This is the type of initiative we need in our homes! If
Goans can teach Konkani to their children/grandchildren in the States, why can’t
we do so elsewhere and back home?
As we know, it is very easy to mould a child’s
mind while young. Given a chance, a child can learn as many languages as he/she
is taught. Furthermore, we know that just like education a language is also an
asset. So, why are we so afraid to teach Konkani to our children/grandchildren?
So, dear readers, we do have a very serious
basic problem – our younger generation has very little or no knowledge of
Konkani – which needs to be addressed and looked into seriously. The
introduction of Konkani must begin in our homes; we must teach the language to
our children/grandchildren right from the beginning but this is not done by many
of us; instead, many of us have adopted English as our sole language. If the
present Goan parents/grandparents do not teach Konkani to their
children/grandchildren, what is the future of our mother tongue? How can we
expect our language to prosper if we strangle it in our homes? If our
children/grandchildren do not learn the language, how can they identify
themselves as Goans? As responsible Goan parents/grandparents/great grandparents
it is our duty to pass on the torch of Konkani to our
children/grandchildren/great grandchildren so that they in turn pass the batten
on to future generations and keep our language alive!
Therefore, I beg one and all to make every
effort to teach Konkani to their children/grandchildren/great grandchildren by
introducing it in their homes. Long live Konkani!
Moi-mogan,
Domnic Fernandes
Anjuna/Dhahran, KSA