The Glass Pane

There is a huge glass pane on one side of my front room; the side that looks at the lake across the little grassy slope and bare headed winter trees. Outside the glass pane, the wind is chilly and ever moving; rubbing against the little perennial shrubs - most probably Cotoneasters; brushing against the cars parked at the bottom of the slope; howling and growling at strangers and friends alike; caring for none, stopping at nothing. On this side of the glass pane, everything is the opposite, just as you would imagine. The air is warm and ever still; sitting gently atop all animate and inanimate objects; quiet and at peace with it’s surroundings. I often turn the central heating down and sit by the window pane. My usual companion is a cup of Green Tea; today it is a bowl of Quinoa and peppers. My laptop is sitting on a bright golden brown cushion as I am typing. Imagine me sitting cross legged in my blue- red spotted dress- El vestido- a new word I learnt in class today. My hair is tied up in a bun on my head. Some strands have escaped the clutches of the black rubber band and are now scattered about my ears and nape; too tiny to be held within the roll.

     It is getting cold inside the room. The heat has not been turned on since yesterday night. I like sitting by the pane with the heat turned off. Through some invisible cracks and fissures the cold wind from the outside seeps into the interior of my room. It has an amazing effect on my unclad skin. Tiny little goose bumps are spreading all over my arms as I type on. Signs of life in a muted house. On days that I sit here motionless, not thinking, just looking at the lake, the sudden irruption of these bumps on my skin draws attention to all the other quiet, uncomplaining, tireless processes that keep me alive; yet I thank them so little. The beating heart, the batting lashes, the steady inhalation and expiration...

     The wind outside is playing with the water of the lake at the moment. I see it riding on the beams of the slowly fading sun, touching and missing the little waves as they keep rising and falling. Lake Ontario is a sea in itself. It has some very populated islands in it. The Toronto Islands on its Western end, the Thousand Islands, the Galloo Island added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, the Wolfe Island which is the largest in the basin and a number of others. When for the first time I had visited the Toronto Islands, I could not believe that it belonged to a lake. It has residential houses, a forest, a generous amount of beach area, a little zoo and even an airport of its own serving the city of Toronto. It is this very amazing lake, one of the five Great Lakes of North America that I am looking at right now. A gentle blue giant playing with the restless gusts of cold Westerlies!

 

 

photo: www.flickr.com

 

The World Of Words!

❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞ ‒Nelson Mandela

Being born in a country whose population of one billion speaks several hundred languages (SIL Ethnologue lists 415), I grew up naturally learning many. My native language happens to be Bengali. But I learned the written form of it at a much older age.

I was initiated into the realm of literacy by a foreign Language, under the tutelage of English & Irish nuns, at a Catholic missionary school in India. English is one of the two official languages of the subcontinent and within a year of Kindergarten, I had successfully mastered A to Z!

The second language I learnt to read and write was again not the one I had inherited from my parents but Hindi, the second official language of India. This one came to me as a result of my father’s decision of making me capable of earning my own bread and butter, had I to travel to one of the Northern provinces close to home. And it proved to be quite a pleasant departure from the regular heavy handed subjects. Soon I pursued 3 other languages of the same family- Bengali (my mother tongue), Punjabi and Urdu.

At this time I speak all the four languages mentioned above & have a decent understanding of Bhojpuri, a language spoken in the neighbourhood of my province in India.

Four years ago I immigrated to Canada. My admiration for the study of languages strengthened in this amazing country renowned for its multiculturalism and open hearted acceptance of diversity. I was thrilled to find Canada had two official languages just like India.

Taking advantage of the abundance of time that I had at my disposal, I started to take French lessons. There were two things that immediately came to my attention;

1)      you need to find speakers of the language you are trying to learn, to be able to practice it with them on a daily basis

2)      you must start reading books in the language you are trying to learn to develop a workable vocabulary as quickly as possible. This will help you to form ‘broken sentences’ during your initial struggle to converse. Later you can fit these words into grammatical structures and refine your use of the language.

Another common sense fact about language also appeared vividly before me at this time. It is easy to learn languages of the same family at one time. This mainly happens because of the similarity of the grammatical structures & of words/ use of words. For example, French words like ‘boucher’, ‘descendre’ and ‘fleur’ translates into English counterparts as ‘butcher’, ‘descend’ and ‘flower’. And just by translating word for word from English to French, “maintenant je peux parler français conversationnel”. Although this is not a good long-term practice, it serves you well during your initial learning days.

The theory of association is also a very helpful tool. While learning new foreign words, just picture the word that you are trying to memorize. We all learn better when supplied with visuals; remember your A for Apple days?

With these mantras in mind, I am about to begin classes in Spanish. I have two months to visit Mexico and I better be able to do better than “Cómo estás?! :)