Learning each other’s language
By Sydney Knight
[Rajagiriya]
The NAWF has gone public in defending their stand on the recently slain MP Nadaraja Raviraj. In their statement, given publicity by the media, they say, “Raviraj was a special friend of the NAWF”.
What caught my eye in that response were the words “…he was a friend of the Sinhalese. He was one of the few Tamil politicians who made the effort to learn the Sinhala language…”
My response is, how many Sinhala politicians know the Tamil language? Herein I see our nation’s tragedy.
The minorities in our island home learn the Sinhala language, not vice versa. This is because of social factors. A person close to me, who taught English at Peradeniya, used to tell me that the Tamil/ Muslim students — wanted to learn English and Sinhalese. Not the Sinhala students. I presume that is the psychology of the majority.
A person, now no longer in the land of the living, had to retire prematurely because he could not work in the official language of the land, Sinhala. How many public servants learn Tamil?
A public servant is a servant of the public. How can he/she work with the public and serve them without knowing the languages of the people? Only today, after fifty years or so, a token attempt is being made to implement the Official Languages policy of the State.
It is my considered opinion that we in Sri Lanka do not have the political will to settle our problem. We are all talking of the war. That is necessary. But that is like attempting to change the cream when the cake is bad. The cake of the national problem is bad. All of us must be, if not trilingual, at least bilingual.
Attempts are being made by our educators to do this. Unless and until all of us from the north to the south see the need to celebrate our languages, we will still be doing anti-war work.
[A Letter to the Editor, published in the island.lk]
Samadhi said,
December 8, 2006 @ 12:41 pm
I don’t think we need to be a politican or need government incentive to learn another language. I would love it if both languages: sinhala and tamil are thought in schools. Since I didn’t have this opportunity, now I am trying to learn Tamil by myself. I don’t see why others can’t do the same. Why are we blaming others when learning a language is all up to us. In my eyes Tamil people who had to learn Sinhalese are the lucky ones. They are better educated because they learned another language. In a peaceful Sri Lanka I would go live in a predominantly Tamil area like Jaffna and give my self the opportunity to learn more. I am living in a country where Sinhala in not the official language. I see the advantage I have over others who had to learn only one (the official) language. So, although I fully support teaching both these languages in schools, let’s use the time that we spend finger pointing and blaming others to learn another language and be better educated. Learning is a personal thing, within the reach of each one of us if we really want to, and not a political or economic issue. I wish I was one of you who knows all three (Sinhala, Tamil, English). Don’t lement for being so fortunate. All of us ordinary people have so much power to change things. Let’s do that.