Monday, August 22, 2011

Yes

At the CDG Airport in Paris, while taking the flight to Warsaw the third time,  I could hear the non ignorable words ' Tak tak' as soon as I boarded the bus which would drop me off to a plane destined to go to Warsaw. The words ' Tak' in polish means 'Yes'. And hence like in any other language , the word 'yes' is used very frequently. Yes, is used to acknowledge something, to confirm, to agree, to assure. Its just the way one pronounces this word leads to a slight different meaning that its intended too. Similar is with this word in Polish. But whats different is that, this word is quite 'pronounced' and stands out of the entire sentence, especially if you are the one who doesnt understand polish. And this leads to the next step, ie everyone ends up remembering this word:)

We used to have a similar happening almost daily when we were in Manipal. In mangalorian konkani, the way the word 'yes' is used. is again quite pronounced. Its pronouced as 'vai' or 'wai' and when we would go to make phone calls, back home, this would be one word we could hear every clearly outside the phone booth. More because most of the answers their parents would ask would be answered 'vai' and there would be quite a amount of stress put on this word. Though as funny it would sound to us in those days, the more one ends up learning the languages, the more you tend not to find it different.

Small things but keeps a lasting impression.

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