www.fridayweekly.com.np SUBSCRIBER COPY ISSUE 29 | RS. 20 August 12-18, 2010 | >fj0f @&–ef› @, @)^& Not getting your Fr!day on Thursday? Beg, borrow, steal, or just... CALL ������AND MORE 9801041213 ���������������������������������� EVENTS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY | EVERY THURSDAY 3 5 12 14 177 19 PAGE3 FEATURE HALFWAY PEOPLE TIME OFF CONSUME Just Asking Not to Visit Nepal Pretty Gardens Deep Shrestha Vesper Elegant Attires Fr!day asked a few people of Binod Bhattarai delves into What makes a beautiful He is no stranger to the Our undercover agent is We head to Nilima’s who they would want to bring the unpreparedness of the garden? Read on to know Nepali music scene and back again with his spoon Boutique to find out why back from the past. We got Nepali government in regards more and make your home Fr!day walks down memory and fork to dissect all it might be a woman’s one- some interesting answers. to Nepal Tourism Year 2011. a sanctuary. lane with him. about the Vesper Cafe. stop shopping destination. In search of a language Why speaking one language is just not enough — Sabrina Singh Which language has not been the oppressor’s tongue? Which language truly meant to murder someone? And how does it happen that after the torture, after the soul has been cropped with a long scythe swooping out Pilgrims Book House Books Courtesy: of the conqueror’s face - the unborn grandchildren grow to love that strange language. - Sujata Bhatt, “A Different History” turn to page 2 for more of it! ECS Media Sastriya Tapas at Tourism for what’s on Sankranti Rox development The sounds In the mood Catch the screen- of the tabla, to have a big ings of two docu- sitar and so meal? Head on mentatires of life much more. to Hyatt Re- in Mugu and the things to do This week let gency and get state of the Bhuta- the soulful music of classical instru- a taste of some scrumptious Spanish nese refugees and join TUDE in promot- ments take you on a journey. delights. ing tourism through social causes. page 8 this week 17 August (Tuesday) 13 August (Friday), 6 pm 14 August (Saturday), 11:30 am 2 cover Issue 29 August 12 -18, 2010 Fr!day Nepal is a country of 124 indi- tor, multinational companies and vidual living languages. Keeping INGOs, they sure are great as- aside the two that have no living sets. “Knowing many languages speakers, dialects amongst ur- helped me overcome many profes- ban Nepalis today go beyond in- sional barriers, especially in this digenous languages or even Ne- food and beverage industry. So I pali, the common denominator, would recommend anyone to take and subsume foreign languages up a foreign language,” recounts to the likes of French, Spanish, Jonathan Mendies, proprietor of Korean, Mandarin and German. Red Dingo restaurant, who speaks Granted, Nepal has a reputation Nepali, English, French, German of never having been colonized, and Italian. a fact that merely makes the rea- “Tourists love it when we can sons for the surge of language speak their native tongue,” affirms institutions that are producing Prem Dongol, MD of Discover a steady stream of foreign- Himalayan Trade, who employs language-savvy Nepalis, all the fifteen multilingual employees, more variegated – globalization, “In the tourism sector, it becomes a growing interest in foreign much easier not just to communi- cultures, a sign of declining in- cate but also to convince tourists terest in ethnic languages, or a once we know their language.” practical and professional neces- As far as the UN goes, “The sity? Friday finds out. lingua franca of diplomacy really is English and French,” comments Learning a language is not just Mita Hosali, who works for the learning a language Chief United Nations News Cen- Everyone speaks English ev- Srijana Thatal, Head of Spanish However, I soon discovered cabulary and etymologies. This Department, Alta Vista, “Look at (unsurprisingly) the language notion was echoed by everyone tre in New York, “You really need erywhere so why learn a new to know an additional language language? Well, no. Mandarin the popularity of Salsa dancing or institutes beg to differ. “There is I talked to and brings to mind Spanish cinema.” Rozen Neupane, some sort of cultural invasion in a particular saying by polymath to work in the UN, preferably one is the language with the most of the six official languages. Be- number of native speakers; in student at Alliance Française, also Nepal so we should not ruin our Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, th ing able to speak French, Spanish fact, well over four-fifths of remarks, “18 century French lit- base of ethnic languages. But in “Those who know nothing of erature, the crazy phonetics and no way does learning a foreign foreign languages, knows noth- and English definitely helped me the world’s population does not professionally.” speak English. Which points out Celine Dion are what made me language hamper our own lan- ing of their own.” that being fluent in the language want to learn French!” guages,” remarks Srijana Thatal. Enough of macro reasoning. Hami Nepali does not make you a global, cos- On the contrary, “Once you What other incentives are there So there you go. For a country Encroaching the native mopolitan citizen any more than learn a foreign language, you for you or me to learn a foreign So Kathmanduities may be secluded until the 1950s, the eating KFC makes you a Nepali. better understand the struc- language? catching up with globalization; level of awareness about for- “As human beings, we should ture and form of your own eign cultures and the desire to cultural diffusion can be the From the I to the Me not be limited to our culture and language,” Benoit Gillet of Al- cause (and effect) of the popu- Research has shown people who explore the rest of the world language only,” Prabin Bikram liance Française explains, “For larity of foreign languages. But have learnt foreign languages is nothing short of astound- Rana, Deputy Director of Alli- example, French is sometimes what can be called ‘multicultur- show greater cognitive devel- ing. Perhaps culture and lan- ance Française, says. Learning a closer to Nepali than English, alism’ can also be labeled ‘assim- opment in areas such as mental guage are such that, as Sujata language is not just learning a so when we teach students, we ilation’, something that many flexibility, creativity, problem- Bhatt shows in her poem quoted language. It encompasses liter- sometimes employ Nepali gram- bemoan as being a threat to our solving, memory and reasoning. above, they cannot be but ever- ary texts and cinema, civilization mar rules and make comparisons distinct indigenous languages Even children who have learnt a changing and assimilating. “In and history – a whole new cul- between the two languages.” In and cultures. second language score higher in Nepal, if someone does some- ture in a nutshell. For instance, addition, you enhance your vo- reading, language, arts and math. thing cool, everyone follows, what is “you”? In English, it is a “If you want to be more analyti- it’s not hard to create a wave,” second person pronoun of both cal and open-minded, learn a new Pravin Bikram Rana comments, singular and plural. French Where? language,” Prabin Bikram Rana which can partly explain why distinguishes between “tu” (in- foreign languages are gaining n suggests, “Especially for stu- formal) and “vous” (plural/ The official language of many countries, as well as that of the such momentum, “But if we lose United Nations and World Health Organization, French is taught dents, being a bilingual gradu- formal); Arabic has “nta” (mas- at Alliance Française de Kathmandou in Teku. This institution has ate is a real advantage, too.” This one of our ethnic languages, we culine singular), “nti” (feminine around 4000 students, up from 350 in 1994, when the institution brings me to my next point. lose a whole culture. And that singular), and “ntuma” (plural); was first established. For a two-and-a-half month course, one has can happen within a span of just to pay Rs. 5,000. Spanish has five different words Academic asset, professional a generation – 50 to 60 years.” for it; and, of course, Nepali has n Alta Vista is the first private institution exclusively teaching precedence As a child of a Rai mother Spanish where, for a price of Rs. 4,000, you get a one-and-a-half “ta”, “timi”, “tapai” and “hajur”! Many colleges abroad require a and Newar father, but one who This example (apart from show- month course. Started in 2006, the average class size is 7 or 8 people – a drastic increase since 2006 when there used to be as minimum two-year study of a can speak neither of my eth- ing how English chooses not to few as one student per class! foreign language and even pre- nic tongues despite (or because differentiate the audience) also n The language of 200 million speakers worldwide, German is scribe foreign language courses of) having a dual ethnic back- shows that language opens up taught at Goethe-Zentrum in Thapathali where there are around for an undergraduate degree. If ground, I cannot help but ring a whole new way of looking at 300 students. A sixteen-week course costs Rs. 6,000. one is studying International Re- a mental emergency alarm for life. n For those wanting to learn Japanese, an agglutinative language of lations, social sciences, or some- the 124 ethnic languages of our For many, this is exciting 130 million speakers, Ajisai Language Centre at Durbar Marg is an thing similar, a foreign language country.