muskanshrestha
Nov 5, 2017
Undergraduate / My gap year has been crucial to a deeper understanding of my country and its culture [3]
Any suggestions are welcome :)
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
My visits to my grandmother during the summers consisted mainly of me sitting on a hard wooden bench as she would chatter away excitedly in Newari, our ethnic language. For an hour or two, I would sit there, smile, and nod along, unable to comprehend most of what she was saying, because despite belonging to the Newar ethnic group, I did not speak our language.
I spoke Nepali at home, English, and Hindi at school, and I even started to learn Spanish at some point. I was adept at swiftly moving between these languages, navigating multiple cultures and gaining access to the worlds that each of the languages opened up. I was able to engage with meanings that transcend simple definitions and play with the subtleties that only come with intimately knowing a language--from reading books to bargaining at the local market to sharing jokes with friends.
Most of the elders in my family spoke Newari, including my parents, but despite hearing it all around me, for some reason, it was a language I never learned. During the summer of my gap year, I began to feel curious about why this was the case. It seemed to me that for the younger generations, Newari as a medium of communication was becoming increasingly rare. I quickly learned that parents are hesitant to teach their children Newari because they do not think it will prove to be useful in the long run--few communities speak Newari in a small geographic area--and because of globalization, parents would rather teach kids English as that would give greater access to education and employment prospects. Parents also do not want their children to develop a Newari accent. Knowing this, it did not come as a surprise to me that Newari has been labeled an endangered language by UNESCO.
Like many others, I had hoped to gain new experiences by traveling or volunteering during my gap year, but I came to realize that I did not have to go far to find this -- the opportunity to learn Newari was right at home.
However, this was not as straightforward as it first appeared. The main challenge with learning Newari was that I did not have a formal teacher, nor someone to break down the grammatical structure of the language. The Newari script has become almost obsolete, and there are very few people left who can read and write in it. Given that Newari is for the most part an oral language, its phonetics cannot be expressed accurately by any other script. To learn, I was solely dependent on listening in on conversations between family members and a few online resources. I had to listen attentively and observe more carefully than in any other language. Slowly, I started to gain familiarity with the sounds, and the sounds themselves started to gain meaning. I realized that this process was not only opening me up to a new language but a completely new form of learning as well.
Cultures and traditions are established over time, and so are languages. When a language dies, so does the importance and meaning of the traditions and works of art and literature. Moving away from indigenous languages and traditions in order to assimilate with the dominant culture leads to cultural loss and dilution. The Newars may be a minority, but our culture is rich. I no longer want to be an exemplification of why my language is endangered.
My gap year has been crucial to a deeper understanding of my country and its culture. I have spent these months traveling to different parts of Nepal, visiting historical sites, and trying to immerse myself in Newar culture. While I am not yet fluent in Newari, I can now proudly say that I can follow most of my conversations with my grandmother!
Any suggestions are welcome :)
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
A Language Barrier
My visits to my grandmother during the summers consisted mainly of me sitting on a hard wooden bench as she would chatter away excitedly in Newari, our ethnic language. For an hour or two, I would sit there, smile, and nod along, unable to comprehend most of what she was saying, because despite belonging to the Newar ethnic group, I did not speak our language.
I spoke Nepali at home, English, and Hindi at school, and I even started to learn Spanish at some point. I was adept at swiftly moving between these languages, navigating multiple cultures and gaining access to the worlds that each of the languages opened up. I was able to engage with meanings that transcend simple definitions and play with the subtleties that only come with intimately knowing a language--from reading books to bargaining at the local market to sharing jokes with friends.
Most of the elders in my family spoke Newari, including my parents, but despite hearing it all around me, for some reason, it was a language I never learned. During the summer of my gap year, I began to feel curious about why this was the case. It seemed to me that for the younger generations, Newari as a medium of communication was becoming increasingly rare. I quickly learned that parents are hesitant to teach their children Newari because they do not think it will prove to be useful in the long run--few communities speak Newari in a small geographic area--and because of globalization, parents would rather teach kids English as that would give greater access to education and employment prospects. Parents also do not want their children to develop a Newari accent. Knowing this, it did not come as a surprise to me that Newari has been labeled an endangered language by UNESCO.
Like many others, I had hoped to gain new experiences by traveling or volunteering during my gap year, but I came to realize that I did not have to go far to find this -- the opportunity to learn Newari was right at home.
However, this was not as straightforward as it first appeared. The main challenge with learning Newari was that I did not have a formal teacher, nor someone to break down the grammatical structure of the language. The Newari script has become almost obsolete, and there are very few people left who can read and write in it. Given that Newari is for the most part an oral language, its phonetics cannot be expressed accurately by any other script. To learn, I was solely dependent on listening in on conversations between family members and a few online resources. I had to listen attentively and observe more carefully than in any other language. Slowly, I started to gain familiarity with the sounds, and the sounds themselves started to gain meaning. I realized that this process was not only opening me up to a new language but a completely new form of learning as well.
Cultures and traditions are established over time, and so are languages. When a language dies, so does the importance and meaning of the traditions and works of art and literature. Moving away from indigenous languages and traditions in order to assimilate with the dominant culture leads to cultural loss and dilution. The Newars may be a minority, but our culture is rich. I no longer want to be an exemplification of why my language is endangered.
My gap year has been crucial to a deeper understanding of my country and its culture. I have spent these months traveling to different parts of Nepal, visiting historical sites, and trying to immerse myself in Newar culture. While I am not yet fluent in Newari, I can now proudly say that I can follow most of my conversations with my grandmother!
