Power in the Word

Happy Independence Day to the U.S.A.!

I was thinking about my own country that I am currently far from, and the culture of freedom. Though it’s time that will tell what direction we’ll take this concept of freedom, the men and women who traveled from afar to settle in America were often those coming in search of religious freedom, the freedom to worship their God in the way they see fit.

I was also pondering last few days this topic with regard to the Tibetans that I live with. It is this very freedom of religion that they fled to India for, and the reason their sacred leader remains here in exile, and many still in the autonomous region of Tibet risk the long and dangerous trek over the Himalayas – to preserve those things they hold most dear – their language and their religion and the freedom to both that America now enjoys and has been celebrating over the last two days.

I also spent the day writing up a reflection paper for my English teaching Internship work I’ve been doing here, and decided it was finally time to share some of the many thoughts, observations and conversations I have had on language over the last two months stay in India. The question I was reflecting on in my paper was, why it is my students want to learn English. I’ve at this point asked quite a few of my students, and other teachers, this question. Their answers have been particularly intriguing to me because I am working with an interesting population. In India there are many languages, English became prevalent in their history because of the British and has now remained an important common language tying people from differing regions and languages together. The Tibetan refugees that I work with add just one more language to the mix.

Some of them came recently from Tibet. Often these students struggle the most with English because they were not taught it or surrounded by it like those who grew up in India. They are, however, the ones with one of the stronger agendas for why they want to learn English. I’ll come to that reason later. A large majority of students I talk with want to learn or improve their English simply because it is the common language of the country they live in. They want it to be able to shop, travel and, negotiate other day-to-day endeavors with the people around them who aren’t Tibetan.

A few mentioned specifically wanting to be more respected in professional settings, such as a nurse I was tutoring. This idea helped me understand their desire to learn English – not Indian languages - in order to communicate with the Indians, because not only do the Tibetans from India speak Tibetan, they usually speak some Hindi along with Kannada (the language of the region of India I am in), or if not that another Indian language from the region they are from. Knowing multiple foreign languages is no foreign thing to them, but English in India has been used for years now in elitist settings and is, therefore, necessary when seeking out higher education or desiring to be respected in professional settings. I won’t comment on this fact much further, other than to say I understand their position in wanting and maybe needing English to help their situation, and therefore respect the Tibetans even more for maintaining such a strong connection to their mother tongue and holding it in such high esteem.   

I had a conversation with a young teacher where I am staying who told me a common proverb he grew up hearing. He said that the body is the native language, for him Tibetan, and every other language you learn is a beautiful jewel that you wear on a necklace. The problem is that the beautiful jewels are worth nothing if the body is not preserved so as to wear the necklace. I valued this idea because language learning is important to me.

 I see many benefits in the process of learning a language and in being able to communicate, but I value above that the importance of first language. A quote I read from a Tibetan scholar and leader demonstrates the Tibetans view on this further – “Some people treat language as a tool to use. When the environment to use it in is small then they think it is not a necessity to learn it. They don’t recognize that language is the spirit of a nationality and they don’t know the importance of preserving it.” – Alak Thurshu Rinpoche

Language is a tool, I would argue that most of the time second, and third languages etc. are used mainly as a tool, but the first language maintains a different depth of processing the world, understanding yourself and the world and is even the base in which to learn other languages. The really interesting response I’ve had from many, especially those recently in Tibet – as I mentioned I would get to in the beginning of this post - is that they want to learn English to promote the cause of Tibet to the world. Tibetan is their soul. English is an important tool in preserving that soul. After hearing this response the first time it took me off guard, but then I started seeing it more and more. I read the school newspaper one day and found a series of articles to the students regarding seeking freedom for Tibet. His Holiness the Dalai Lama encouraged the children to, “Equip themselves with education and knowledge, and prepare themselves for the battle for freedom.” Another lecturer came and reminded the children that, “The pen is always mightier than the sword.” 

Talking about the pen (or words), being mightier than the sword, and the need for education in order to fight their battle for freedom, brings me back to the U.S. and the recent freedom of religion, among other things, being celebrated. For a former Buddhist monk the freedom to learn Tibetan and practice Buddhism are intimately connected. He explained to me that the Tibetan language was created for Buddhism. He is sincerely afraid that with many Tibetans in exile throughout the world, and even those in Tibet needing to fight to maintain their education in their first language, that Buddhism is what is at risk. 

The monks study philosophy and debate their studies as a means of coming to truth. Through the process of memorization of text, processing, and then analyzing and debating and reanalyzing they are able to fully learn the concepts of Buddhism and great truths. He often found himself unable to fully explain to his liking concepts of Buddhist philosophy because the Tibetan word was what was needed to understand it, an understanding of Tibetan was, for him, an understanding of Buddhism. Therefore, preserving Tibetan is a means of preserving freedom to study and worship in their religion.

A teacher I talked with at the school told me stories of children currently studying at their school who traveled alone with siblings or cousins, leaving parents in Tibet, in order to study at a Tibetan school, in the Tibetan language. 

She told me that the school has been going through the rigorous process of translating text books and curriculum all into Tibetan. They have through grade five completed and besides their hour of English class all subjects are taught in the mother tongue. She told me of a few students who learned some Chinese while still in Tibet that are continuing the study and teaching others.

The children had a drawing contest. They put the winners up on a common area for all to see and one stood out to me in particular. As I was examining this photo a child walked by and I said, “What is this?” They replied to me simply, “China.” 

 

They want to learn Chinese so they can know what the Chinese are saying about them, and like with the learning of English use these languages to preserve their Tibetan -their body and spirit- and subsequently their Buddhism and ultimately their freedom; using words to save their words and what I'm coming to understand in a new way is that somewhere within all our words and all our languages is a piece of who we are that we must fight for, that must be saved, that needs to be free.