Knowing another language is never a lost. Growing up in Sri Lanka as an ethnic minority Tamil person, I spoke Tamil language at home with my family, so Tamil is my mother tongue as per ethnicity or identification is concerned. So naturally I enjoyed all things the Tamil language could offer, except for reading and writing. I cannot read/write in Tamil.
In school, I studied in Sinhala medium, meaning all subjects were done in Sinhala. Due to majority, minority ethnic political climate in the 70s, my parents sent me to study in Sinhala medium (the language of the majority) believing it to be a favorable condition for future jobs search etc.
Whatever it may be, I become a bilingual kid, very comfortable with both languages, of course, I can very well read/write in Sinhala. I enjoy music, movies, dramas, poetry, news in both languages. However, been illiterate in Tamil is a major personal handicap, I kind of resented been illiterate in Tamil, as if something was denied to me, while an "alien" language was "forced" upon me.
At 20, I left Sri Lanka, that's nearly 22 years ago, I am basically out of touch with both languages, and definitely I am out of touch with Sinhala. I still speak in Tamil with my parents, so my Tamil is somewhat still ok, but not anywhere near what it was.
When Equal Money System FAQs needed to be translated, I committed myself to do them in both Tamil and Sinhala languages. It was a big undertaking. At the moment, I am safe on Tamil, because I have requested another person to do the translation job for me. My own chances of doing it in Tamil is very very low; since I can carry on any conversation in Tamil, I still have the capability to do it, may be it wont be 'proper' Tamil, but it will be full of colloquial Tamil. Imagine an illiterate Frenchman who lives in England and who has never wrote/read a word of French, doing voice translation of Equal Money System videos into colloquial French? Possible !!!! With Tamil, I am in that boat.
For Sinhala language, I decided to do it myself, however out of touch I am, I know I can do, so I started it. So far I have completed two videos, 48 more to go. First I started by listening to many Sinhala YouTube clips just to get in touch so to speak. And strange enough, its slowly coming along, my 2nd video is much better than the first one, the flow and delivery is much better. So I hope the rest will come fine.
I never thought Sinhala language will be of any benefit to me after leaving Sri Lanka, after all its only spoken in that Island of 20 million people. Moreover, I am a Tamil person, and its not an act of pride to know or speak in Sinhalese, I want to take pride in speaking my mother tongue, which is Tamil. Yes, even in languages there is that pride factor. Those were the days.
I am a destonian now, it matters not to me been a Tamil or Sinhalese, I stand for Life, I stand for all of Life, be it Tamil life or Sinhala life, I stand for all. That is the beauty of desteni, it has transformed me to stand with all. So I am grateful that I am able to speak this language, so I can do this Equal Money translation for nearly 17 million Sinhala people in Sri Lanka. A great thing is been introduced to Sri Lankans, the Equal Money System, the way of the future is coming to Sri lanka. These videos are the early seeds.
I am glad that my parents sent me to study in Sinhala medium back in 1975, for which I always felt a strange resentment, for denying me the fluency of my own mother tongue.
I am glad I can do the Equal Money FAQ in Sinhala. Strange how things work, all I can say is, we are all connected, Life is one. So far, that is my experience in Equal Money FAQ translation. An old resentment has gone.
Join us:
http://www.desteni.co.za
http://www.destonians.com
http://www.equalmoney.org
Thanks
Anton Fernando
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