Modi spoke in HINDI - not in English - with SAARC leaders

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

....Diplomats said Modi had actually tried to ape Chinese and Japanese leaders, who speak to foreign dignitaries in their own language, even though they are conversant and fluent in English. "Modi has tried to assert India's national identity in South Asia by talking in Hindi. He played the national card very well," they say.

Right/wrong good/bad?

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

....Diplomats said Modi had actually tried to ape Chinese and Japanese leaders, who speak to foreign dignitaries in their own language, even though they are conversant and fluent in English. "Modi has tried to assert India's national identity in South Asia by talking in Hindi. He played the national card very well," they say.

Right/wrong good/bad?

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

....Diplomats said Modi had actually tried to ape Chinese and Japanese leaders, who speak to foreign dignitaries in their own language, even though they are conversant and fluent in English. "Modi has tried to assert India's national identity in South Asia by talking in Hindi. He played the national card very well," they say.

Right/wrong good/bad?

Merlot Daruwala wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

....Diplomats said Modi had actually tried to ape Chinese and Japanese leaders, who speak to foreign dignitaries in their own language, even though they are conversant and fluent in English. "Modi has tried to assert India's national identity in South Asia by talking in Hindi. He played the national card very well," they say.

Right/wrong good/bad?

I'm offended by the disrespect he has shown to his own mother tongue, Gujarati.

Signed
Jignes Shah

Rishi wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

....Diplomats said Modi had actually tried to ape Chinese and Japanese leaders, who speak to foreign dignitaries in their own language, even though they are conversant and fluent in English. "Modi has tried to assert India's national identity in South Asia by talking in Hindi. He played the national card very well," they say.

Right/wrong good/bad?

>>>Let him continue to use the language he is comfortable with.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_dialects wrote:Jaffna Tamil
Main article: Jaffna Tamil dialect
The dialect used in Jaffna is the oldest and most archaic

Hellsangel wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_dialects wrote:Jaffna Tamil
Main article: Jaffna Tamil dialect
The dialect used in Jaffna is the oldest and most archaic

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Hellsangel wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_dialects wrote:Jaffna Tamil
Main article: Jaffna Tamil dialect
The dialect used in Jaffna is the oldest and most archaic

this is like rashmun strenuously digging up links just to show that some point he made is accurate. the most common use of the word "archaic" is to signify that something is obsolete.  jaffna tamil may be ancient, but not archaic if it is still actively being used.  are you now going to dig up alternate meanings of the word archaic?

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

indophile wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

From the perspective of many Tamilians in the audience the interpreter guy (a Srilankan) was using a version of the language that they couldn't understand because it was an old version of the language that their ancestors may have used, and not in use today.
What word other than "archaic" could fir better, in your opinion?

Hellsangel wrote:A little thin-skinned when it comes to Tamil, Il Professor-ai?

Maybe Trollus will chip in soon.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

indophile wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

From the perspective of many Tamilians in the audience the interpreter guy (a Srilankan) was using a version of the language that they couldn't understand because it was an old version of the language that their ancestors may have used, and not in use today.
What word other than "archaic" could fir better, in your opinion?

but it is in use today, by the sri lankan tamils, that is. if that's the case, perhaps esoteric or arcane may have been a better word than archaic.

on a slightly different note, did the indian tamils actually tell you what you wrote here? i wonder if it is the case that the interpreter spoke in a very formal yet very much extant tamil. as you may or may not know, tamil is a language that exhibits a high level of diglossia. perhaps he was speaking in the formal (but very much in everyday usage in public speaking, tv news etc.) register, whereas the audience were expecting the informal spoken register.  and perhaps you were confusing this easily understandable situation with the interpreter using a more esoteric tamil.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:if the sri lankans use it, how can it be called archaic? did you mean to use some other word?

Merlot Daruwala wrote:

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

....Diplomats said Modi had actually tried to ape Chinese and Japanese leaders, who speak to foreign dignitaries in their own language, even though they are conversant and fluent in English. "Modi has tried to assert India's national identity in South Asia by talking in Hindi. He played the national card very well," they say.

Right/wrong good/bad?

I'm offended by the disrespect he has shown to his own mother tongue, Gujarati.

Signed
Jignes Shah

indophile wrote:
Yeah, there are interpreters who will do their thing. Sometimes this interpreting may provide funny results. A few years ago we had a temple (Murugan Temple) inauguration. They invited a holy man called Hawaii Swamy to give a speech as part of the festivities. He is a native born American and he spoke in English. But the temple authorities, just so we all understood him, had a Tamil interpreter, and that interpreter appeared to have interpreted the Swamy's perfectly understandable English speech in some archaic Tamil that Srilankan's use, and many Tamilians in the crowd were sporting exasperated smiles.
Then there are stories about President Ford's Polish interpreter, Brezhnev's interpreter, etc.

bw wrote:

indophile wrote:
Yeah, there are interpreters who will do their thing. Sometimes this interpreting may provide funny results. A few years ago we had a temple (Murugan Temple) inauguration. They invited a holy man called Hawaii Swamy to give a speech as part of the festivities. He is a native born American and he spoke in English. But the temple authorities, just so we all understood him, had a Tamil interpreter, and that interpreter appeared to have interpreted the Swamy's perfectly understandable English speech in some archaic Tamil that Srilankan's use, and many Tamilians in the crowd were sporting exasperated smiles.
Then there are stories about President Ford's Polish interpreter, Brezhnev's interpreter, etc.

hawaii swamy? who is this? any sadhguru like videos?

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:notice that in the US these guys always find the nicest real estate with the best beach or mountain views. never in inner city milwaukee, detroit, or harlem.

bw wrote:thanks, max.

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/monastery/meet-the-monks

so many swamis, so little time...

there seems to be some srilankan connection and maybe that explains the tamil used.