Dakuna Ta or Wama Ta?

It's been 10 months since i had my sinhala language lesson but every time i speak the language i always remember the first time i tried to have conversation with our trishaw driver. It all happened in Colombo.

Everyday we walked to the VSO Office, ready and all set for our language lesson in the morning and a new subject in the afternoon. So far every thing is fine. The language is challenging, some of the words is similar in sounds to Tagalog and more to my mother tongue, so I think I find it a bit easier than the rest of the group and which my colleagues also acknowledge. The difference these regular days is that we now have the regular Sri Lankan food which is rice and curry. Well I mean at least for the majority of us except to one of our colleague who always have a separate one with a name written on it.

We took a trishaw back to our guest house. Unfortunately our driver is not familiar with the address and doesn’t know English as well; we are forced to give direction. When we are about to turn left I told the driver, dakuna ta (which mean to the right) but at the same time pointing my finger to the left. He is about to turn to the right when I said naea (which sound as nah) dakuna ta and still point my finger to the left. Then my colleagues said, Riza you are pointing to the left and saying dakuna ta when dakuna ta is going to the right, it should be wamata. Oh no! Right! and we all laughed (LOL). We are still laughing when the rest of the group joined us. Back at the guest house, we all agreed to dine out and give ourselves a treat of a nice and maybe luxurious meal in a place where we can also grab a couple of beers. Hence, we dined at the Cricket club. We hang first at the bar, ordered beer and chatting while waiting since we are still on the getting to know each other stage.

While the rest of the group is enthusiastically conversing, one of our colleagues said that maybe it’s time for us to sit down and order dinner. So off we went to the section of the club where the tables are set and call the attention of the waiter. The six of us surveyed the menu, then again this colleague of us told the waiter if there is anything on the menu that is only steamed or boiled veggie or beef/pork with rice of course. We chorused in calling out his name and said can’t you find anything on the menu that you want to eat. The poor waiter hurried outside and asked the chef then returned and said that sorry they don’t have that kind of thing. In the end he decided to order bolognese and said, I can’t believe that a place like this where most of the customers are foreigner have limited choices and laugh, so we all stared at him and one of us nonchalantly said, please be reminded that this is not our country and that each have different types of food, it seems like you will be starving yourself if every time we or you eat you will ask for a kind of food that you know is not available in this country. We all said ‘right’ and we better start to like their food until at least we get to our own house and have the chance to cook our own food.

After dinner we decided it’s time to go back to our guest house as tomorrow we still have lesson. Outside the club are numbers of trishaw willing to take us provided we agree on their terms. Negotiating with trishaw is both fun and a struggle for us. Struggle because we have to get a much discounted rate and fun because we always have the chance to practice our Singhala...it is like a game for us where each one of us will try to negotiate using their language. I bet our teacher will be proud of us every time we succeed in negotiation.

Now, my sinhala improved tremendously both in speaking and understanding. However, at work i don't speak the language. This is because the senior management and staff wanted to learn to speak english. When i joined them, we had an agreement that they will all try to speak english no matter how hard it is and i will try my best to understand them. At first it was difficult to understand their english, i have to deduced some words and rephrase it so that i get the meaning. And since we don't have time to have english lessons formally, every day one or two of the staff will spend at least 30 minutes with me and try to practice their english. I am moved by their commitment to learn and i really appreciated the effort they all give. Whenever i hear them speak english, I feel proud. If i leave them (maybe in march) i know my legacy will take them somewhere beyond AKASA.