A B C D Returns

Today I had a very peculiar but interesting feeling. I found myself seated in a classroom and a teacher standing before me writing down A..B..C..D.. on a writing board. I got enrolled myself in a foreign language course at Vivekananda Institute of Languages, Ramakrishna Math. The language of my choice is German (Deutsch to be more correct). I do not remember the day when I learnt A B C D in English though I remember the alphabets as such :) . So I thought I should not forget this day when I learnt A B C D of German, hence this post.

So why a foreign language now?? Well, I was brought up in an environment where my parents and teachers never failed to advice me, ' listen kid, mathematics and science are very important.. you better concentrate on that'. Because anything lesser than an Engineering or Medical college admission was not considered decent and acceptable. Arts and Humanities are pariahs in the world of kids and parents of my time (that is a decade back). Languages and literatures were made into untouchables. I think the status is still intact. True to my time I promptly handed out step-motherly treatment to English, Geography, History and a host of not so 'important' papers through out my school days.

Condition worsened further when I joined the Engineering college. There was absolutely no incentive for a student there to read any literary work, leave alone studying it. Though most of the students wanted to hone their spoken English skills not many really wanted to draw inspiration from the language. But much after my graduation I came to realize that a language and the literature where the language lives are some of the best forms of education one can ever aspire for. Technical education like what I had in Engineering college or MBA college can help me set up good career, but to acquire that man-making value-based education the precondition is one reads a language and its literature. Well when I say literature I do not mean only those fantastic poetry and prose but the history and philosophy which are integral parts of any literary work.

Since then I started to secretly harbour a desire to learn a language and its literature. So that was one of the strong motivators for this decision. Now comes the question why a foreign language, but why not an Indian language may be Sanskrit or Tamil. It is here the compulsions of real life come into picture. We live a globalised world. It is not enough for us to be citizens of India. It is time for us to take wings and become global citizens and in the process give wings to our nation. So in my opinion it is essential for me to know at the least  a continental tongue and a oriental tongue. May be I will not be satisfied if I am able to transact business in those foreign languages. I honestly want to go further and delve a bit into the literature, history and philosophy of the language.

An example of Gestalt Therapy

So then comes the question why German. In my opinion language and thought process are two sides of the same coin. Language has the ability to influence the thought process and thought process really influences the evolution of a language. It is a virtuous cycle where one reinforces other. German is one such language which is rich enough to influence the thought process. Some time back when I was a student of Psychology, my professor introduced something called Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt is a German word which has no equivalent English translation but roughly could mean the big picture or wholeness. When English does not have such a term the speakers of English also lose all the thought-process that the term could have kick-started. Naturally the Gestalt theory of mind is a part of Berlin school of Psychology. May be this is one of the reasons why I sided with German.

Söhne von Deutschland

There are many people whom I think have made greatest impact on this world. Karl Marx, Max Mueller, Adolf Hitler, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein are some of most illustrious sons of Deutschland in my list of impact-makers. I am pretty sure that Deutsch had a lot of impact on these people's thought-processes. Whether their thoughts helped the language to evolve is something that I should research as I go along. If I get a fraction of inspiration these people derived from the language then I should count myself very very lucky. Worst case scenario is that I will at the least learn to pronounce the names of my German heroes in the right way.