Perfect Colony – as per Macaulay’s Minute

Curse of colonialism does not lie in how many natives are killed by the colonialists. Not even in how many natives are picked up and transported as slaves to some other geography. Curse of colonialism is that the natives forget themselves after a period of time under the foreign rule. They start believing that everything foreign is good, everything own is bad. They start imitating others, try to follow other’s moral concepts, strive to implement the business rules practiced somewhere else, attempt to adopt industrial policies grown up in different environment,  shape their spirituality as directed by the colonialist master,  struggle to become someone else.

So Indians want to become as “Civilized” as British, “Strong” like Germans, “Cultured” like French, “Aggressive” like Spanish, “Innovative” like Americans, “Persistent” like Japanese, “Determined” like Chinese; not anything like Indian. “Perfection” becomes keyword of life, not self-development.

After a colony is “perfectly” colonized, natives borrow the viewpoint of people from other geographies to analyze their own history and culture. Next step is - manipulating and polishing every aspect of own cultural existence to fit other’s taste. Native language has to be polished so that it suits the standard of other’s language; cloths and looks have to be designed such a way that other people feel it comfortable, food habits need to be developed such a way that others find it healthy, literary or artistic activities are considered successful only when it receives foreign appreciation, foreign university degrees are not only needed for industrial, technological, educational or social developments, but also to determine how great native freedom fighters were. Colonies learn “inclusiveness” in a new light; it is not the concept of inclusiveness developed through thousands of years, but the way “inclusiveness” is taught by the “Gods” – all born in some other Geography. Localization becomes a tool to fit native language into foreign ideas.  

Lord Macaulay knew this long before – at least as early as in 1835. (I would love to highlight some “important points” in the famous Macaulay’s Minutes for the convenience of readers -  http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html ). 

Hence, British colonialists could ensure that after 200 years, even native Bengali popular newspaper would invite “educationists” from acclaimed foreign universities to announce how “inclusive” a patriot their own Subhash Bose was. Other Europeans, who tried to establish colonies here, probably lost the race because of lack of such a full-proof planning. The following lines of Macaulay’s minutes show us how far-reaching the colonialist vision was: “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern,  --a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”

There is a large controversy on how responsible Lord Macaulay was for the widespread popularity of Anglicism in India. He commented against the preaching of Christianity while Charles Grant, the East India Company official preached that the introduction of Western education and Christianity would be necessary to transform a morally corrupt society (Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, 1792) four decades prior to him. Secondly, it is obvious that Macaulay representing the ruling class might be only an equivalent to a strategic management person of a global enterprise of 21st century. He might have studied and influenced by Grant’s observations while writing his minutes. His vision was supported by Indian intellectuals (among them, Rammohun Roy, the social reformer of 18th century Bengal was a prominent name) of that period who found English education an opportunity to align India with the technologically advanced world. Natives in Kolkata and Madras showed enthusiastic interest in English education – establishment of Hindu college and English schools in Madras are good evidence for this. Thirdly, the introduction of English education came in a package with prohibition of widow burning (Satidaha), female infanticide, child sacrifice in Gangasagar and elimination of thugs, dacoits and pirates in different parts of the country, establishing the humanitarian nature of the colonialist rule. Especially in Bengal, common people were suffering from Siraj-ud-daulah’s ’s tyrannical rule and torture by Wargi (Maharastrian invaders) for a long time before; naturally they embraced British gun-users and their education as friendly saviors. Also true that Charles Trevelyan, appointed by the Governor-General Lord Bentinck to formalize a suitable education policy for the newly acquired colony, had prepared the ground fairly before Macaulay prepared his minutes. Cost cutting was another big headache of East India Company for which they needed to reduce the number of English expats here and replace them with natives. Once British started expanding colonies, there remained practically no option - nor for them, neither for their subjects – to stay away from the planned implementation of their ideas.

Hence, we can safely say that, when the foundation of Anglican education was already built on Indian soil, Macaulay’s Minutes appeared to be a “perfect tool” to justify the imperial colonialist standpoint. And 21^st century India shows how great a visionary he was…..

Story of a Successful Mother

Katyayani was happy – her only son set out for America. Twenty eight years ago, she was married to a university clerk, who turned out to be most unsuccessful of six siblings in the family. Even none of the Katyayani’s  eight siblings needed to spend their entire life in an one-bedroom rental apartment in the dingy lane of the city, only to settle in another one-bedroom apartment in the outskirts, purchased after retirement – always keeping a record of every single paisa spent in a day for grocery and vegetables. Yes, she had to undergo what people call poverty.

Sumit was born three years after her marriage and after another three years she started commuting to the city by the miserable public transport with her son – taking him to school. Since then, she commuted the same way for the entire 22 years – accompanying her son to schools and college everyday without fail. She is a proud mother now, who had to bear all family-members and neighbours mocking her for being over-protective since 22 years. For entire 22 years, she never left her son alone on the road; not even after he entered medical college; always encouraged him to build a bright future; never failed to request any of the teachers in school and colleges for extending their helping hand for the child. Yes, she had made the dream a reality. None would dare laughing at them anymore. She was proud.

She was sitting in the tiny balcony of their small apartment. She could not somehow manage to accompany her to son to airport today – she did not know why she felt so weak at the final moment of his departure –after the taxi arrived. She told her husband to accompany him. All the residents of the small housing society were at their windows and balconies witnessing the moment as he left for America – she is still relishing the moment, while memories of bitter moments of past flashing now and then in her mind.

Suddenly a thought came to her mind. All her neighbours did always envy her for being a different mother. She also did not bother much due to lack of time. Wasn’t it possible to make them friends? Now she has plenty of time in hand. Perhaps she could help her neighbours to realize a similar dream for their children. How wretched a life does every child in every neighbourhood–family spend! Everyone wants to be successful; commutes the same way to the nearby city to visit best educational institutes as her son did – all of them dedicated and hard working - still most of them fails to grow into one like her son. Only thing they don’t know is the correct route to realise the dream. She must tell them how to find it! She was delighted with her own thought.

She left the broken chair, not repaired for years in order to curtail all unnecessary costs of life; opened the apartment door and knocked the door of her second floor neighbour. When did she visit them last? She could not remember – it did not matter to her. She was there to help them!

Mrs. Roy appeared at the door, “what a great day! How fortunate we are to have you at our place! Please come in. Let’s have evening tea together today. Has your husband return from airport?” Mrs Roy was bubbling with wonder. “Not yet, Suman’s flight will start at ten. He will come back only after it takes off.”  - she told, while enjoying listening to every word of her own. “How does the word “flight” sound to these poor neighbours?” - She was thinking; she was sure none of them had ever got a chance to fly in life. She would be really happy to help them. She sat on the mat spread over the small sitting space in her neighbour’s place, took the cup of tea Mrs. Roy offered and then stated slowly- “Where is Purnima? What is she doing these days? I did not see her since ages!”. “She is going to college and studying Botany”, mumbled Mrs. Roy out of little lowness. “How wretched a struggle kids have to do these days” – she became audible as she started explaining her child’s miseries on her way to college, but still looking depressed. “Why don’t you send her to America for higher studies? See I am telling you how to. Go to her college and talk to the professors. They will help her to take a GATE test, which is must for visiting educational institutes there. Then there is a library called USIS. You can take her there for further consultation – they are so helpful, always help students to study in America. Only thing Purnima has to do is study harder and you need to arrange some money.” She finished in a single breath. Mrs. Roy was listening to her sitting motionless as she was sinking into the dream “is it at all possible for us?” She called her husband as Katyayani paused for a moment –“listen what didi is telling, even we can send Purnima to America”. Mr. Roy, a thin middle aged fellow arrived in the sitting room, visibly disturbed by her wife’s hasty call which forced him to leave the day’s newspaper. Katyayani started it all over again, only to be interrupted in the middle, “do you think my only daughter should leave home for America to accompany your ladylike son? No way! Listen, we are simple middle-class people, want to be where we are - neither going to give our daughter to a university clerk of humble means, nor to an NRI doctor”. Katyayani became pale for a moment. How dare this dyspeptic fellow talk to her like this? Or how come he imagines this much – the ugly dark girl like Purnima for her fair and accomplished son? Shame that she wanted to help them! She did not want to spend a single moment more there. She bid hasty bye to an embarrassed Mrs. Roy before leaving. The door closed behind with a bang. 

Katyayani was in sheer confusion. What she would do now? She had enough time in hand to do something good to neighbours. “Well, why not try with the Basu’s in the 3^rd floor?” she thought as she knew that they have a son studying in a Kolkata college. After all, she would not need to face an arrogant father of an ugly daughter, ufff! She made a move to the 3^rd floor. “O dear, how fortunate I am today! Come didi, take a seat, let’s chat for sometime today – I know now you have time” –Mrs Basu seemed to be really by her friendly tone. Katyayani entered and placed herself on the corner of the divan, on the other side of which books were piled up – usual scene in such kind of home with a child studying in college.  “So, the boy is studying chemistry” – she was observing as Mrs. Basu has already slipped into kitchen to get water for the guest. “Then the boy has a good scope to visit America” – she murmured.  She finished the glass of water, then gave herself some time before coming to the topic – “what is your son doing now?” Mrs. Basu sounded normal: “well, going to college and coming back everyday, don’t know how much he is studying; or why to bother so much. He is grown up now” – little worry was not hidden in the mother’s voice either. “Then why don’t you send your son to America?” Katyani modified her speech this time – “See, America is good for these children, they can study and work there, which will make the study more interesting” and then started explaining how to make an arrangement for sending the son to America. Mrs. Basu listened for sometime and then unexpectedly interrupted her, “But didi, he is my only son, how shall I send my only son so far from home? I cannot even think of that. No, I would not let him even if he wants. What a misery it is for our kind of parents whose son stay so far from home, only to visit home once in 5 years. They cannot even come back to perform the last rites of parents, I have seen this with my little maternal cousin.” She was almost into tears “I don’t know how you send Sumit so far such way – you must be a mother with iron heart. Don’t you feel miserable today? Katyayani was speechless in front of her talkative neighbour; she could not stand it any more and finished telling – “well, think over it, may be we will talk later. I have to make a move now.” She came back to her apartment. It is already dark outside, she switched on the light, and the room suddenly seemed too vacant and discoloured.  They could neither paint it since they have purchased it, not could manage to buy any suitable furnishing; they saved every possible paisa to buy her son’s ticket to America. She suddenly felt a creepy emptiness - Will she be able to see her son again before her death? Will he be able to come back if she dies tomorrow? How crooked Mrs. Basu is to tell such horrible stories in the happiest day of her life? She must be too envious – envious like a witch! She was into tears now – may all the Gods should protect her son abroad and send him back whenever she want to see him.

Katyayani’s husband came back home in the middle of the night to find his wife speechless – she avoided to talk to him for next couple of days. She came back to normalcy after she received the first call from her son from abroad - He would have to work hard for the next few years but he already met many students from other countries like him in the university – they made good group of friends. Katyayani was happy again – she would soon try harder to convince her neighbours about sending their children to America. Such a wonderful country it is!

Five years passed. Katyayani does not visit neighbours anymore and spends most of her time in the balcony – all boneheads, none ready to listen to her; some even started mocking at her these days, asking when is Sumit coming to visit them. Sumit could not visit in the meantime due to work pressure, she knows – anyway he gives a call regularly, it was every week in the beginning, now it is once a month. She does not mind – as long as her only son is happy in the wonderland. He is happy and successful she knows – so she too. Why should she bother about some dumb neighbours? Only thing she cannot still resist is calling neighbours who pass by her balcony. “Hello Mr. Choudhury, listen – what is your son doing these days? Why don’t you send him to America? It is such nice country…………..”

Rivers in Ancient India

Indian civilization, like all the others ancient civilizations, was developed on river banks. All ancient civilizations were dependent on a mighty river—Egyptians on Nile, Mesopotamians on Tigris–Euphrates or Chinese on Yellow river. Difference in case of ancient India is, be the inhabitants Indo-Aryans or whatever, that they mentioned many rivers in their earliest literature, instead of only Sindhu, from which the civilization is believed to have derived its name.

Determining the antiquity of the Vedas is a near-to-impossible task. Most of researchers quote the famous Nadistuti to be an evidence of ancient civilization’s acquaintance with many rivers. But Nadistuti is part of 10th Mandala which is probably the latest composition of the Rigveda, which was transmitted verbally for generations before it was finally written. Nothing to worry! Even if 10th Mandala was composed between 4th-6th centuries AD, we have reference of rivers Sarasvati (6.61.1 to 6.61.14), Hariupriya (6.27.5) and Yavyavati (6.27.6) and Ganga (6.45.31) in 6th Mandala which is one of the earliest compositions of Vedic literature.

6.27.05    

vádhīd índro varáśikhasya śéṣo
'bhyāvartíne cāyamānā^́ya śíkṣan
vr̥cī^́vato yád dhariyūpī^́yāyāṃ
hán pū^́rve árdhe bhiyásā^́paro dárt

6.27.06a    

triṃśácchataṃ varmíṇa indra sākáṃ

yavyā^́vatyām puruhūta śravasyā^́
vr̥cī^́vantaḥ śárave pátyamānāḥ
pā^́trā bhindānā^́ niarthā^́ni āyan

(Griffith’s translation:

5 In aid of Abhyavartin Cayamana, Indra destroyed the seed of Varasikha.
At Hariyupiya he smote the vanguard of the Vrcivans, and the rear fled frighted.

6 Three thousand, mailed, in quest of fame, together, on the Yavyavati, O much-sought Indra,
Vrcivan's sons, falling before the arrow, like bursting vessels went to their destruction. )

6.45.31     

ádhi br̥búḥ paṇīnã^́ṃ
várṣiṣṭhe mūrdhán asthãt
urúḥ kákṣo ná gāṅgiyáḥ

Griffith: Brbu hath set himself above the Panis, o'er their highest head, Like the wide bush on Ganga's bank)

Puranas, which are obviously later compositions have reference to many rivers. “Nayadivarnana” (description of rivers) in Markandeyapurana names ninety important rivers and also mentions the existence of many tributaries and streamlets. At the same time we find a remarkable verse in the same Purana:

“Sarvā^́ḥ punyā^́ḥ Sarasvatyaḥ, sarvā^́ḥ Gangā^́ḥ Samudragā^́ḥ…..” which means: All sacred rivers are Saraswati and all streams flowing to the sea are Ganges. All are the mothers of this earth, all save human beings from sins.

Doesn’t this make the recent claim of discovery of the river Saraswati a little dubious? Which Sarasvati is it, even if one track is rediscovered? In fact, Pehoa inscription of king Bhoja 1 (Pratihara Dynasty, 862 AD) speaks of a “Prā^́chi Sarasvati” (eastern Sarasvati) that flows past Pehoa – indicating the existence of another western Sarasvati. The Sā^́rasvatapā^́khyana in Mahabharatam Salyaparva speaks of  “Sapta Sarasvtyaḥ” Seven Sarasvati s – Suprabha in Ajmer,

Kā^́nchnā^́kshi in North West of Lucknow, Visā^́lā^́ in Gaya, Manoramā^́ in Ayodhya, Oghā^́vati in Kurukshetra, Surenu in Hardwar and Vimalodā^́ on somewhere in the Himalayas. Brihaddharma Purana speaks of one Sarasvati in Triveni near Allahabad whereas we know of another Sarasvati (now extinct) in West Bengal– which was probably a tributary of River Bhā^́girathi (Ganges). Well, in Mahabharatam and Vā^́mana Purana, we get reference to at least another Sarasvati even in Somanatha region of Kathiawad district whereas SkandaPurana refers to another in Cutch region.

Reference to so many rivers does not mean Rigveda forgot Sindhu. It clearly differentiates between Sindhu from Sarasvati in 8^th and 10^th Mandala and also names other rivers like Sarayu (either one in Herat, Afganistan or in Oudh, Uttarpradesh which is described as a sacred river in Ramayana as well). 3^rd and 10^th Mandala also names Drishadvati and Apayā^́ – two other rivers in northern India, indicating that ancient Indians did not name all their known rivers as Sarasvati.

I wanted to avoid discussing Nadistuti-hymn while that is widely discussed by scholars and many translated versions of that are already available. Let’s look at how rivers became the “mothers of this earth”.

Naimishā́ranya is the most sacred forest according to Purā́nic legends. This is where the epics Rā́mā́yana and Mahā́bhā́rata were revealed to the wisest of the wise and the great Purā́nas were created by the saints; and this forest was stretched along the banks of Gomati. The forest of Kā́mayaka, which became the shelter of the Pandavas during their exile, was situated at the banks of Saraswati. Panchavati, the famous forest of Ramayana which gave shelter to Rā́ma, Laksmana and Sitā́  was on the bank of Godavari. The sage Mā́tanga of the Purā́nas resides close to the river Pampa whereas the sage Kanva’s hermitage in Kā́lidā́sa’s Abhigyā́nSakuntalam was beside the river Mā́lini. Yamunā́ is the river associated to Lord Krishna and Lord Buddha goes to river Niranjanā́ before he attains enlightenment.

Obviously rivers were valued only due to their spiritual association; these mostly defined the boundaries of the kingdom and sometimes became the distinctive feature for most significant battlefields in Indian history. One of the many Saraswatis flowed past the Kurukshetra, the battlefield for the Kauravas and Pā́ndavas in the great epic. The bank of this Saraswati (Ghaggar?) was the place where the kingdom of Thā́neswara was developed (6th century AD). The great Ashoka is believed to have made the Daya-nadi of Kalinga red with bloodshed during his fiercely successful Kalinga war probably in 260 BC. The river Lauhitya (Brahmaputra) marks the border of the kingdom of Kamrupa while the river Narmada defines the limit of northern and southern part of India. This became the witness of the battle between king Harshavardhana and PulkeshiII same way the Vitastā́\ Jheelam\ Hydaspes became witness of the war between Alexander and Puru, being the divider between kingdom of Taxila and Paurava (Poros)*. The kingdom of Gā́ndhā́ra at the same age was located between the rivers Chenab and Ravi. The land of Asvaka (Aspasian) was related to Kunā́r, a tributary of river Kabul while Saubhuti (Sophytes) was again, on the bank of Jheelam. In fact, not only Vedic or Purā́nic references, even the accounts of historians who came with the great Alexander (326 BC), or visited Mourya, Kushā́n, and Gupta courts prove, that all the kingdoms in ancient India were grown either in river valleys or on the banks of some or other tributaries. Kautilya’s Arthashastra (4th century BC?) recommends establishing fortified capitals at the confluence of rivers or bank of rivers or large pool of water. Reason is understandable - large tract of water helped protecting a territory from enemies as well as supplied the water necessary for the settlements. The name Gangaridae (ruled by Magadha king) used by Pliny for Bengal before 79 AD suggests that not only in western part of India, river-basin was preferred for human settlements in eastern part as well; hence, he derived the name of the territory from the most significant river of this region.

River-washed territories not only offered fertile landscapes, rivers worked as main route of transport for trading activities as well. Kautilya says in his Arthashastra that river-navigation is better as it is an uninterrupted and danger-free way of transport. Accounts of Pliny, Megasthenes, Fa-hien, Xuanzang as well as Buddhist Jatakas give vivid descriptions of trading practices in different parts of the country for which river-routes were used.

Indian terrain became such an attractive habitat because of its rivers. In other words, ancient Indian civilization is gift of the rivers of this peninsula. Hence, “mother of this earth” seems to be the most suitable term for the rivers given by the old wise.

*But in the Rigveda, Kingdom of Puru was mentioned to be situated by the river Saraswati. Is the Jheelam one of the many Saraswatis of Rigveda? Or Rigvedic Puru a kingdom different than that existed in 4th century BC?

Questions difficult to answer while we have to depend a lot on myths and legends to reconstruct ancient Indian history.

Legends\ myths are not history, though they may have some distant connection to historical events. Nevertheless, they carry a strong flavor of social and political ideology of a geographical domain. Indian history, as this evolved through thousands of years, is not documented. Storytelling as medium of communication was more practiced than keeping records in written. Secondly, the geography of this region has seen immense changes in few thousand years, making it almost impossible to detect the exact locations mentioned in different texts. Rivers, which change their courses very often, cannot be tracked after thousand years. Hence we have a unique combination of belief and myth and geological knowledge in descriptions of ancient Indian geography. Readers have own discretion in understanding the content the way they want.

“Errors” - made by the Language Professional

Today’s management trainers keep on suggesting us to concentrate only on present and stop thinking about past anymore – but its human nature to ponder over past actions, analyze the causes and effects of past events and then come to a conclusion. Forget science and technological advancement, even language skill could not be developed if we constantly deleted our past learning! Let’s analyze what we have done while analyzing errors in past.

Slip of tongue as well as typo-error was always considered very serious issue, especially in professional domain, though “making verbal mistakes”, “making mistakes on paper”, “misquoting from memory” are part of our everyday life. The term “Freudian slip” told us long back, that there are always intents hidden in these Fehlleistungen (Symptomatic actions), even if the mistake-maker is always not fully aware of this – so we cannot call “making mistakes” mere accidents. Many times, the speaker is not able to hide the fact, despite of spending lot of effort to cover up during speaking or writing. Hence, if an interpreter explains the phrase “das schwierigste Problem” to the client as “the disastrous problem” instead of “most difficult problem”, the client indeed has a reason to be worried! 

In recent time, cognitive psychologists replaced “Symptomatic actions” by “Slip of tongue”. But determining the reason behind slip of tongue remained difficult as ever. Eminent psychoanalyst Charles Brenner’s extensive clinical research shows the complexity in impact of human cognitive process on our speech. Fatigue, lack of concentration, hatred, anxiety or anger may be the reason behind a writer’s making a series of mistakes in a two-page content. Language processing in a person’s brain has lot of dependence on his life’s experiences. Understanding the nature and reason of mistakes made by a person needs an understanding of his\her personality and environment.

The receiver also has a role in determining how significant the mistake is. Example – while listening to a speaker already known to us or admired by us, we hardly pay attention to the grammatical mistakes in the speech, but concentrate more on the content. Same happens while reading a favourite author- readers rarely have trouble in assuming a misspelt word correctly. Psycholinguist Helen Leuninger tells us, that we make one slip of tongue per thousand words on average – leads to the assumption that in normal course of speaking, we make one mistake in every ten minutes. And the listeners are quite apt in correcting them automatically while processing the received words. We are lucky!

But a language professional, be him\her an interpreter, translator or copywriter, rarely enjoys the luxury of working in\ for a comfort zone – an environment which would not be affected by a slip of tongue or misspelling. Especially when written, blunder can rarely be corrected.

Hence, analyzing situations, who leads to scope of misspelling or slip of tongue becomes inevitable. According to scientific observations, we do not have a chance to avoid mistakes in verbal language usage. In fact, taking special care of mistakes and paying more attention may lead to more frequent mistakes. Translators and copywriters are luckier that writing is mostly not delivering extempore and they have more time to correct. But remember your reviewer – who apparently tried very hard to see your work completely free of errors, actually converting you a paranoid worker making more and more silly mistakes every day? Do not worry much – some seniors point out your mistakes only to threat you but not to help.

How analyzing errors help a language professional then? Analysis shows us that:

It is good to develop a reading habit. This eventually enhances our language skill as well as makes us mostly aware of what we are talking about.

Being too critical about past errors and vowing not to do it again worsens the situation. Simply trying to keep us healthy, having good food, good sleep and being in good mood makes our brain synchronize better and faster.

In general, talking to people as well as following other people talking is good for language professionals as it boosts our understanding of language usage.

When working with written content, review your work before submission, but take a time-gap between writing and reviewing. Reviewing immediately after writing may not help much in making the content better.

Avoiding \ignoring judgmental people in work atmosphere is necessary. As professionals, all of us are aware of own responsibility to improve. Let’s try to understand whether the other person giving valuable opinions about your work is trying to be friendly or just demotivating. In other words, being open to good suggestions helps but not to judgement.

Trying to avoid irritating people and situations is a must for lesser mistakes in language usage.

Continuous improvement is not really an overnight process for a language professional. Let’s not try to change ourselves instantly but be ready to accept changes in life we face. Even linguistic expressions of any particular geographical boundary or of a community change with time. Let’s keep ourselves updated – but not try to reach at the peak of improvement tomorrow morning!

Cheers! Always remember the famous George W. Bush quote: “They misunderestimated me.”  We all love our work. We will never be “free of mistakes” but undoubtedly produce a better piece of work next time.

To Learn and to Remember – Some Tips for Language Learners

Most of us, including avid readers, often have an embarrassing experience of being sure of having gone through a book, but not remembering a single line from it. For a language learner, a translator or an interpreter, the problem with memorising may turn fatal sometimes. Shall we hold our individual brains responsible for this kind of “Forgetfulness”?

Or does our brain work like a sieve?

The “Forgetting curve” (Vergessenskurve) by the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus shows the levels of forgetfulness within a certain period of time.

Remarkable is, while some of the information, that we feel, smell, hear, see or taste go missing while many of them exist forever. So, there lies a scope of information selection – some invisible “sieve” that filters the information and ensures which one should go away, which one should be saved for some time and which one forever.

Further observation shows us that:

We remember an idea easier and longer after learning when a similar concept is already known to us. (Learning a language which has structural similarity or vocabulary common to a known language is easier than picking up a completely unknown one).

Similarly, learning a word and remembering it is easier when we can associate the new word\idea learnt with a picture we have seen before, a smell known to us or a sound known to us. (Learning language is more effective with audio-visual help or through interactive method than only with books).

Inference here is, more sensory associations a newly acquired information has, more likely it is to stay longer in our memory.

So, based on our observation, if we are keen to evade the “Forgetting curve”, we find some tips and tricks for everyday practice, which helps in the long run.  In fact, 15% sounds obviously very little, if we consider the time we take to complete reading a piece and the magnitude of our post-reading reflections. But we can challenge the curve here and make a change in our everyday life as well as learning behaviour by doing so.

How to do this?

Five tricks to avoid forgetting or crossing the limit of 15 %

1) Framing questions after reading\learning

Soliloquising by framing questions and giving answer helps a lot. Explain yourself what you have learnt, e.g. when you are travelling by train or waiting in doctor’s chamber. More we repeat what we have learnt, better it is preserved in brain.

2) Paying attention to small things around us

Many of us face another extremely embarrassing situation very often - we meet an old acquaintance whose name is not in our memory anymore. This should not happen if we are little attentive also to the relatively unimportant things. Practicing memorising the names of all our colleagues is a good memory training game. Let’s remember our colleague‘s names and save some from that 15%.

3) Repeating the lesson learnt

One cannot learn and remember forever by reading it once. “Repeat” is the magic spell for which we have to allocate some time in our daily learning plan.  More often we repeat the lesson we have learnt, better we can retain it in our memory.

4) Knowledge sharing

Sharing not only ensures disseminating the knowledge but also memorising that. This can be done following the method of giving a lesson or just by explaining the learnt lesson to a friend who perhaps could not understand the topic so well. Especially learning a natural language is not at all possible without sharing. Helping others is another name of self-help!

5) Visualising the lesson learnt

Illustrations added to reading materials helps in visualising the material which in turn is retained in memory through a mind map. Another option is to write down the main points once the reading is over.

6) Last but not the least, Trying to establish as many associations as possible with the newly learnt topic\concept helps in retaining it longer. In general we learn only 10% of what we read, 20% of that what we listen, 30% of visual experience, 70% of what we tell and 90% of what we do. Hence, language learners study materials have to include audio-visual media, ample scope of discussion and practical usage along with books and notepads.

Let’s consider if the problem lie somewhere else.

Many times the issue does not exist with the learning method, but with the learner himself\herself. Perhaps the student is a forgetful person – or always absent minded?

We may have different reasons behind: many of us have to take care of various things in our professional as well as personal life. This is reason the adult learner is slower than his young classmate in picking up a new language. Especially when we start with a foreign language as an adult learner, the learning practice has to go on without disturbing the other activities. Hence, we are in greater risk of forgetting things and schedules in this case. But how to train the brain against forgetfulness?

The following tips may help:

Opting for the most suitable learning method

There are different learning methods for different category of learners, but the adult learner himself is the best person to opt for the one most suitable for him. Some can remember better by listening whereas some need to read it all to understand. First determine whether you are an auditory, visual or tactile learner. But as we have already discussed, the more sensory organs one can associate with the learning, more is the scope of retaining it.

Taking notes

Note down immediately after reading, what you have to memorise essentially.  One can use post-it, a set of flash cards or even a mobile phone for this. Sometimes colour coding important lines may help, but there is a chance of overlooking the rest of the reading material in that case. Ensure that the notes are well visible. Closing the device after taking the note is not of any help!

Making a To-do-List

Working with a to-do-list is a good old idea. We do organise our day better making a daily or weekly to-do-list and following it. Our language learning schedule has to be organised the same way.

Keeping useful items at hand

Are you an adult language learner trying very hard to learn the names of vegetables in German? Keep a few of them every day on your table, try to memorise their names every time you see them.

There is a famous Confucius quote on method of learning: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” Exercise helps the most. For a natural language practitioner, being in constant touch with the language is of highest importance in order to cross the forgetting curve.