The humble journey of an accidental polyglot | "Please lay 6 eggs"

Being multi-lingual - I owe it to the CBSE board for including second and third languages as an academic requirement. And to my first school in Jeddah, run by the Embassy of India, enabling me to have a true multi-lingual expo
sure. 

While I completed my entire education in English, Arabic was my third language in the school. While I decently mastered the artistic script with the able support of my Parker fountain pen, I couldn't best my parents' knack of making day to day conversations in the language.

My mother tongue is Malayalam. However, I always spoke a mix of English and Malayalam with my friends. I even tactically resorted to using the spattering of Malayalam I knew as a code language in school until I got ratted out and reprimanded by a teacher. 

Eventually, I learnt. Moving back to India meant I had to complete one academic year requiring a third language. My mother taught me the Malayalam alphabets (Aksharamala). Armed with that, tons of practice and a lot of spelling errors, and constant worry of my overall score dipping (noting which, my father assuaged my fears and provided practical advice), I eventually did pass my Malayalam exams with flying colours. 

However, living in Kerala didn't exempt me from speaking in Malayalam. 

At my expense, there has been many a laugh, one of which came to mind recently and prompted this "throwback thursday" write up. 

Once I accompanied my mother to a grocery store, the typical quaint one in the neighbourhood where they know you by name. As is pretty common, eggs are placed near the counter and can be bought by number, rather than packs. 

At the counter, I lay open my shopping bag and asked "6 മുട്ടകൾ ഇടുമോ?", and the lady at the counter smiled "ശ്രമിക്കാമായിരുന്നു, പക്ഷേ സാധ്യമല്ല" (Could try, but I cannot).

(Though I thought I had said "Please give 6 eggs", I had instead said "Please lay 6 eggs").

And such is my relation with Malayalam. Its complicated. 

Later, at university, where speaking in English or Malayalam with an accent was misconstrued as elitist, I somehow found my tribe and made it through. 

Later, Malayalam took a backseat. During my years working at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, L leaned on Hindi. Having learnt Hindi as a second language practically saved my neck, even though my struggle with the gender based nouns (पुल्लिंग and स्त्रीलिंग) stays.

And now my tryst with Dutch. 

My Duolingo practices have gotten me no further than "sap", "brood", "kip" (all food related, incase that went unnoticed). Though I learnt diligently how to say "Ik spreek geen Nederlands" ("I don't speak Dutch"), I missed to have learnt to detect "Spreek je Nederlands?" ("Do you speak Dutch?") in a conversation, which I realized recently when my children responded "Nee", "Engels" on my behalf.

I believe more amusing anecdotes related to Dutch are in the making !!

And in the meanwhile, Malayalam is back in a different form.

Much to my surprise and my mother's (and potentially the grocer lady's) , with my husband's initiative, I realized I could in someway help little children discover Malayalam, be it volunteering at school (see video) or with friends on weekends. 

Will these children eventually discover and enjoy Malayalam movies, songs, jokes, stories, and be at ease to make conversations in Malayalam? 

I do hope so. After all, it happened with me.