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Learning Kannada as a Non-Kannadiga
shas3n - 20 June, 2007 | Bangalore | Language and Culture
Deepa illustrates her plight of trying to learn to speak Kannada.
In spite of being willing to learn, she was mocked at and mostly was met by indifference.
Isnt it time that our 'pro-kannada' activists who take the stand of 'Learn Kannada or Leave Bangalore' every November, to introspect what are they doing to make learning Kannada easy?
What do you think should be done, to encourage someone who is trying to learn Kannada?
COMMENTS
This site will help :-
vivek_shankar153 - 16 February, 2009 - 06:37
This site will help :- www.kannadakali.org
Bangalore has been renamed, and the anglicisation has been done away with. Why dont we do the same to anglicised street names? And rename them with common colloquial Kannada words. Bizarre, but will help force people into uttering them, and in the process, probably learn what they mean. Commercial Street can be "Hegidira", Cubbon Road can be "eshtu doora", Church Street can be "hogutta", Brigade Road can be "habba joru".
On the seat of every BMTC bus, highlight the fact that Kannada is easy, and demonstrate this with examples of simple everyday conversations with the conductor, the maid, rickshaw driver..
Will this work? Bet it will. Know how many now know "anisutide" 's meaning?
"And rename them with common colloquial Kannada words."
till i read this i thought you were going to say something else. suddenly you dropped a bomb!! wow! i had heard of lateral thinking but this one is out of the sphere only man!!rofl. cubbon park as eshtu doora. rofl!!!
bhala serious.. i think instead of translation they should employ transliteration. that is use english script to convey kannada. cubbon raste. kumbLe vrutta, church beedi. bengaLooru saarige nigama. and instead of bmtc we could go with besani. BDA benapra. nilli. infact HDK himself should go HaDeKu. though many will diasagree i think language is more important than script. i would even go as far to say script is restrictive, even if beautiful and makes for excellent calligraphy as illustrated by gujjar.
say the BTRAC signs take off, the the BTRAC sign boards should go...
towards tantragnyana udyanavana (taud) use hale madras raste
taud kaDege hale madras raste upayogisi
ತೌದ್ ಕಡೆಗೆ ಹಳೆ ಮದರಾಸು ರಸ್ತೆ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿ
this is not uncommon for example Germany has popularized GmBh for what is really a limited liability company (LLC)
Language more important than the script? Yes.
ellelliyu - 4 August, 2007 - 06:49
Yes, tharlesubba, and I'm all for using any means possible, to make sure more than just "Kannada gottilla" is on everyone's lips. Mungaru Male has proved that cinema is one of the better ways by which someone's curiosity and interest in a language could be turned on. FM is another. I'm extemely happy that Mirchi has gone completely Kannada atleast songwise. People, anyone, wouldn't mind hearing "Stylo, Stylo" twice or thrice in a day. Or "onde ondu saari". Or "Dr Sathya". Cinema + FM is an unbeatable combo.
The point is, Kannada must be thought of as 'cool'.
How do we make people realise that Kannada is cool?
Some obvious answers:
- more 'Mungaru Male' s.
- smiling conductors who nudingly reply "howda.. parvaagilla. Majesticcaa? Onda?"
when an outsider says "Kannada gottilla"
Some not so obvious answers:
- if you must speak Hindi with an outsider, intersperse it some Kannada, even
if it sounds funny in the beginning. "Solpa munde jaayiye, aamele left lijiye" or
some other variant: "thoda aage hogi, matte left togoLi". Make it sound as though
thats pretty natural.
- agreed most outsiders dont show an inclination to learn Kannada. But there are still
a lot of them who do.. encourage them. Check srican.blogspot.com - Srican is from
Chennai, but has picked up Kannada so well in just a couple of years, that he tracks
how similar Kannada is to his mother tongue, and also has written a tutorial
describing how Kannada can be derived from Devanagari!
- speak in Kannada only with your neighbours' children.
- hold out events and competitions, in case you have some experience or/and are
inclined, at the office. Invite non-Kannadigas to participate in Kannada dumb
charades, Kannada whats the good word..
Buses are where people learn the maximum Kannada. Or even autos. Thats going to be our graffiti boards!
lingo leela
tsubba - 4 August, 2007 - 09:42
that is why I thought lingo leela was brilliant. thanks for srican ref. the man's driven.
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