French Connection

Do you want to learn French? Or, you want to make friends in the name of French language? Some people just waste their time learning Greek, French etc., that can not, in anyway, enhance skills in that the world's most invaluable corpus is available in English.

Many language institutes are mushrooming all over Kathmandu city that teach you every language on earth. While I was in UAE, I learned few Arabic words just to communicate with the customers. But in Nepal, I don't see any point learning French or Japanese for that matter. No, I am not against learning any language. But what's the use if you learn a language and never use it afterwards?

I lament that hailing from Brahmin stock, Nepali is my mother tongue; I can't use it as my second language. Nepal is amazingly diverse country where hundreds of languages, a number of variants of Nepali language itself, are spoken. One fruit of democracy in Nepal is that many supressed and marginalised ethnic languages are revived or are in the process of revival. Now, we have Limbu-English Dictionary and so on.

However, unlike Limbus, Tamangs, Newars, Gurungs and Tharus, I don't have any language related with my root. Nepali, also the national language, is thrust upon me willy-nilly. Sanskrit? It's a big no. Though, there is a huge episteme in it, only a vigorous learning can result in the grasp of that ancient language. Some even declare it dead language.

A year ago, my younger brother learned Japanese in order to fly to Japan. But finally, neither he flew nor did he learn that language. I am sure he can not utter a word now. So, learn the way of the world; learn some good manners and ideas from your neighbor, your mates. This French connection obviously smells rat!