Episode 80 : You speak my language?

If you know Tamil, lisping it a little will sound like Malayalam.

If you know Malayalam, speaking it loudly will sound like Tamil.

When you hear Telugu, you will get the impression that people are spitting bullets, especially when spoken rapidly.

And when you hear Kannada, you will get the feeling that it is a softer version of Telugu, with the phonetic ‘a’ getting stretched once in a while.

So with these observations in mind, I commented, to an ex-colleague GINC, that I was surprised to find Kannada easy to understand. Of course, the Kannada I heard then was spoken in office. With the odd English word thrown in for good measure, it let me understand the context of the conversation.

GINC agreed instantly.

One fine day, my landlady introduced me to the person who would mop the floor and wash my clothes.

As I stood in the room and watched her mop the floor, she looked up and spoke to me.

I blinked.

I did not understand one word. Not a single English word did she use to help me understand what she was saying.

I tried Hindi. She shook her head.

I tried Tamil. She shook her head again.

Presenting Linguistic Soup, where the ingredients are the words of a language you do not know.

I finally figured out that she wanted the clothes that she should wash, along with the detergent.

It isn't easy when you do not have English to help understand a new language.

I am off to learn to speak in gestures. Reminds me of the days in school when we participated in Dumb Charades competitions...