And no, I can't speak Italian, I'm just a great fan of google translator (Specially for pick-up lines!)
Just to get everyone on the same page - Sinhala is the most widely spoken language of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka is also the only country where one of the the two national languages is Sinhala. Next comes Tamil which is also (supposedly) an official language and then right beneath - English.
We are very proud to have a native language that is older than the English language (although most are oblivious to the fact that both Sinhala and Tamil are very much the offsprings of Indo-Aryan parentage). Added to this no English joke can have the same quality and humour as a Sinhala or Tamil joke!
However, it is a bit of a sad scene-cons* to realize that for some reason Sri Lankans in general are extremely lingo-insensitive! (I just invented that :p)
The bus conductor keeps screaming "KOHEDA BAHINNE??"(where do you get down in Sinhala) at the elderly Tamil speaking lady in the bus, and she in return screams "MUNNALA SANDHI" (junction in front in Tamil), creating the only bit of entertainment for the others in the bus.
Despite living in a multi ethnic, multi lingual country, 96% of Sinhalese, can't speak Tamil, 3% can manage, 0.5% are very fluent and 0.5% just know the swear words!
For those who consider Tamil as their mother tongue this is slightly different. But that's just because - they don't have a choice.
All government institutions including hospitals, the police and judiciary predominantly function in Sinhala. Wait! What? The police??
Recently, our domestic helper gets a call from her mother in Hatton* informing that for some unfathomable reason, a neighbour (male, 40 ish) who lives in the plantation area has assaulted her (female, 70 ish) over some petty issue.
This lady comes to visit her daughter regularly and stays for a few weeks at our place when she does. It was not even two weeks since she last said "baba saappa-dinga" (eat!) after I walked in home after work.
My mother promptly inscructs our maid to tell her to lodge a complaint at the police and if she is not comfortable to stay in Hatton, to come back to our place for the time being.
Then she realises...
She CAN'T lodge a complaint! This lady (unlike our maid who is duo-lingual and her 3 year old kid who is Tri-lingual!) can only speak Tamil.
What a situation to face - leaving aside the fact that she's a widow at 70+ living alone in the chilly slopes of Hatton, to be assaulted by some lunatic, but to top it all - to know that for that night - there is absolutely NOTHING that she can do to protect herself (practically, mentally, emotionally, theoretically, legally, any blooming sort of protection!!)
So I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who wanted more horror in this story - Thank the God above, she's not critically injured or worse (nothing seems to sink in these days without some horror) BUT...
Before something does happen, not just to her but for the many others as well - let's take a small reality check.
Fine! You can be proud about your mother tongue but Sinhala tongues - please exercise it in order to be fluent in Tamil. Tamil tongues - please do the same to be able to communicate in Sinhala.
Firstly, do what you can to always insist that whatever official document in Sinhala should always be supplemented with Tamil and vice versa.
no, before that... GET THE POLICE TO FUNCTION IN BOTH LANGUAGES!
Try and make an effort wherever possible to conduct any official function/event in both languages.
Next,
For anyone reading this blog the next statement maybe irrelevant
but if you think hard enough we all know atleast a few of those "language fanatics" - (Grandparents, aunts, uncles or even friends? Ya? Ahhh..)
So lastly encourage them to to keep pride aside - leave both these "lingua pura" (pure language) for the "lingua Franca" - Engleesh! :)
A recently circulated traffic survey - lingua pura
*scene-cons - read my previous post for meaning
*hatton - a town located in the central hills of Sri Lanka