Continued from last week…
Q: Those novels are tough on anyone. Tell me, you said you come from a background that was not wealthy enough to afford books, right? Now your library – libraries actually deal with that very problem. Do you think, even at present, that system is in place for people in rural areas without access to English, to tap? Is it still available or have the libraries also not developed enough or have they gone downhill? What books are still there? Are there new books coming in? Is that system still in place?
A: I think the system is still in place. Several times, I visited this particular library, Wellawa Public Library. I even dedicated one of my novels to that library. I have seen students, young people, hanging around in that library.
Q: The English books are still coming in?
A: Yes, I think English books are also there. I am not sure, though, if the idea of teenage literature, children’s literature has changed significantly over the years. Now when you see - How to Train your Dragon - you know, all kinds of these new novels have come up.
Q: I fear not, as well. That’s a different discussion, right? But you mentioned your teachers as being the inspiration, giving the seed for the love books. But because I know your life story with regard to another research I did, I do know that your mother made a great impact on you. And what I will not forget is you saying, you know, that you went into the depths of poverty, and she was, maybe weaving mats, and she used to get the four siblings and have, you know, these meetings like “Samithi” where you had different activities like giving speeches. To have a mother like that, I think is crucial - any parent, any one parent is enough - to have sparked a passion about language and literature. What do you think?
A: Oh yes. Certainly. Thank you for reminding me of her. By the time I was doing my G.C.E O/Levels and A. levels, our family, basically the family economy, was in ruins. We were having a lot of financial issues. But my mother was not from a really poor family. She came from a kind of rural, landowning family. Because of her family background, she had some exposure to education. She was educated up to grade11 – that’s about the O. Levels. In her generation, that’s a considerable education. And she knew that for her children’s future, education was very important. She always encouraged us to do better in schools, not necessarily doing better in exams. She had this, nearly every day, she had this ‘samithi’ [society/association] you know, the four of us would be like president or the compere – we switched those roles – and then someone would make a speech, someone would sing a song, recite a poem and she would be, like, preparing something for the next meal, food, or maybe weaving a mat or whatever. She would keep listening to our activities. Those are kinds of “extra-curricular” or “co-curricular” activities. Those were so instrumental in shaping my education and my sister’s education.
All four of us won this oratorical contest in Sinhala, not school level, the province level, actually. Even essay contests. One time, one wonderful example – the Wellawe Central College had this drama competition in 1988. It is a competition among houses. Usually, houses are for sport competitions. These very inventive teachers had this drama competition among these houses. Gemunu, Vijaya, Parakum - three houses. In that competition that year, 1988, I won the first place for Gemunu House, my sister won the second place for Vijaya House. You know, this is a school with some 3000 students. Two siblings from this poor family winning that competition first and second places both - it had something special in it, and it had something to do with their upbringing. I think the role my mother played was so crucial. I’m not saying that she was inspirational in my learning English - she didn’t know any English, for that - but you know, how to raise your children as this one parent, being conscious of raising kids in a way that would inspire them to do better in education or in life - it goes a long way.
Q: And that’s why I find that story so inspirational. It only took an idea, right? It did not cost money for her to do it, it did not cost anything else, but had only her desire and her insight into how to open a child’s mind. So, the reason I like that story is, it’s possible anywhere, right?
A: Oh, it is possible anywhere.
Q: If the mother or the father just opens that window in a child’s mind to see what is available. So I find that story extremely inspirational. Okay, before I end this interview, Professor, I would like to ask you one thing. Now, from following what you said, it was books that really helped you in this journey to learn English. You read alone, you used libraries - and some friends, of course, spoke with you as well in English - but through literature and your love for language, you learnt it, so that you could write at some point. So writing and reading are very quiet activities in which your ego doesn’t get hurt. One thing that I find as an ESL teacher in Sri Lanka is, it’s very difficult to get people to use, produce, the language - speaking, specifically, because we might have ridicule and laughter coming for it. How did you practice talking? How did you get over that fear?
A: Yeah, that’s an important question. You know, I always had that fear of speaking English in the presence of English-speaking Sri Lankans. I said that earlier as well, that perhaps I thought that these people might laugh at my mistakes. Perhaps they don’t do that, but I had this fear, and this conception that they are there to laugh at us – that English is something separated – theirs, not ours – something like that. At the university, I think Satyajit, Indira, then Nilika de Silva – and you, Madhubhashini, and some others actually, like Kumar Guneratne - these people were so instrumental in getting me to speak English. Even you, I remember, you would ask me to read Animal Farm and then you would get me to speak about it - which I found at the beginning, very difficult.
And sentences wouldn’t form in my mouth and even if they did, they wouldn’t come out, you know, as sounds. It was difficult. I thought mostly in Sinhala, and translated within myself into English - it took a while to do that - and then the syntax, the influence of Sinhala syntax would get in the way - very difficult. But at a certain point, gradually, I began to think in English rather than thinking in Sinhala and translating it. I think that transition - that complete transition into thinking in English happened in the US, because it was a kind of sink-or-swim situation. I had to talk. And then I kept listening to, in the US – still I listen - to this NPR radio - that is the National Public Radio. It has always such interesting discussions about literature and all that.
Q: I’m having a problem with your “limited” - accepting the fact that your vocabulary is limited. You know, there is still a love of - I think you have it, hopefully I have it, and people like Ameena – I mean, we love words and we know how much we are still on the journey. We have not come towards the end and I know that till I die, I’ll still be learning. Because, honestly, I don’t think you’re limited in any way.
A: And another thing – when you honestly love something, it could be language, literature anything – and this is not like being fatal or anything - if you are honest about anything, things kind of tend to fall into place. This is the case about learning English as well. In English, the metaphorical quality of image, I always loved, in addition to individual words. For example, we can say now, this week, “Christmas is just around the corner.” When you say that, see the metaphorical beauty of it – it’s like Christmas, as a person, is coming, appearing, just around the corner. Those kinds of constructions, I would think about again and again and enjoy. Not necessarily to internalise them and being able to make them myself, but to see their beauty.
Q: And both of us are inheritors of the absolutely beautiful metaphorical language of Sinhala as well. Because English is unfamiliar, we see it quicker. Defamiliarisation.
A: Exactly.
Q: The passion for language I think helps in language learning.
A: Yes, of course, yes
Q: I would like to tell my students that your story shows that once you love literature, once you love the language, the journey becomes easier. So that psychological barrier has to be crossed. That this is a friend. This is beautiful. Let’s go together - that kind of feeling.
A: Even writing - both of us love writing. Even you, from your very early childhood, you loved writing. When one writes a sentence, it is like a form of dance. We enjoy - you enjoy being in the sentence. You know that when you finish it, you feel like you have achieved something memorable, yes. Learning language is like that.
Q: It’s of that love that I wanted you to come and speak about here and that was beautifully expressed. So, thank you, Professor Amarakeerthi. You know, that wasn’t an easy language for you to access but you did. And the love of literature carried you through. And then, you showed that it’s possible to have a PhD written in English and become a speaker and a professor, with just getting word knowledge also into you. So, I thank you again very much. I’m very grateful you came and spoke about it.
A: Thank you. This is the kind of story that I like to share with other people.