Having just given a 30 minute presentation in Nepali to 200 teachers and headteachers at a conference here in Kathmandu,I have been reflecting on language learning.
When we first lived in Pokhara, when the children were small, it was a real struggle for me to to focus on studying Nepali when the children were settling in. Roger was way ahead of me but I persevered and after 3 years was reasonably proficient. Neplali is phonetic so once you know the devanagri script it is clear how to pronounce It. Unfortunately, some if the sounds are very
unfamiliar especially the inherent vowel sounds and the aspirated and non-aspirated constanents. Even now I sometimes use signs to make sure that I am being understood when 2 words sound so similar but have very different meanings. Also the verbs are all conjugated on different levels depending on whether you are speaking to a respected person, a lower person/child or an animal. In a typical household , the husband would be addressed in a higher form than the wife- needless to say, in our office everyone is high form! I only use the mid form when I am speaking to children.
Anyway, after many years of speaking only English the amazing thing was that when I started language classes again in 2016 on arrival here, words I did not even remember learning popped up in my head. The brain is amazing when a language you learnt years ago can be retained and re-emerge once you start using that language again.
I wish I was as skilled as my Nepali colleagues in the office who effortlessly switch from typing English, to typing devanagri and are fluently bilingual and in most cases trilingual . For example, the Newaris are the dominant tribal group here and their language, Newari , is the first language of our neighnbours and several work colleagues.
The language to use is often triggered by the face of the audience and so it sometimes hard to speak English with a Nepali collaeague even if their English is better than my Nepali!
Usually if I am givein a presentation I will use English powerpoint slides, lots of pictures and speak in nepali. What I find really hard is switching from one ot the other during a presentation, as if my brain is switched on to nepali and it is an effort to switch back. Also I have concentrated on the vocabulary I need for work so I would find it much more difficult to speak about a completely new subject without detailed preparation.
One thing I do find is that using another language is very tiring , especially at my age. If I get really tired I zone out and cannot speak well anymore but everyone here is very understanding.
In the rural areas Nepali is the common language but in the cities many young professional people whose parents could afford it went to English medium schools and so have very good English. In fact many people visit or work in Kathmandu with no Nepali at all which is fine unless you want to communicate with poorer, less well educated people and then , of course , you need to be able to speak their language. I am very grateful for the excellent 1:1 language classes provided by our office so I can always access help when preparing a presentation or training to make sure my meaning is clear and I am using the correct forms of address.
