Language Lessons

June 17, 2009 | Category: Arunachal Pradesh, Volunteering | by: Heather

Good night madam, good night madam, good night madam, see you too-mado, have a sweet dream, good night madam.  ☺  Fifty polite little kids parading by, 3 times a day to the family kitchen for meals…all eager to get their English greetings out as they go by.  If I’m sitting on the porch with anyone else when the line comes, there will be a whole chorus of hellos in Tibetan or Hindi or whatever else fits.  The kids here are all from surrounding areas, but the staff come from many places, and speak many languages.  In class, the children learn Monpa (a local language), Tibetan, Nepali, Hindi, and English.  In discussions at dinner (we all eat as a big group after the children are finished), I used to have high hopes that I would start picking up on what was being said.  Then I found out that at any given time with the adults, there are typically 2-4 languages being used at the same time, and so I’m starting now with trying to learn enough of each to at least be able to differentiate which is which during a conversation. One of my jobs is teaching English to staff-members.   During play time with the kids, I get to be the student, and they love teaching me words.  Today I learned that the Monpa word for bum is ‘ninten.’  And then they proceeded to teach me a game that they called ‘ninten-do.’  ☺  Haha.

One Comments

  1. Leslie
    on July 6th, 2009
    1

    Just read a few of the more recent posts. It sounds beautiful there, Heather. Hopefully by the end of the two months you will be able to differentiate between the four or so languages spoken there.

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