“The
limits of my language are the limits of my world.”- Ludwig Wittgenstein
I had heard this quote as a child but not for once did I
imagine that a language would be a stumbling block between my dreams, my life,
my world and me. Having grown up in the city of Mumbai – a melting pot of cultures,
a city of dreams, home to a million people from all over the country, I learnt
to speak six languages by the age of six. I was always intrigued by the Asian
languages like Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, Malay and Thai.
As luck would have it, life presented me with an
opportunity to move to China. A week into the country of the Mao Dynasty, the
Great Wall of China, The Terracotta warriors, I was completely taken aback by
my lack of survival skills in a metro like Shanghai. Buying grocery, commuting,
running errands became a nightmare as I did not know the local language – Mandarin.
English sounded like
Latin and Greek to the Chinese. They would just laugh and shoo me away
saying”meiyou English”- “No English”. I did not have any friends, neighbors
whom I could talk to. Being a vegetarian was another issue that bothered me
initially as sourcing Indian grocery was a herculean task. My only respite came
in the form of Indian restaurants and some helpful restaurant owners who shared
details of their grocery vendors.
Where am I? Why me? What do I do? Those were the thoughts
that ran through my head. I detested the place. A place that I was looking
forward to live in, became my hell. I wanted to head back home.
But the fighter in me refused to give up so easily. I
realized the only things that
life denies you are the things that you are willing to let pass by. Fight for
the things you love, and love the things that are worth fighting for. I
started taking the map of Shanghai and travelling across the city on my own. I
got lost a couple of times, only to find paths untraveled
At last, I enrolled myself at the University to learn and
conquer the language. A couple of my initial classes witnessed a silenced
version of me as I could not comprehend a word of what was happening in the class.
But gradually I started understanding the nuances of the language and also
understood my own first language better. As the saying goes “Those who know nothing of foreign
languages know nothing of their own”. Learning Mandarin made me
relearn my own first language.
Just the fact that I was able to comprehend a few words in
bits and pieces, in a conversation made me feel a lot at home. The place no
longer felt like a god forsaken place. I was also able to communicate with my neighbors,
made a couple of friends. I made it a point to speak to each and every cab
driver I could possibly communicate to. They loved our Bollywood movies for its
song and dance. “Abara boo”- their rendition of the Nargis Dutt –Raj Kapoor
Bollywood song “awara hoon”was an all-time favourite of the locals. Shopkeepers
did laugh at my amateur skills at the language but I took it as a compliment
every time they corrected me.I felt I was on the right track.
I had broken my ice with the country and the language was
my gateway to the beautiful country of China. I felt like a child who had just
learnt to walk. The freedom that came with knowing the language was like giving
a poor man a blank cheque. One
language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along
the way.❞‒Frank
Smith. So apt!! Life opened so many doors.
My experience not only taught me to survive any situation
it also made me realize my true potential. I am also able to understand the
agony of any second language learner. I fell in love with language learning and
that motivated me to become a second language teacher. Now, I am looking
forward to many more such exciting experiences that life has to offer.
