Kannada Update

Last night I showed Satya and his parents some of the phrases from the ICC Kannada lesson.

One lesson was entitled, “Polite Phrases”, which from our perspective just teaches you how to apologize in many various situations.  The lesson has a clip art picture, the phrase written in English, phrase written in English characters, phrase written in Kannada.  The accented voice will read the phrase in English, and then read it in Kannada. 

Satya and his parents thought this was hilarious.  I asked, “Does anyone actually talk like this?”  His dad said, “Only people like you” meaning those who don’t know Kannada well.  They said the accent was all wrong and the phrases too bookish.  Satya was annoyed because the translations didn’t exactly match up. 

On the bright side, I now know how to say sorry in Kannada, “Kshamisi”.

Another error was in the Greetings section.  It had an example of someone saying “Goodmorning child” which they translated to “Namaskara _____” (forgot the word for child).  Anyway, Satya and his parents said that you never say that because it is giving too much respect to the child.  The child says Namaskara and adults say Namaskara to each other, but that is it.  What do others think about this?  Would you ever say “Namaskara” to a child?

My thinking is now that I will still use the program, but will have Satya sitting beside me to say what is right or what his family uses.  I am thinking I will also need to tape record him or his parents so I can copy  their accents.

I do think that from the program I can learn to decode signs and learn basic vocabulary.  I’d like to complete the ICC program and then complete the Mysore University online course, but know it will take a year or two and lots of discipline.