To Teach and Learn

I was relived to find that he did not blame people like me who took very little interest in our national language. According to him, the national language suffered and could not develop because of the situations and conditions which were unavoidable. One key reason being the late modernization of our country. It was only in the early 1970s that modern developments started taking place in our country. Now in the tenth five-year developmental plan, our country is still not developed enough to produce goods in our country. Now, you may wonder like I did, what has this got do with the national language. According to Dasho Sherub for the development of any language, nouns/names are important but in our country since everything is imported from outside and have their own names, we need to invent new names in Dzongkhag. But, even after inventing names it is important to keep pace with the advancement that the technologies and developmental aspects are maki...

On the 24th of September my school was visited by the Secretary of the Dzongkha Development Commission, Dasho Sherub Gyeltshen. The objectives of the visit were clear as I know our national language is important but listening to the Dasho’s presentation, I came to know I never really realized how important it was to me as a Bhutanese. I had been clouded by ignorance and had been carried away by my English. How I was good and better in English had me never really be bothered with how poor I was or am in Dzongkha. I never thought about the impact it would have on my country’s future if there were more people like me. People like me who prefer to use English over Dzongkha and only look at the national language as crude and not rich enough to express ourselves. Language in any society is of utmost importance, the language that weaves the social fabric is the identity of that particular society. With globalization in place, every country is striving to promote their identity. One should...

My most vivid memory of a Dzongkha class in my primary level is the Dzongkha teacher’s stick. I remember one incident in class three when our Dzongkha teacher smacked one of my mates so hard that the boy shit in his gho. I can’t forget the teacher or the painful ashen face of the boy with whom I studied for six years.  As for me I can’t remember getting any serious beatings, may be because I was always on the guard, as I always managed to copy my homework on time and struggled to memorize my text though I always received little beatings every now and then but they were not considered beating as everyone got them. I escaped the serious beatings because I managed one way or the other. I was not good in Dzongkha. In fact I hated the subject. I am not proud to say that but as a child Dzongkha period was the longest period of the day for me. I remember how the clock ticked by painfully slow. I use to pray my Dzongkha lopen would meet with an accide...