Getting back to childhood is the experience of every one as we are attending a course on Greek. In fact on the first day we were surprised to see our professor with a cane! When questioned he replied that that was to indicate the letters as we parrot the pronunciations...
Alphabet was amusing. Copying those 24 letters and retaining them in our memory was an adventure, we went back to the thoughtfulness of the children as we struggled through drawing every letter of the alphabet. Then came the vocabulary it made no sense - in the language of L. Wittgenstein they were pure non-sense. We were entering into a new language game. Every introduction of a new word was accompanied by hullabaloo of funny noises. “It’s interesting” was invariably the feeling that was shared by most of us. It cannot but be since we are entering into a new world. While some were questioning the relevance of the course, I replied that there was no better relevance than the experience of entering a new world-picture! The thrill however was not as radical as it should be since we were always connecting to familiar language-games.
The course, apart from Greek, is an eye-opener to the psyche of children who are quick to pick languages. The secret, probably, is their total-self-surrender to the revelation (the rules, new words, sentence construction/the basic certainties) that comes in the form of words and deeds. No wonder Jesus confirms the Kingdom of God to children (Mt 19:14). Probably that is precisely what makes learning a language difficult for an adult. Besides it is good to note that the complex fusion of horizons is simple in the case of children. A Punjabi boy is quite comfortable with a Christian, a Muslim with a Hindu etc. May be it would be worth making a study on the dynamics of their inter-relationship, which may though appear simplistic is probably pregnant with deep wisdom. Learning Greek… we are forced to return to our childhood.
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| What's the secret of your inter-persoanl relationship? |
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| Hey! we (adults) will learn from you |
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| Arms outstretched you resemble the Risen Lord! |
Alphabet was amusing. Copying those 24 letters and retaining them in our memory was an adventure, we went back to the thoughtfulness of the children as we struggled through drawing every letter of the alphabet. Then came the vocabulary it made no sense - in the language of L. Wittgenstein they were pure non-sense. We were entering into a new language game. Every introduction of a new word was accompanied by hullabaloo of funny noises. “It’s interesting” was invariably the feeling that was shared by most of us. It cannot but be since we are entering into a new world. While some were questioning the relevance of the course, I replied that there was no better relevance than the experience of entering a new world-picture! The thrill however was not as radical as it should be since we were always connecting to familiar language-games. 
Childhoood - ready to be moulded, receptive, easily accesible,.... All of us are products of our childhood - our character, habits, good manners, behaviour, temperaments, anger, being adamant, pessimism, etc.
ReplyDeleteAs a religious we have the responsibility of parenting... PARENTING THE YOUNGSTERS OR THE CHILDREN under our care.